The Matrix Revolutions was a major disappointment in so many ways and was very close to being, but not quite, the suckfest the harshest of its critics had labeled. The first hour of the film was downright interesting; there was great tension and a sense of urgency in the pacing of the film, a skill the first Matrix excelled at. However, it really went south with the battle of Zion onwards, culminating in the ridiculous ending which seemed like it was chosen at random out of a dozen alternative ending sequences that belong in a future DVD edition of Revolutions.
Like most good reviewers have already pointed out, the Matrix became a victim of its own success; a lesson of style over substance where good story telling took a back seat to special effects. But make no mistake: Revolutions’ effects are spectacular. I think the film was also victim of poor or sloppy editing. There were so many extraneous back stories that had no bearing on moving the story forward in the second half of the film. I loved the first movie because every scene was purposeful, every fight scene had real consequence. I just didn’t care about anyone in this film. I ended up caring about resolution more than anything else which was something I did not intend to do.
The whole philosophical aspect to this last film didn’t work at all for me either. Entire websites are devoted to explaining the film to the masses who are unable to see its genius. It seems that mentioning free will and choice as vague notions with very little narrative coherence is nothing more than sophistry trying its best to disguise itself as deep-rooted philosophical insight. The ideas were so thoroughly unexplored and poorly delivered, I felt like I was attending a 100-level freshman year poetry workshop.
