Rating: 
Summary: This one's a dud. A big disappointment.
Review: The third and --ye gods!-- most boring of the "Matrix" movies. I wasn't wild about the first "Matrix" film, but was pretty much on board after seeing #2, considering it a fine, fast-paced, pleasantly pseudo-profound, comicbooky action film. And while this installment started off with a promising action-packed nonchalance, it quickly devolved into a loud, flimsy, poorly plotted morass. Of course, no one needs little old me to tell them about this flick's shortcomings: fans of the series deserted New Zion in droves after this turkey was released... But I still had to check it out and see for myself. Oh, well. By the way, Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Trinty, Canoe's love interest, is one of the least interesting screen actors I have ever seen. Big flaw in the casting there, which helps drag the series down on a number of occasions.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Third Movie
Review: The third installment to the Matrix trilogy, Matrix Revolutions, is extremely disappointing. The first movie was a surprise hit for me an maybe one reason why I liked it so. My wife, the computer genius in the family wanted to see the first movie, and I kept on going back and seeing it again and again. It had a nice plot despite certain flaws. It messed well with the look of the film and provided a backdrop to make the action scenes believable. Reeves was sharp and Fishburn was enjoyable. By the end of the second movie, Fishburn was a little pretentious, but still the movie was enjoyable enough even if it didn't know when to quick.The directors should have quit then, because the third installment is quite frankly a bore. The action scenes are generally way too long. They should have probably taken the last hour of this movie, knocked out about 45 minutes of "Reloaded" and finished the movie up in the second installment. Despite the C++ theory (computer trying to solve the anomaly), the metaphysical elements, and the Christology themes (Neo bearing the machine world -sins- into him to bring peace to humankind) this last movie of the trilogy does not provide enough spark or interest for the viewer. Our imaginations about this world and how it would end far exceeded those of the founders of this story. The pace of the film is too long and the dramatic elements missing. Fishburn, who was great in the first movie and only mildly effective in the second, is really inconsequential in this one. There are too many pretentious and obvious speeches. The special effects are nice, but can only carry a movie so far. Reeves is actually stale and his strongest performance was by far in the first and second movie. Lastly, Moss does a fine job but cannot overcome a failed script. A great disappointment to potentially what could have been one of the greatest trilogies ever. Instead, we will forever be reminded that what was a great first movie is ruined by a disastrous final movie. If there was a Matrix, I would load-jack the third movie in the abyss and give these directors another chance. The last fight scene between Smith and Neo is mildly entertaining and commander Jason's character is better flushed out and he appears less one deminsional as he did in "Reloaded."
Rating: 
Summary: Not A Revolutionary Conclusion To A Cinematic Epic
Review: I was mesmerized by the first Matrix film when I saw it for the first time. As were many, I sat confused for a large portion of the film until I more fully understood what "The Matrix" was supposed to be...namely, an artificial world created by machines to enslave the human race into unknowing servitude while their bodies produced the precious energy needed to power the machines. When I approached the first of the two inevitable sequels, I was a little put off by the increasingly complex world that was portrayed there, a Matrix that seemed intensely manipulated by "programs" disguising themselves as human beings inside the Matrix. Where the first film focused on the human struggle to free their minds of the Matrix, this second offering seemed to simply the premise that the Matrix was more of a romping ground for dissadent programs with their own personal agendas. Still, being an installment akin to the first film, I would say that I enjoyed "Matrix: Reloaded" as a whole. This third, seemingly disjointed conclusion to the series, trivializes the characters ever more, reducing the Matrix to a rapidly disintegrating world controlled by corrupt programs whose agendas are more than just played out, but rather, seem to dominate the Matrix. Further, the story relies heavily on its