The Matrix Revolutions (2003) Review

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The Matrix Revolutions follows Neo, who must find a way to take down Smith and stop the Machines, as the Sentinels wage all out war on the people of Zion. 

While Reloaded still more or less felt like an action packed sequel to the original, Revolutions plays more like your typical apocalyptic, action flick, scrapping much of Neo’s story for the logical closure point of the war between Zion and the Machines, where I can’t help but wonder how differently things would have turned out had they not have written the initial final chapter into a corner. That’s not to say the battle for Zion wasn’t thrilling, as it gave us some of the most insane set pieces of the series, it just never felt like the Matrix, mainly due to being set in the dirt and grime of the real world (which I just don’t much care for) and involving absolutely *zero* of the stars that made the series great. 

I’d say the film’s lone redeeming quality though, and the one time it truly felt like itself, was Neo’s final stand in the Matrix against Smith—an emotionally driven slug-fest that carried so much weight and desperation that visually, reminded us why we all fell in love with Neo in the first place. Not the power, not the prophecy, but the loving and empathetic human inside that differentiated him from everyone, most of all Agent Smith. It’s a sacrifice that felt inevitable in the context of this world (unlike Trinity’s bullshit death) and remains one of my favorite sequences in the series to this day. 

We get a decent enough cast, starring Mary Alice, Collin Chou, Ian Bliss, Nona Gaye, Harry Lennox, Nathaniel Lees, Clayton Watson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Keanu Reeves. I was rather disappointed at how little Reeves was involved with this end to the trilogy, that when coupled with Moss’ lackluster and pointless death, I was left feeling a bit empty, though what we did get from Weaving some of his best work in the franchise yet. 

The Matrix Revolutions, directed by the Wachowski Sisters, is certainly not the finale we had hoped for for this series, playing more like a messy Terminator sequel than a Matrix film, it’s still an acceptable movie in it’s own right, even with that slap in the face of an ending. 

7.9/10