If The Matrix Revolutions was a near-perfect sequel to one of the greatest films of all time, then The Matrix Revolutions was one of the biggest let downs in a movie franchises life. That's not to say Revolutions is a bad film (far from it) but the expectation for the Matrix Universe to ambitiously progress even further in terms of imagination, effects and action just wasn't met.
A direct continuation of the story started in The Matrix Reloaded, Revolutions picks up immediately afterwards...and it's still a pretty good story. Zion, and thus mankind, has to be saved in the few hours that remain before the machines reach humanity's final stronghold and wipe it out. There's action aplenty whether it's in the real world of the post apocalyptic far future or the more familiar contemporary world with the matrix itself. And in terms of character arcs and thematic explorations, Revolutions reaches its conclusion with confidence and style.
But there's a few big problems, especially when compare with the first two films:-
1/ There's very little left to explore. Most of the world of The Matrix has been revealed to the audience. How it works, the limits of what can be achieved technologically and personally in this fictional world have been pretty much reached and it doesn't feel like there's much that feels fresh and new to experience. That's not to say what is there isn't interesting, but the creativity seems to have spent their load at the end of Reloaded, making one wishing they'd have paced themselves a bit more across the three films.
2/ The action is no longer ground-breaking. In Reloaded, each action sequence felt like it was 10 times more ambitious than had been attempted before whether it's 100 Agent Smiths pummelling Neo, sword fighting with twin ghost dudes, super-heroic martial arts and that gobsmacking freeway chase that too bullet time to the next level. Revolutions only provides tiny steps of inventive action...an upside down gunfight or a rain soaked superman style smackdown...but nothing that recalls the feeling of seeing Neo dodge bullets for the first time. There is the film's centrepiece action sequence where the machines invade Zion, but impressive though it may be, it still feels derivative of the epic battles seen in the Star Wars prequels, Lord Of The Rings or Starship Troopers.
3/ The bulk of the film takes place in the 'real world' as opposed to the world of the matrix. Yes the real world is filled to the brim with cool human devouring squiddie robots, insane mechanised robotic powerloader fighting machines, cool hovercraft and computer designed A.I. cities...it's just not as cool as seeing a guy in a leather suit kung fu dodge a 9mm bullets from a sunglasses wearing fiend. The matrix was the section of the films where most of the groundbreaking stuff happened. Without it, events feel overly familiar and kind of safe. I don't want safe. I was danger, surprise and breathless excitement.
4/ The main characters, whom we have grown to know and love over the last two films disappear from the story for large chunks at a time. The best example of this is the invasion of Zion, which at close to 20 minutes is by far the film's biggest and most epic set piece. Trinity and Neo are ignored for the whole time while Morpheus rushes to the rescue, and even then, he's only seen to be helping out. The rest of the sequence is seen from c-list characters points of view which means the stakes feel much, much lower than if a main characters life was at stake.
5/ Morpheus is a pussy. Thematically it's great that they explore loss of faith along to balance out the spiritual an religious subtext in the film and it's fantastic that Lawrence Fishburne got a story arc where his character got to evolve and learn of the course of the narrative. But, what it meant practically was that Morpheus gets to stand around quietly and cry like a baby because he's lost his faith, leaving Jada Pinkett Smith to take up the slack. Now she might be cool, tough and easy on the eyes, but what we really want is the kick ass Morpheus who was described as the world's most dangerous terrorist from the first film.
Aside from that, the film is made with the same care, skill and attention to detail as the first two films. Screw the people who don't like the actress playing The Oracle this time round (she's mint). Screw the people who don't like that the war ended in peace and not with the machine's destruction (pay attention, you might learn something about real life wars). And screw people who don't like this film. If science fiction or fantasy films aren't allowed to provoke intelligent discussion about the meaning of life the universe and everything like Revolutions does, then a dumbed down world where only Stephen Sommers movies exist doesn't sound like a world I'd like to live in.
Viva la Revolutions!
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