The Matrix Revolutions
So everything that has a beginning has an end. After watching this, I'm not so sure of that. When we last left the cast of "The Matrix", we were left wondering about Neo (Keanu Reeves), stuck between the real world and the machine world, and the fate of Zion, threatened by the machines and its many sentinels. The wild card in all of this is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who has now appeared in the real world and rapidly gains control of the matrix itself. Once Neo awakens from his coma and gets out of the middle world, it takes a little time but finds his true calling at the center of machine city and requests a ship. With the attack looming, the crew is hesitant to give up another ship but Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), going on advice from the Oracle (Mary Alice, taking over for the late Gloria Foster), offers her ship to him and off he leaves with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). Meanwhile, the other ship with Niobe, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and others race back to Zion to save what is left of the place. The machines are drilling their way through the dock while the humans are wasting away bullets and shells to block their path. It soon becomes serious enough that the infantry faces a showdown with the machines. And, as the trailer gives away, Neo faces Agent Smith for another time. The fate of both worlds lies in their hands.

I think with some creative editing, the whole Matrix experience would have been a whole lot better by making Reloaded and Revolutions one big movie. Instead, we get a movie loaded with character development and plot without much explanation or action (Reloaded) while Revolutions is the complete opposite. The movie seems to coast on a computer-controlled auto-pilot, knowing full well what we want to see while lacking imagination in trying to explain what we're seeing, something it did very well in the first installment, the only one to strike a harmonious balance. Visual effects were always a strong point in the Matrix films, and this does not disappoint. The Zion battle scenes are something to truly applaud and watch on a larger screen than the one I did (IMAX, perhaps? While it makes the action scenes much better, you might not want to spend the $10-15 to watch it). The Agent Smith/Neo fight is bigger and better, more complicated and poignant with the addition of water in the mix and less cartoonish with the subtraction of all those Agent Smiths from the last one. However, the bookends weren't as good as expected. The beginning eases us in, trying to explain Neo's coma but the use of the Merovingian doesn't seem to be necessary (probably the only reason to bring him in was to get us to see an underused Monica Bellucci again) as the resolution to this plot point. The ending itself is muddled, possibly raising just as many questions as it answers. And while it hints at another movie, maybe it should go ahead and make it since this one is a semi-letdown to what it could have been and what we hoped for. 3 stars