New characters and Amazing special fx could not save this incredibly disappointing and supposed final installment of The Matrix franchise.

Rating: 3/10 (7 November 2003)

I have been a diehard fan of The Matrix from the very beginning; lauding the well-sampled-yet-original storytelling of the 1999 sci-fi film that revolutionized film making as we know it. And I have always been a strong defender of the deceivingly inferior Reloaded as a necessary appendage in a growing trilogy that once again raised the bar on what is possible to view on a screen. I cannot, however, bring myself to defend the monumentous disappointment that is Revolutions. While the sub-par dialogue did have an almost Star Warsesque charm and appeal to the first two Matrix films, the dialogue in Revolutions can be described as nothing less than insulting. Every line is painfully cliche and predictable, the most "tender" or "intense" moments of the movie are not free of laughter from a crowd who would not (and should not) buy what these characters were actually saying to each other.
The acting in Revolutions was considerably more wooden than in the previous movies (due most likely to the script). The underrated Reeves(My Own Private Idaho, Feeling Minnesota) is reduced, once again, to looking the Ted "Theodore" Logan part as he is forced to utter lines like "I am from the Matrix...er I was...I don't know". Moss(Memento) gives the worst performance as her lines are the most cliche, one coming late in the movie that cannot avoid hilarity despite the obvious pain and sadness that should be echoing through Matrix fans everywhere. When Trinity confronts the Merovingian, she completely ends a subplot before it can even start simply by pointing a gun and saying "I don't have time for this s**t!" The audience is left wondering if a half hour was completely cut from the movie (An obvious writing debacle). Fishburne(Mystic River), the most interesting character of the Matrix franchise, is reduced to being Niobe's(Pinkett-Smith) sidekick. The viewer receives no power from the once proud Morpheus and his character deserved a lot more than what it got in the alleged "climax" of the Matrix series.
While it can be correctly stated that the fight scenes in Reloaded were too long at times, it is obvious to me that was because hand to hand combat is almost nonexistent in Revolutions, which is perhaps the most enjoyable part of its predecessors. The "great showdown" between Smith and Neo is hard to see due to the oversized rain and the fact that much of it is in the air (along with the many watery explosions that occur during the fight). Other than that, the fight choreography that we all have come to love and mimic over the years is simply not here. All in all, the Smith fight is impressive, but leaves you searching back in time for the glory days when they were merely fighting in a subway station. Reloaded may of had drawn out fight scenes, but if you see Revolutions, you'll definitely miss them. And while the battle at Zion is very impressive, it pales in comparison to the freeway scene in Reloaded, making the audience believe that the best they're ever going to witness happened in May (and they're absolutely right).
I was once excited at the prospect of seeing one of my favorite movies go into the realm of the epic. And I was still optimistic after Reloaded which, despite its obvious hiccups, posed some awesome revelations, some incredible scenes that truly "revolutionized" what an action movie should be, and had an underrated cliffhanger. Revolutions, however, was a complete insult to the diehard Matrix fans with its infantile dialogue and sickeningly predictable storytelling. The twists that happened in Reloaded that you might expect the Wachowski Bros. to bring out in the "final" film are just not in there. Keanu Reeves said there would be no need for a fourth installment, "the story's been told". But guess what? And I'm speaking to all you horror fans when I say this, you know that when there's money to be made on a product, you should always leave room for more. Revolutions, despite what we've been told since the word "sequel" first escaped the cast and crew's lips, does not really finish at all. And I can guarantee there will be more stories to be told in one medium or another. And with the way this one ended, or fizzled out as I should say, I can only sit back and fear the unnamed monster that is going to ruin the good name of The Matrix in the future. I guess people in my generation are going to have to look to Lord of the Rings to call its own from now on. That's absolutely nothing against LOTR, but it was nice to have more a choice.