The Matrix Revolutions – Film Review

In a dystopia overrun by robots, Neo (Keanu Reeves), mankind’s greatest hope, is trapped in a limbo world. Meanwhile, the majority of the planet’s population remains in a state of suspended virtual reality. The few humans who are cognizant of the grim realities of the world desperately try to hold off their mechanical enemies long enough for Neo to escape and save the day, but things turn disastrous when all-powerful computer program Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) arrives in the flesh.

When The Wachowski‘s The Matrix Reloaded came to an end, many fans of the series were completely dumbfounded when the film ended with a cliffhanger – that being confirmation that the Agent Smith-possessed Bane was the only survivor on the ship – as well as an end title screen reading “To Be Concluded”. When this third and final entry in what was supposed to be a trilogy was released, I was only two years old so I didn’t see this film in the theatres or anything, but I can’t even begin to imagine the gasps that were echoed throughout movie theatres.

The closest thing I have ever come to experiencing something similar has to be with Avengers: Infinity War. In the ending of that film (spoiler alert obviously), it looks as though the titular heroes are getting close to saving the day when Mantis finally hypnotizes Thanos, allowing them to pull off the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet. However, a spur-of-the-moment burst of anger from Star-Lord causes Thanos to get out of the temporary chance, travel to Wakanda, and wreak havoc. Thor eventually comes in and swings his new weapon Stormbreaker at his chest, but it wasn’t enough to kill him.

He snaps his fingers and half of the population ceases to exist. A few minutes later, the movie ends. Audiences all around the world (myself included) wanted to shout “What now?!”. The Matrix Revolutions aimed to be the explosive and emotionally gripping conclusion to the series, and while it definitely does have some genuinely disappointing missteps, it’s nevertheless a massively entertaining movie and features some truly excellent action – as per usual with the franchise.

The biggest disappointment with Revolutions for me was seeing how much of the main characters take a backseat this time around. The first film from 1999 had tons of bizarre science-fiction elements in it – the world was huge and audacious and it seemed as if every action scene was more thrilling than the last – but my number one part of the original film is the characters. I absolutely loved seeing Neo go on his journey of self-discovery which eventually leads him to realize that he is “The One” – he is essentially everybody’s last hope when it comes to saving humanity.

Morpheus is one of those characters who is effortlessly awesome and throughout the series, he gets one of the juiciest and entertaining roles while Trinity serves as an excellent sidekick type of character assisting Neo in his battles. Simply seeing these three characters interact with one another and getting to learn more about them is the number one reason why I love The Matrix, right next to the breathtakingly weird world and the fun action sequences.

Sadly, Revolutions doesn’t seem to be all that interested in exploring them too much at this point in the series. Perhaps Lana and Lilly Wachowski thought that most audiences wouldn’t be interested in learning even more about Neo and company, but that’s simply not true. This third outing can often feel so bloated and it can get tiring no matter how bold and fun it can mostly be. It’s a two-hour and ten-minute movie, and almost all of that runtime is spent towards big action set pieces that get more insane than the last.

Don’t get me wrong – I loved seeing the all-out war between the human city of Zion versus the machines but why spend the majority of the film showing nothing but that? Of course, there are certainly plenty of moments where we get to spend time with Neo particularly, but we don’t really see him developed in this story until the final thirty minutes. And what happened to Morpheus being super important?

In this film, Laurence Fishburne takes a serious backseat which makes me question why he is credited second on the poster right next to Reeves. It’s strange because it almost feels as if the third act of the movie is the only part where the Wachowski’s even remotely cared to flesh these people out a bit more. They absolutely created a hugely entertaining action spectacle here and they definitely delivered a truly emotional ending, but Revolutions certainly could have been better. This coming December, we will find out why exactly Neo and Trinity are back for Resurrections, and we can cross our fingers that it will be a purposeful sequel and not just a mindless cash grab.