principal character, Neo (Keanu Reeves) as a sort of "Deus ex Machina" (or God Machine (no pun intended)) to wrap the story up and bring closure to a series that really had no viable ending. The premise is that Neo, the One chosen to save the matrix, is actually capable of sliding his consciousness between the waking "REAL" world, and the fabricated world of the Matrix. In "Reloaded" we are left with a cliffhanger ending which leaves our hero in an unexplainable coma after he manages to project his consciousness into a group of "sentinels" that are attacking his ship, the Nebacanezzar. With the discovery of this new power, Neo realizes (though its never explained how) that he must ultimately travel to the machine city to attempt to bring an end to the war. Meanwhile, things are amiss back in Zion, the human home city, as the sentinels have been drilling their way into the city, and have begun an assult that will potentially wipe humanity clean off the map. The premise is that Smith, who was initially an agent of the machines in the first film, has become a renegade program in the latter two, and has begun growing an army of clones that he uses to empower himself within the matrix. Neo discovers that there is a showdown brewing between he and Smith, and he promises to destroy Smith in exchange for the salvation of Zion. The machines agree and Neo is off and running. If this synopsis of the story seems somewhat disjointed, its because the film itself is as well. The story, though well crafted, is broken up, leaving holes from which obvious questions emerge. The motivations behind the characters actions are seldom explained, leaving the audience feeling abandoned during the viewing of this film. The characters are shallow, and do not possess the believablity of depth of the earlier films. Similarly, the look of the film is different, with a greater attention spent on the war itself versus the actions of the characters within the matrix. All that aside, the film is well assembled from a visual standpoint. The effects are first rate, as are to be expected in the world of modern films. Similarly, the soundtrack and the effects are beautifully crafted and completely convincing. The story itself, though, which makes or breaks any film, is the one big weakness. It attempts to be profound without ever having its charcters really do anything. For those who are fans of the Neo/Trinity relationship...be warned, this film will leave you feeling hollow and unfufilled at its conclusion. Similarly, for those of you out there who have embraced the idea that Neo is "the One", be warned, for his character is stripped down and trivialized into an implausible Messiah whose actions and abilities are completely unexplained, as though they are fabricated to bring closure to the film itself. I do not want to discourage anyone from seeing "The Matrix: Revolutions", for it is an action packed, high speed film with enough CG effects to leave your head spinning. Just understand that the film is not of the caliber of the original Matrix, or even "The Matrix: Reloaded". It is, in this reviewers opinion, a poorly crafted conclusion designed to wrap up the characters a and situations with a bow....instead, it puts many of them in a box (SPOILER AHEAD), for neither the hero, nor the heroine make it to the end of the film. It is worth the purchase price for the special effects alone, but if you are looking for a continuation of the experience from the original film, you will be disappointed...at least I was. -Scott Kolecki
Rating: 
Summary: What is the Matrix? Really.
Review: The two sequels to THE MATRIX have the same problem. Sure, they are pretty much equally entertaining, but only the sum of some parts. The WACHOWSKI's spent too much time in smokey rooms worrying about the phiosophical aspects of their project, and didn't realize the best parts of the original MATRIX were the FX heavy action sequences. Hey, I'm as critical of plotting and story importance as anyone, but the draw of these B sci-fi flicks is the mayhem. The battle for ZION is the best thing here, the special effects are simply amazing. The story is weak. What actually transpires at the end and why is very up-in-the-air, and seems rather rushed. Although visually superior to almost anything out there, THE MATRIX series goes out with a dud, fully due to weak story. Here's MY philosophy; why not make a film with an excellent sci-fi adventure story AND wicked FX? As with RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS one can be decently satisfied with the one aspect, which is decent enough to like it.
Rating:
Summary: They Lost Their Way...
