Could been better. Could been much, much worse!

Rating: 9/10 (3 December 2003)

*Spoilers alert*
If people went to see THE MATRIX RELOADED because it was a sequel to the much loved, original and audacious THE MATRIX, I believe people went to see THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS because they wanted answers, mainly. It's not that people weren't expecting also a lot of action, special effects and thrills in this final settlement of the Wachowskis' tale of an apocalyptic world controlled by the machines, but I do believe people were expecting, above all, answers, many answers.
The Matrix franchise became a cult, with a lot of web-talk. User thesis and explanations about virtually everything covered in both movies crawled from all over the places. It's not easy to please everybody, if not impossible at all, and The Wachowski Brothers surely were aware no matter the end they would chose for the trilogy they would deceive some serious fans. Instead of delivering answers, REVOLUTIONS starts with more questions. Where is Neo? What have happened to him? What is Mobil Ave? And so onÂ…
In an intelligent move, The Wachowski Brothers manage to avoid delivering critical answers for almost two hours. As an alternative, they present a movie loaded with action and over-the-top special effects. The Zion attack scene, which lasts 14 minutes, is a gripping combination of military action, general mayhem and digital effects. It's flawless and it totally absorbed me. In fact, it's so effective that you almost forget you wanted answers when you entered the movie theatre. More action sequences follow: there's Neo and Trinity over the crop fields; the final fight with Agent Smith; amongst others. Overall, REVOLUTIONS is a great action movie, more efficient than RELOADED.
But let's not forget we wanted answers. And that's the big problem of this movie. REVOLUTIONS is betrayed by an anti-climax of such proportions only equaled by the one of Monty Python's HOLY GRAIL. There are no answers, or at least, not as many as we expected after watching the three movies. During the whole film, I expected a mind-blowing speech like the one The Arquitect delivered in RELOADED, but there is no speech at all, and when The Arquitect comes in, you know everything that had to be explained already was. I hate movies where one character, by the end, explains what is already pretty obvious to us. But in the universes created by THE MATRIX nothing is obvious enough and I'm strongly convicted that a final speech, even if it were a rhetorical one, would give a lot of strength and cohesion to this film, as well as to the whole trilogy.
That's not to say nothing makes sense or that we are left in oblivion. Although a lot of questions will remain unanswered, REVOLUTIONS presents a few facts. Everything else is interpretative. Therefore, multiple theories about The Matrix, The One, the war, the Agents may still be valid, as is the possibility of a fourth episode.
Considering the dreadful possible exits to REVOLUTIONS, like the so much debated Matrix-within-Matrix theory, I must confess I found the peace-agreement solution extremely honest and even original. It's nice to see The Wachowski Brothers didn't go for a manichaean settlement like it was expected.