Warning: Spoilers Ahead!After the significant letdown that was The Matrix Reloaded, the Wachowski brothers returned with their band of misfit rebels less than a year later with this film. Serving as both a companion piece to Reloaded and as the conclusion to the series, The Matrix Revolutions is a slight improvement upon its immediate predecessor but contains many of the same flaws, keeping it well below the achievement of the original.
Picking up right where The Matrix Reloaded left off, Revolutions starts with Neo waking up in a weird sort of limbo program within the Matrix, though he is not plugged in. There he discovers that programs created by the Matrix have developed a sense of self worth and fear of being deactivated. The notion that artificial intelligence could develop ego is interesting (though not expressly unique to this story) but also kind of confusing at the same time.
When the Trainman refuses to grant passage to Neo, he is left stuck in limbo. Morpheus and Trinity enter the Matrix in order to rescue their friend so they can head back to Zion and join in the final battle. They once again must confront the Merovingian, who once again espouses acid-tongued philosophy that, while pertinent to the events of the film and really smart concepts, viewers will probably want to ignore. I finally realized that the Merovingian, for all the good he is for presenting hard-hitting philosophy is his own (and the Wachowski’s) undoing. Where the Oracle speaks in vague terms, the Merovingian speaks in terms of absolutes and finite concepts. The difference is in their personality. The Oracle is frustrating but she’s so nice you can’t help but trust her. The Merovingian is pretty much right, but he’s easily dismissed because he is an egomaniacal jerk.
This highlights an interesting turn of events in the Matrix series. Where the first film makes you think, question everything and look for truth, Revolutions seems to stand that on its head, favoring faith over knowledge instead. It’s a 180 that is hard to reckon with, because most of what people have had faith in during the series (prophecy and ideas) turns out to be a bunch of hooey in the end. Where the first film spent the entire time highlighting Neo’s uniqueness, Reloaded tore him back down with the revelation that there have been multiple Ones and they are in fact a component of the Architect’s original design. The end of Reloaded and parts of Revolutions seem to try and build Neo’s hero mythology back up, but there’s just as much pulling him back down in our minds at the same time. It’s unclear if the filmmakers are intentionally trying to create this ambiguous buffer for themselves or the varying tastes of viewers, which leaves the overall resolution of faith vs. reason frustratingly unclear.
Neo is freed and visits the Oracle one last time. Her appearance has changed because the actress that had played the Oracle in the first two films died suddenly before filming began on the third. The Wachowski’s tried write in some kind of philosophical causality reason behind the change of her appearance in Revolutions, but it just seems like a silly excuse to try and make us think that every flaw in the films can be rationalized. The Oracle’s last message to Neo is that he must go to the Machine City. When Neo leaves the Matrix, our heroes go their separate ways. Morpheus heads back to defend Zion while Neo and Trinity. Unbeknownst to Neo, however, is that Bane- the Smith-infused human- snuck aboard the ship Neo and Trinity are taking to the Machine City.
Here the movie delves into two and a half high tension action sequences. Morpheus franticly attempts to get back to Zion with the help of another ship (and his former lover) by navigating the labyrinthine service tunnels that seem to be everywhere and were never really explained at all during any of the films. Meanwhile, the Machines break through Zion’s security and unleash a spectacular assault on the last homestead of free humanity. Both of these scenes rely on extensive amounts of CGI. Some of it is good, while a fair amount of it is not. The chase through the service tunnels looks better because everything is moving faster and it’s very dark.
The battle at Zion isn’t as impressive as it should be because the thousands of robotic sentinels look good as one massive group soaring down upon their prey, but when viewed individually, they lack that realistic look the filmmakers were going for. They just move too fast and intricately to believe. Plus, it’s very easy to spot a scene composed entirely of CGI. The humans fighting the machines have their moments of ridiculousness as well. Ironically, they use mechanized war suits to fire thousands of rounds of heavy ammunition at the sentinels, but when these war suits are seen from a distance as CGI creations, I got the feeling that I was watching an incredibly violent video game instead of a movie. Equally ironic is the fact that the freedom that Zion fights for is in fact just a ploy by the Machines to make it seem like humanity still has a chance. Why the Machines haven’t eliminated Zion completely during the last five iterations of the Matrix is beyond me and the filmmakers didn’t feel the need to explain it either.
Neo does his fair share of fighting as well. Attacked and blinded by Bane aboard the ship, Neo uses his powers that now exist outside the Matrix as well to dispatch this Smith incarnate. As he and Trinity near the Machine City, the Machines do their darndest to destroy them. Neo blocks the bombs and rockets as much as he can but tells Trinity to fly up as high as the ship can take them. They break through the clouds and Trinity sees the light of the Sun for the first time. Ironically, Neo is unable to see this light. They plunge back into the clouds and down into the city itself. Interestingly, Trinity, who can see the light is crashing to her doom. Neo, on the other hand, could not see the light and is crashing towards his fate as well. The light he sees is the Machine City, which he enters, heading towards his doom.
The grand finale of The Matrix Revolutions is a winner-take-all duel between Neo and Smith, who has seemingly replicated himself into all the humans attached to the Matrix. The battle of Zion pauses while Neo fights. Morpheus, in a rare moment of naïveté, assumes Neo is fighting for humanity. In fact, Neo fights for the people of Zion and for the Machines, as Smith now poses a threat to the Matrix and the Machine City itself. It’s amusing that as advanced the Machines are, they managed to be no better than humans by creating something that is capable of destroying themselves. The battle itself is bloated and drags on far too long and Smith rants insanely about destiny and why Neo feels the need to continue. There is some bad CGI on display as well, particularly when the two take their battle to the sky. Seriously? A flying fight? It was silly and served no purpose other than to show of special effects that were anything but. In the end, just as Neo defeated Smith in the real world, Smith gets to defeat Neo in the computer world. Neo allows himself to be assimilated, which somehow allows the Matrix to destroy Smith. I understand the whole balancing of the equation bit, but I never really grasped the mechanics of how or why the Machines could only destroy Smith through Neo.
Despite all the flaws, I liked the resolution The Matrix Revolutions gives us. The war ends and an era of peace and understanding is ushered in. Of course, all of this is underscored by a large question mark. How long will the peace last? At what point will the people of Zion rise up against the Machines and receive the next One? Many were frustrated by this seemingly neat and tidy yet ambiguous ending, but I was satisfied with it. Story lines were finished, though some not as well as others, and the central conflict was resolved. It’s still a little absurd to imagine that all of this took place in 3 days time, but it works. It also shows, as all the philosophical espousing implied, that the end of this conflict is not the end of the story. The lives of these characters go on, but we’re not to be privy to what comes next. People complained of losing two of the series main characters, but with all the comparisons and allusions to Neo as a Jesus figure, how could you not see it coming? The Matrix Revolutions brings the saga to a close with a whimper instead of a bang. It may not be the most pleasing way to end it all, but it’s exactly what the series needed.
RATING: 3 out of 5
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