The Matrix Revolutions
Year: 2003
Director: The Wachowski's
Starring: Lawrence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss & Keanu Reeves
Runtime: 129 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 22/07/20
Director: The Wachowski's
Starring: Lawrence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss & Keanu Reeves
Runtime: 129 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 22/07/20
The Matrix Revolutions had a tough job being the third film in a two-film series. As stated in my Matrix Reloaded review, the two Matrix sequels were intended to be a single 4 hour epic, that due to perhaps the only studio interference the films had, was cut into two 2 hour films.
Whereas The Matrix Reloaded suffers from middle child syndrome, The Matrix Revolutions hardly feels like a film because it just drops you right in the middle of all the action…quite literally, it feels as though the film starts somewhere near the end of a the second act of something…which it kind of does when you consider how it was meant to be the final half of a 4 hour film.
After saving the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar from machines, Neo is unconscious but also somehow inside the Matrix despite not being physically jacked into it. Meanwhile Smith has successfully secured a vessel in the real world through the form of Bane, a former crew member of the Caduceus. Morpheus & Trinity bargain with the Merovingian to get Neo back from where he is trapped whilst humanity in the real world gathers at Zion for a final stand against the machines which are just about to breach the city’s walls. In order to stop Zion from being destroyed by the machines, he must travel to the machine city and warn them about the dangers of Smith in order to save both the real world, and the Matrix from total destruction.
Whereas The Matrix Reloaded suffers from middle child syndrome, The Matrix Revolutions hardly feels like a film because it just drops you right in the middle of all the action…quite literally, it feels as though the film starts somewhere near the end of a the second act of something…which it kind of does when you consider how it was meant to be the final half of a 4 hour film.
After saving the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar from machines, Neo is unconscious but also somehow inside the Matrix despite not being physically jacked into it. Meanwhile Smith has successfully secured a vessel in the real world through the form of Bane, a former crew member of the Caduceus. Morpheus & Trinity bargain with the Merovingian to get Neo back from where he is trapped whilst humanity in the real world gathers at Zion for a final stand against the machines which are just about to breach the city’s walls. In order to stop Zion from being destroyed by the machines, he must travel to the machine city and warn them about the dangers of Smith in order to save both the real world, and the Matrix from total destruction.
The Matrix Revolutions is definitely the fasted paced Matrix film and hardly feels like it’s two hours long, most of the reason behind that is because it is almost two solid hours of action. The action is also relatively uninspired with a lot of the film taking place in Zion where real humans are fighting against machines, meaning all the cool fight choreography has gone out of the window in favour of big mechs with big guns.
The best section of the entire film is probably the final fight between Smith & Neo in a torrential rainstorm whilst being watched by thousands of Smith clones. It feels like something straight out of an anime with how over the top and ridiculous it is, but it perfectly fits the tone that the films have hit at that point which is almost beyond caring about any sense of logic.
The film has a somewhat underwhelming and ambiguous conclusion that leaves the universe open for more sequels whilst also trying to close off Neo’s story as much as possible. Suffice to say, it’ll probably take a couple of viewings for the ending to make enough sense to be comprehendible, because on a first viewing you’re going to be totally lost.
The film visually doesn’t change all that much from The Matrix Reloaded, unsurprisingly. Unfortunately, Gloria Foster passed away before she could film all her scenes for Revolutions, and as such she has been recast by Mary Alice, who does a faithful interpretation of the character but never quite manages to recapture that harsh but wise grandmotherly performance Foster did so well.
This is the film where Carrie-Anne Moss really gets to come into her own as Trinity though with the best performance as her in the series. It likely is a result of this film giving her the most to do, but also the least amount of time just being Neo’s lackey which might play a decent part in it.
Overall The Matrix Revolutions is a pretty low quality film. It cannot be enjoyed as a standalone product because it is quite literally just act 3 of an overall larger film. But when viewed immediately after The Matrix Reloaded it still doesn’t quite manage to stick the landing of being a satisfying conclusion to the Matrix series. Whilst like The Matrix Revolutions it’s certainly interesting to see this auteur vision come to life, it unlike Reloaded, fails to meet the basic criteria for making a good film.
The best section of the entire film is probably the final fight between Smith & Neo in a torrential rainstorm whilst being watched by thousands of Smith clones. It feels like something straight out of an anime with how over the top and ridiculous it is, but it perfectly fits the tone that the films have hit at that point which is almost beyond caring about any sense of logic.
The film has a somewhat underwhelming and ambiguous conclusion that leaves the universe open for more sequels whilst also trying to close off Neo’s story as much as possible. Suffice to say, it’ll probably take a couple of viewings for the ending to make enough sense to be comprehendible, because on a first viewing you’re going to be totally lost.
The film visually doesn’t change all that much from The Matrix Reloaded, unsurprisingly. Unfortunately, Gloria Foster passed away before she could film all her scenes for Revolutions, and as such she has been recast by Mary Alice, who does a faithful interpretation of the character but never quite manages to recapture that harsh but wise grandmotherly performance Foster did so well.
This is the film where Carrie-Anne Moss really gets to come into her own as Trinity though with the best performance as her in the series. It likely is a result of this film giving her the most to do, but also the least amount of time just being Neo’s lackey which might play a decent part in it.
Overall The Matrix Revolutions is a pretty low quality film. It cannot be enjoyed as a standalone product because it is quite literally just act 3 of an overall larger film. But when viewed immediately after The Matrix Reloaded it still doesn’t quite manage to stick the landing of being a satisfying conclusion to the Matrix series. Whilst like The Matrix Revolutions it’s certainly interesting to see this auteur vision come to life, it unlike Reloaded, fails to meet the basic criteria for making a good film.