Review: The Matrix Revolutions

Rated R | 129 mins

This movie makes me want to slap myself so hard that I’ll forget about it. The Matrix Revolutions destroys everything that the first two films in the franchise stood for. The 1999 original and this year’s Reloaded were unique; while they thought that they were smarter than they really were, they were also fun, intriguing, and entertaining. After seeing this third installment in the Matrix series, I would like to take back everything bad that I said about its predecessors. I may have not liked the first movie much, originally, but Revolutions proves that you can do a whole lot worse.

During Revolutions, characters discuss the balancing of life. Even though the Wachowski’s successfully wrote about this in their screenplay, their work itself isn’t balanced in the least bit. The first hour of this movie contains only pointless scenes, full of unintelligent dialogue, and the final seventy-nine minutes consist strictly of mind-numbing action. With no sense of pacing, we easily drift into the realm of boredom, when watching Revolutions. This, alone, makes it unworthy of audiences’ money.

The special effects are astounding, but they serve no purpose, whatsoever. While the action scenes are superbly done, the reason for their existence is far too obvious and dull. In the first two films, there was something being achieved or resolved by each fight-sequence. In this final chapter, the plot is simple: good vs. evil vs. machines. Add in some gunshots and big explosions and you’ve got yourself a movie. Is this enjoyable? Not really, even if it may be admirable. For nearly twenty minutes, Revolutions is just like an animated movie, completely done on computers. Our hero, Neo, isn’t even usually present; he’s only onscreen for only about a fourth of time.

It would be worthless for me to try to stray people away from this one, for they’ve already been sucked into the franchise. I’d recommend catching Revolutions on cable TV, simply to witness the end of the series. It certainly isn’t worth the price of a ticket, though. This fact, alone, is so depressing that it makes me want to guzzle down an entire bottle of Prozac.