Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Directors: Andy Wachowski; Larry Wachowski
Finally, the third film in THE MATRIX trilogy is here. After waiting ages for RELOADED we’ve had almost no wait at all for REVOLUTIONS because of course the second and third in the series were made back to back. And back to back is how they should be seen as one is incomplete without the other. The two films really are one and although I realise that it would have been impractical for the two to have been one feature due to the running time and decreased takings at the box office, I’m sure that true fans will eventually enjoy many evenings watching all three in one go when the inevitable DVD box set becomes available.
So what about THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS? How am I going to be able to tell you about this film without revealing any spoilers? I promise I will try not to ruin anything for you.
As you must have guessed the machines do reach Zion and a big chunk of the film is devoted to the most amazing battle ever seen on film. There are no tacky effects, no bad CGI – it’s all very, very good. At one point Zion’s defence forces line up in giant mechanized warriors, each with their own human operator. The scene is like something out of STAR WARS but STAR WARS has nothing on this.
Our hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) however is absent from this human/machine face-off as he is on his own mission and of course it’s Neo’s confrontation with the machine world that will decide the fate of Zion and the MATRIX itself.
There is of course much more to THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS than these two confrontations. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) – all of them – turn out to be far more important to everyone’s fate than we could have imagined back in the first film. Hugo Weaving’s delivery of Smith’s lines is superb – he’s a real scene stealer.
Other characters also return and again the scene with the Frenchman (Lambert Wilson) is highly memorable. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), although still there seems to have less screen time in this one while other characters have more including the Oracle now played by Mary Alice. Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) however is right up there and her destiny is finally with Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss certainly gives this her all, she’s a fantastic actress and is so good in her role.
As I’ve said Neo is the film’s hero and Keanu Reeves does seem born to play this part. Every look, every pose is right, his fight scenes are extremely impressive and the wire work is the best ever on film.
In conclusion THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS is a powerhouse of a movie and I hope I haven’t given too much away because you really should see this for yourself. I do have to say though that many questions are left unanswered and the final scene does actually have the effect of posing more questions.
So will we see more MATRIX movies? I for one want all the answers. I’m sure there will be plenty of speculation about the possibilities here but I really felt that plenty of doors have been left wide open if the Wachowski brothers wanted to pursue a fourth MATRIX movie. I certainly hope they do. Films of this calibre are rare and opportunities to make them should not be missed. THE MATRIX trilogy has been an amazing experience and REVOLUTIONS concludes it but only up to a point. REVOLUTIONS is a truly great movie but surely it can’t be the end of the adventure.
