The Matrix Revolutions

As I wrote in "Matrix Reloaded", these two movies should be evaluated together because they work best together. Yes, it is sometimes too commercial and on the other hand sometimes too philosophical without actually saying anything. One is actually just going in circles and there is nothing to grasp. However, when it comes to the final scene, where Neo has to reach the main brain and either win or lose, it always touches my heart and gives me chills. It definitely didn't fulfill what the first movie promised, but I can't help it, with distance I'm not actually that disappointed. (01/26/2014)

Matrix Revolutions has a more tangible and meaningful plot, less pseudo-philosophising and less gratuitous action for effect than in The Matrix Reloaded. I’m satisfied with that. You’ll find yourself yawning through the first hour, but the subsequent “war of the machines” is amazing. If there were more emotion in the final digital fight between Neo and Smith, Revolutions would have been a class better than Reloaded. The film’s ending has an appropriate amount of the pseudo-depth that the whole saga has been faking. Those who thought that there was something big behind everything will be disappointed. Unavoidably disappointed. Three and a half stars. (10/29/2003)

A sad and undignified ending to the series. Unarguably it has an underlying thought and depth to it (even though sometimes it is a bit of a problem finding it). But as for the rest; the intriguingly developing storyline around the Merovingian and Persephone trails off into nothing. And the amount of clichés in this exceeds anything seen in any other seriously intended movie over the past years. OK, maybe there are more clichés in Pearl Harbor and We Were Soldiers, but at least those movies don’t ride on the philosophical wave typical of the beginning of the twenty-first century. The effects are just for effect and not for the good of the movie. Needlessly long scenes and a completely different approach to the material than in the preceding parts. I have nothing against change, but it just doesn’t work here. It almost looks as if, paradoxically, apart from who plays Persephone, the only significant upside of the movie is the music in the last third. The chorals are surprisingly suitable for this “techno movie". The only flawless area is the audiovisual treat in the form of the final duel between Neo and Smith and it is a great shame about all of the wasted potential here. As excellent as part one was, despite it borrowing a lot of motifs from other movies, and part two was a great relaxing watch, unfortunately part three is nothing better than criminally mediocre. (05/13/2022)

Cut Reloaded and glue it together with the best of Revolutions and behold: that would be a film! Yet, after an unbalanced and melted intermediate link, Revolutions is a brisk spectacle that benefits from the chatter of Reloaded (there's no need to think about anything deeply anymore) and the visual mastery that The Matrix is famous for. It’s nice to look at, and the ending is really riveting, as is the message of the whole story. Plus it has a great soundtrack. I love this trilogy because it is not only "one", "two", etc., but is really a conceptual work that, as a whole, creates a huge potential universe that can be further populated. In addition, it allows you to engage your brain and create your own intertextual "matrix" with classics of world philosophy and literature. It may lead to exaggerated constructs, but thank God the "mass" story places such high demands on the viewer at all... (01/25/2004)

Rating the entire trilogy. Like in Reloaded, there are moments that really pissed me off, but as a whole it’s amazing, and the climax, when white is reunited with black, can’t be described other than superb, unexpected (though actually inevitable) and incredibly deep… PS: In the great order of things, the Battle of Sion is just eye candy, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it made my jaw drop. (08/22/2010)