Review: 'The Matrix' was truly a unique film. It presented a unique way of looking at the world and questioning reality. The special effects were tweaked to just the right point--extraordinary but not too far over the top--to inspire the right amount of awe in the audience. 'Reloaded' was in about the same vain, but the story dragged. The third movie completely loses it. I guess what bothered me the most about "Reloaded" is that the matrix itself really became secondary to everything else. The movie is really about the defense of Zion from the Sentinels. This brings up two discussions: the matrix, and the battle of zion. As for the Matrix scenes, I was left asking myself what was the point? Trinity and Morpheus engage in a bizarre journey to rescue Neo from a limbo like train station used by programs to enter and leave the Matrix. One battle scene had Morpheus and Trinity's enemies on the ceiling while they battled from the floor. There was no apparent point to this, and it did nothing to liven up the scene. The final battle between Neo and Smith also took place in the Matrix. For the most part, it was unimpressive. Unlike the battles in previous movies, this was too far over the top, and largely consisted of the two combatants landing punches that would knock the other a thousand feet away, and then they would charge each other again to repeat the sequence. It didn't appear that any complicated coreography was needed. While the work done to create the battle of Zion was impressive, the battle itself was not. With all the action we have seen in the Matrix series, we know the creators are capable of making something much more exciting and tense. However, the greatest part of the battle was the humans suited up in APU's, which are a knock off of the load lifters in Aliens, standing in one place, shooting at the endless stream of sentinels flying into Zion. The only real excitement came when it was time for them to reload, and that was not exactly breath-taking. The most redeeming part of this movie was the actor that impersonated Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. His impersonation was dead on to the point of being creepy. It was the most impressive bit of acting in the entire series, followed up by Hugo Weaving's portrayal of Agent Smith. While there are some things to think about (the meaning of love and emotions, religion, Neo as a Christ figure, etc.) I feel like the movie really changed the path established by the prior two movies. There was a mystery surrounding the Matrix created in the first two movies, and it was largely blown off in the third. If you plotted where things were going in the first two movies, you wouldn't conclude this is the logical result. Sure, its a twist, but its way to forced. Overall, the story was okay, the special effects were visually impressive, but not awe inspiring like those in the predecessor films. I give it a three stars based on the quality of the cgi effects, the acting of the aforementioned actor, and leaving open the possibility of another movie that actually gets us back to the Matrix.
Rating: 
Summary: Starship Troopers meets Mortal Kombat
Review: And yes, it's every bit as bas as that sounds. The plot holes, the laughably bad dialogue, the cheesiness ingrained in every scene consistently reminded me of both of those films. Where to begin? First, "Revolutions" doesn't even offer one cool action or kung-fu scene. The climatic fight between neo and smith is like "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" without the martial arts. Then there's the plot holes, far too many to list, but for example: 1. Why dont the sentinels have guns or weapons of any kind? This is the best the machines could come up with? 2. Why didn't Zion just wait for the sentinels to flood the dock, and then fire the EMP blast? Why did they send all those infantry to die first? 3. Why would machines hold up their end of the agreement made with neo? If all the prisoners are released, how will the machines power their city? The editing is amazingly bad, but at least this provides the most enjoyable part of the movie, where they're entering the machine city and they accidently insert the shot of trinity warning "sentinels" about 10 shots after they should have (seriously, watch the scene carefully-its hysterical). Even agent smith, which was the best thing the trilogy had going for it, is awful in "Revolutions". In the previous two films agent smith had this menacingly cool demeanor and great dialogue, but in "Revolutions" he is a cartoon super-villian and gets lines like "this is my world! mine!" Other problems: additional worthless side plots involving characters absolutely nobody cares about. A complete lack of challenging metaphysical subject matter or surprises, both present in the first two. And WHY is that scene where jada pinkett smith steers her ship through the mine SO LONG?? WHY!?!?? Seriously, one of the 10 worst movies ever made. And I loved the first two.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! Just like the first and second parts!
Review: I usually judge a film on the flow of the story, the sum of all of its parts. There was admittedly, some melodramatic acting in this film. I don't know if that could be helped due to the scale of the film itself. Perhaps the actors felt as if they were emoting Shakespeare for that reason. What I loved about the film was the fact that the heroics of the characters remained consistent. You knew that Neo was the Chosen One. And we all know what happens to the savior of any people: they are sacrificed.(...) I was not at all surprised by the ending. I was upset by it, but not surprised. The whole dynamics of the trilogy was about a war between the remnants of mankind and the machines. There had to be a winner, and there had to be a loser in this war. I was caught off guard by how the war was resolved. I was satisfied with the writing. I was satisfied with the special effects. Most of all, the film had me cheering for the courageous humans who would not give up. And as for Neo and Trinity: They will live on in my memory as legendary lovers. Everyone involved in this film should be extremely proud of it.
