The Matrix Revolutions Directed by the Wachowski brothers
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lawrence Fishburne, Monica Bellucci Script: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski Running Time: 2:00 Country: USA Year: 2003 Official Site: The Matrix Revolutions
After the creation of the myth in The Matrix, and the spectacular crescendo of Matrix Reloaded, one could expect a finale whose gigantism would redefine the theoretical and visual rules previously laid down.
If you believe the catch line of film "Every beginning has an end", the trilogy seems subjected to the laws of an irreversible evolution, thus allowing to logically predict that after "Reloading" an inevitable unloading of this matrix will come. And it is alas what occurs in this third opus which could just as much have been entitled "The Matrix Unloaded", at the creative level.
Presenting in parallel the battle of Zion between man and the machines and the fulfillment of Neo's destiny, The Matrix Revolutions is without any doubt the most impersonal episode of the series and the least exciting, which is the last straw for such an anticipated climax. Weighed down by dialogues bordering now on self-parody and an emotional distance from the characters in whom we were invested, the film suffers especially from an imaginary renunciation, disavowing its own status as innovative and cult object to yield to the rules of a genre—science fiction.
While the battle of Zion, the backbone of the film is certainly visually spectacular, it nevertheless is stripped of any originality, recycling—rather than redefining—emblematic sequences of classics such as Star Wars, Aliens and Terminator. The Wachowski brothers seem to have given up, not being able to maintain the creative level of their saga, either theoretically (Matrix) or visually (the underestimated Matrix Reloaded—sci-fi geeks were disappointed per too much post-Startrekian blindness). Matrix Revolutions thus owes only its survival to a final out of the standard confrontation between Neo and Agent Smith, which redefines combats in weightlessness, formerly the prerogative of Superman, Spiderman and other flying creatures, in a revisited clash of the titans.
Relegated to the background to profit the action and the special effects, the characters see themselves cannibalized, and when the ultimate heroic act of the sacrifice occurs, it leaves us cold and indifferent. The Wachowski brothers then believed it would be good to inject a touch of "sunny" optimism, which is reminiscent of the false end of Blade Runner, but this sky with its pink colors confirms once and for all the artificial aspect of Matrix Revolutions, which officiates like an ersatz of its own myth.
Fred Thom
The Matrix Revolutions review
