The machines are coming.  They're well on their way to the last human
stronghold, Zion.  Meanwhile, Neo is comatose, but his mind is in the
middle of nowhere - a train station between the matrix and the real
world.  And lying next to Neo's body is Bane, the human who has been
taken over by Agent Smith.  "Revolutions" picks up right where
"Reloaded" left off.  Trinity & Morpheus fight to bring Neo back to the
matrix, where he then needs to see the Oracle for more advice &
information.  After that, and some soul-searching, he realizes what he
must do - travel above ground to the Machine City and end this war once
and for all.  

The pacing of this movie is much better than Reloaded, and it is
certainly action-packed.  The battle for Zion is epic in size and
mesmerizing to watch.  Thousands of "squidies" breach Zion and the
humans defend with giant "Alien"-esque robots.  Very intense and very
beautiful.  The showdown between Neo and Agent Smith is probably more
anticipated than any other scene in the movie, and it delivers.  The
Olympian battle has no limits - the supremely powerful forces of good
and bad battle on the street, in buildings, in the air.  It is
mind-numbingly beautiful.  It's the ending I don't really care for, but
more on that later.

The fight scenes in this film carry more weight than in Reloaded - which
was one of my big problems with the second installment.  Here, there is
grave danger.  Neo, Zion, and all of humanity could all be lost.  There
is less philosophical rhetoric, which mired some scenes in Reloaded. 
Don't get me wrong, there is still philosophy, and quite a bit of
theology, but it's a good amount.  What I didn't like about Revolutions
was that is had many Hollywood action cliches in it.  The war for Zion,
while visually stunning, gave us nothing new in the characters and their
actions.  I really don't care for "the Kid", either.  There were also
some questionables - how does going up through the clouds stop the
robots from attacking?  What happened to all the ships that were to
defend Zion?  What happened to the twins from Reloaded?  What is that
big head thing in Machine City?  

This is the end of the Matrix storyline, but I was left with many
"How"'s and "Why"'s, which isn't entirely a bad thing, but I guess I was
looking for more answers from Revolutions.  I'm still not certain how
the battle between Neo and Smith ended!  The very end of the film is
quiet and naturalistic, which allows us to ponder the future of both
humans and programs, but it also allows us to question what we have just
seen, and if it has any meaning.
 
 
 

Quality: 5.5  Visuals: 9.5  Intensity: 8.0
OVERALL RATING: 7.7