Rating:
Summary: There will probably never be a movie quite like this again
Review: Once in a generation, there is a movie created by its production crew -- from the director downward -- that is revered so highly that there is an unprecedented focus on style, creativity, detail, tone, direction, cinematography, and cast. The Matrix Triology surpasses every previous benchmark in movie making history. Matrix Revolutions begins where Matrix Reloaded ended. I could not help but think that there are similarities between this movie and our current war against terror. The movie clearly shows that waiting for an attack by the enemy machines is the wrong approach. Once the enemy is on your own territory, defense systems may not be able to withstand a persistant and overwhelming attack. Neo, however, chooses to adopt a more aggressive strategy: he goes onto enemy territory, the machines, and confronts them. Perhaps one of the best parts of this movie is that one can analyze and philosophize about what the movie means and how it relates to other things that we are either in other pieces of literature or in the news. That is why when the production crew said this movie actually does cover every part of life that can conceivable be covered, they probably did not know how right they were. The movie covers martial arts, fourth-dimensions, the philosophy of allowing machines to develop artificial intelligence, religion, and beautiful renditions of humans enganged in action. There will probably never be a movie quite like this again. But I can hope. Michael Gordon
Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as bad as some may want you to think.
Review: The Matrix Revolutions wraps up the entire series with the same mystique that the original had. While I think that this movie is nowhere near as good as the original, it does manage to leave us with a well-paced, exciting, and fun end to the trilogy. While it is true that there were plenty of the uneasy quirks the entire series had us endure (i.e. the spitting blood and martial arts moves that end with the close-up "bring it on" hand wave), it remains a great action packed thrill for the senses. While for some, it isn't the "All answers revealed" film it could have been, I liked it because it allowed YOU the viewer to sit back and think it through yourself. Personally, I don't like too many films that gives you all the answers on a silver platter. It gives you a reason to watch it more than once. I get something new out of all three films every time I see them. But if you ask my opinion, I think that The Source blew up the Smiths. It used Neo's body to do it once Smith got him. But again, that's my own opinion. Don't forget that this is "JUST A MOVIE." It is not real and it does not try to give us the meaning of life. Movies like this should just be enjoyed for what they are: a nice little escape from real life. Now that its over, it's time to get back to the real world for a while.
Rating:
Summary: It's like Billy Beer all over again.
Review: "My cat knows Neo. Do you know?" "I, uh, know..." "I know you know" AHHHHHHHHH! The torture of listening to a Matrix stream of thought is like reading a bad copy of Naked Lunch while jamming a fork in your eye. With the hope that Reloaded could possibly carry on what I say is one of the top ten Sci-Fi movies of all time was maybe a false hope, but the highway scene is fantastic, so I would give Reloaded 3 out 5, for mercies sake. But Revolutions gave me the same sensation as being sodomized by a drag queen: you don't know what to expect, but you know it won't be good. From the three million permutations on "I don't believe in him, but you do, and I believe in you" to the potentially interesting and exciting Trinity/Oracle-minus-eyes face off that ended in such a, I wouldn't say predictable, because that would be giving it credit, more of a forementioned drag queen feeling. The thought that a suprise may come out of this coma of a movie was too much to hope for. The 40 minute battle between the machines and humans in Zion had great Paris-during-WWI potential, with the out numbered and over gunned humans finally pulling out a victory through sheer force of will, but instead we get two uber-dykes running around with a rocket launcher and some how winning the whole freakin battle for the humans! And the fights seemed to happen just for the sake of meeting some sort of fight quota: each fight seemed to just be spliced together from the superior original and Reloaded and put in a blender with Nobuo Uematsu and cow poo for good measure to come out with the vomit that we see in Revolutions. Possibly one of the most hard core characters in Sci-fi history, Morpheus, is relegated to secondary supporting character status, with, get this, his girlfriend having more lines that he does. The final battle between Neo and Smith, again with high expectations, was just...miserable. A live action Dragonball Z fight would be the best way to describe it: Neo has long bouts of shaking and looking scared as Smith smiles sardonically and evilly. AND THEIR FLYING!! WHAT THE HELL!!! Characters in live action movies do not fly unless they are A) Superman or B) getting blown to bits. The fact that it took Neo 15 freakin minutes to decipher the cryptic innuendo from the suprisingly cool body swapped Smith was just another reason to douse yourself in kerosene and get the whole thing over with. I'm glad that brick dumb Trinity finally gets what she deserves, but the Neo being Jesus thing was a little much for my bland gentile taste. And finally what was the idea behind the humans and machines wanting to live in harmony? I seems that Larry and Andy just got drunk one morning and wrote the piss poor ending to and even piss poorer movie. I highly do not recomend this movie. Eat your dog and sell your children instead, it will be more satisfying.
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