The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Movie Info

At this point, I really don’t care whether Trinity lives or dies…just do it.

The Sentinels are moving in on Zion, and time is running out. With a new vision of what he should do, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is in a dangerous position with those who believe in him following him blindly while those who doubt his visions are questioning his sanity. Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) are out to save Zion while Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Neo find themselves on a suicide mission to Machine City. As Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) finds himself in possession of a human body, Smith and Neo are about to face off in final combat…and the fate of the Matrix, Machine City, and Zion are in their hands!

Written and directed by the Wochowskis (credited as the Wachowski Brothers), The Matrix Revolutions is the third film in the Matrix Trilogy. Following The Matrix Reloaded (also released in 2003), the film was released to mixed reviews.

I was indifferent to The Matrix and disliked The Matrix Reloaded. Despite this, I decided to give The Matrix Revolutions a chance and finish the trilogy. Just like the previous entry, The Matrix Revolutions has a few good things, but a ton of negative qualities that outweigh the good.

I don’t really know who you are…so I really don’t care if you die

The Matrix Reloaded decided to overload the story with characters who I didn’t really care about. I mostly cared about the core characters of the original film and found most of the characters of Zion and on the ships expendable and filler for the Trinity-Neo-Morpheus-Mr. Smith storyline. The movie also suffers from overly prolonged fights that don’t have enough story (or storyboarding for that matter) to justify the run time. The movie also seems to forget that the Matrix is supposed to be “our world” (and engage in tons of fights that would have attracted attention of people), and the secret world-within-a-world was the most interesting aspect of the first film.

The cast continues to be rather solid despite the lacking script. Keanu’s style works with the story and he is nicely paired with Carrie-Anne Moss. Laurence Fishburne sees himself caught up in the minutia of the Zion storyline and that is unfortunate for his character. I like that Hugo Weaving’s character is evolving this movie, but he also seems to peak early. The movie was also forced to recast the Oracle with Mary Alice when Gloria Foster passed away during filming.

It all comes down to a punching match in a mud puddle…

The visuals for the film have not improved over the first film and in fact they have arguably gotten worse. The original movie was somewhat innovative by culling visuals from other movies of the time, but this movie is heavily bent on CGI fight scenes with robots fighting robots…it feels like a tremendous waste of time. In addition to that with all the cool visuals of The Matrix the fact that the movie ends with a big fight in a mudpuddle is rather weak.

The Matrix Revolutions is a rather dull movie with an overly long running time. The “it’s a truce” ending feels pretty anticlimactic and by the time it happens I really don’t care who wins. It feels like the Wochowskis think much more of their writing skills than what they really are and the weak cliché science-fiction of the entire series really is visible here. The Matrix might have ended with the film (rather openly) but storyline aspects continued in the online game The Matrix Online.  The franchise was relaunched in 2021 with The Matrix Resurrections.

Related Links:

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The Animatrix (2003)