directors/screenwriters
Andy Wachowski
Larry Wachowski
producers
Grant Hill
Joel Silver
cinematographer
Bill Pope
music
Don Davis
editor
Zach Staenberg
cast
Keanu Reeves (Neo)
Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus)
Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity)
Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith)
Jada Pinkett Smith (Niobe)
Mary Alice (Oracle)
Tanveer Atwal (Sati)
Collin Chou (Seraph)
Monica Belucci (Persephone)
Lambert Wilson (Merovingian)
Nathaniel Lees (Mifune)
Harold Perrineau (Link)
Nona Gaye (Zee)
Harry Lennix (Commander Lock)
Anthony Zerbe (Councillor Hamann)
Helmut Bakaitis (The Architect)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 129m
u.s.
release: November 5,
2003
video
availability: TBA
official
website
other wachowski
bros. films
reviewed on this website:
- bound
- the
matrix
- the
matrix reloaded
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"Why do you keep fighting?"
says the evil program Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) to our hero
Neo (Keanu Reeves). "Why do you bother?" Well,
because he has to fight, or else there wouldn't be a megabucks
redemptive finale. Not that The Matrix Revolutions redeems
anything other than Hollywood's belief that bigger is better.
Even though almost every character keeps saying they don't know
what's going to happen, every moment of this ugly-looking, monotonous
spectacle feels pre-ordained. Neo, the designated messiah of
this pop fantasy, must prevail by sheer will and ... purity of
heart, I guess. Everyone else seems rather expendable, and indeed
major and minor characters die here without setting so much as
a tremble of tragedy. It's all about The One, and what he can
do to save the humans of Zion. Everybody else helps him or stands
around.
Unlike the first two films,
Revolutions takes place almost entirely in the bleak,
gun-metal sanctuary of Zion, the last stand of humanity, which
is being threatened by the foot soldiers of the machines -- writhing,
relentless squid-like things called Sentinels. Morpheus (Laurence
Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who first opened Neo's
eyes to the Matrix, have become little more than his acolytes,
unquestioningly accepting his every decision. "I have seen
that I must make a banana sandwich," Neo could say, and
Morpheus would nod meaningfully. Those coming to this final installment
for answers won't find them; nobody knows anything, not even
the down-to-earth Oracle (Mary Alice, in for the late Gloria
Foster) -- either that, or they know but are powerless to do
much about it. The movie's faith in One Savior is touching but
robs the narrative of suspense: After three movies, does anyone
think Neo won't come through?
For what seems like an eternal
stretch of screen time, various warriors of Zion do battle with
hordes of Sentinels, in ships and in huge battle armor. On and
on it goes, with people falling and dying, and Sentinels going
up in explosive sparks. The goal is simple: Save the Dock. We
hear it over and over: the humans must defend the dock where
the ships come and go. After much dying and fighting, one of
the ships finally makes it home, and a victory cry goes up. Then
we're told that the dock wasn't saved after all, and that
all the blood and thunder we've seen was just ... filler, I suppose.
At least there's not as much
gassing on about destiny and anomalies as there was in The Matrix
Reloaded. But writers-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski
don't come up with anything new to take its place. If Reloaded
was ponderously philosophical, Revolutions is ponderously
violent, with none of the freaky, eye-popping set pieces that
distinguished its predecessors (I'm beginning to consider the
original Matrix
an example of taut, surprising storytelling in comparison with
its follow-ups). And some of this stuff is just cheesy in the
same way it's been cheesy in dozens of cheaper, less cultish
films. When a human is possessed by Agent Smith and holds a scalpel
to Trinity's throat to get Neo to drop his gun, I sighed and
wondered where the Wachowskis' imagination had gone. An earlier
chase through a train station -- with Morpheus and Trinity hot
on the heels of some seedy-looking character from Central Casting
-- is like a hundred other chases you've seen.
It all ends with a rain-soaked
mano-a-mano between Neo and Smith; the latter, of course, has
replicated himself a hundredfold, but even his clones
(literally) stand around on the sidelines while Good and Evil
duke it out. Meanwhile, back in Zion, the new concept of an olive
branch between the humans and the machines is explored. "How
long will this peace last?" someone says. "Until Warner
Bros. has another string of expensive flops and needs another
Matrix sequel," I answered.
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