Throwback Thursday Review: 'The Matrix Revolutions'

Sorry for the delayed review as I had to leave in the midst of preparing this review if I were going to catch the showing of Patriots Day I planned on attending last evening and I didn't get far along as I had hoped to be writing this review. Anyways, this week I'm concluding my series of reviews over The Matrix trilogy with my thoughts on The Matrix Revolutions and next week I will review John Wick to coincide with the release of its sequel. The reason I decided to review The Matrix trilogy prior to John Wick is that John Wick: Chapter 2 sees a reunion between actors Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. I'm almost caught up on other reviews as you can find my review of Split at the preceding hyperlink and my review of Patriots Day should be finalized by Saturday. I've yet to watch either The Founder or Gold but I intend to see and review those in addition to two other 2016 releases Jackie and Lion in the near future. What you can look forward to for the remainder of February are Throwback Thursday Reviews for John Wick, Spider-Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and reviews over new releases The LEGO Batman Movie, John Wick: Chapter 2, The Great Wall, A Cure for Wellness, and Get Out. 

'The Matrix Revolutions' Review

The Matrix Revolutions draws The Matrix trilogy to a close bringing man and machines together for a final confrontation while Neo must fight against Agent Smith one last time, deciding once and for all whether he's truly the "One." The Matrix Revolutions is considered by many to be a incredibly disappointing close to the franchise and I can understand that sentiment. However, considering that this was my first time to watch the trilogy, aware that neither The Matrix Reloaded or The Matrix Revolutions would compare to The Matrix, I wasn't let down. That's not to say Revolutions isn't flawed or isn't a bad movie, merely that it's not the atrocity I was expecting.

Revolutions, like its precursors, was written and directed by the Wachowskis and the duo stuffed Revolutions to the brim with extraneous characters, plot lines, and visuals. The Wachowskis weren't able to rekindle the flame of The Matrix with lackluster action and don't really deliver any memorable action this time around. There are maybe one or two somewhat cool action sequences but none of these are on par with what the Wachowskis had delivered previously. The cinematography from Bill Pope is fairly good and Don Davis' score sounds more cinematic but across the board everything just feels rushed together in comparison to the preceding installments.

One step up from Reloaded is that the Wachowskis were able to better hide the terrible CG, taking advantage of darker lighting and rain effects in some scenes, but again only a few of the effects hold up to today's standards. A slight improvement in the screenplay department was that the stakes were believable because the characters feel vulnerable, you actually believe that any character could die at any moment.

Otherwise, the plot itself is actually incredibly convoluted and a little hard to follow in some instances if you aren't paying keen attention to every detail and line of dialogue. The narrative largely takes place out of the Matrix and the end result is plenty of boring character exchanges. The Wachowskis introduce so many random characters that the story loses focus on the core group of heroes from time to time, there's a good chunk of the movie where Neo's nowhere to be found.

The core cast returns for one final hoo-rah and bow out half-heartedly. Keanu Reeves is disconnected from the audience as Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne are given almost nothing of consequential importance to do as Trinity and Morpheus respectively, and Hugo Weaving portrays Agent Smith to be a cartoonish robot.

Across the board The Matrix Revolutions actually isn't an atrocious movie, rather a lazily-made one that can't bear the burden of the heavy weight the Wachowskis set out to lift. All departments don't seem to be putting forth full commitment and the end result is a forgettable close to what should have been an awesome action trilogy.

Film Assessment: D+