THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS
Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Laurence Fishburne
Written and Directed by the Wachowski Brothers.
Silver Pictures/Warner Brothers

When I reviewed Reloaded, the bombastic middle child of the Matrix trilogy, I discussed how there had been a ninety year-old man � Oul� Ernie � in the front row of the movie theatre. I tried to put myself in Ernie�s shoes, watching the marvelous spectacle of the cinema�s first true superman in the context of almost a hundred years of film fantasy. While I may not have envied Ernie�s advanced years, I certainly envied his perspective on the film, and I would have appreciated his insight into the final part of the trilogy.

I can say without fear of contradiction that Revolutions would have plaited his nose hairs.

As a work of visual art, Revolutions was a broad-strokes, almost unrelenting assault on the senses, punctuated by moments of cold emotion. The desperation poured off the screen like sweat, from both the characters and the creators. Matrix: Revolutions is very much the last half of a movie that started six months ago, and almost suffers from being a little bit too Third Acty. But where Reloaded was an existential mystery, asking more questions than it could answer straight away, Revolutions is a dash for the finish line, crossing every �t,� dotting every �i,� and punching the umpire in the balls on the way out.

Revolutions shies away from the standard Hollywood technique of resolving everything with Stalinist neatness. And while this may alienate the majority of the �corn-chewing audience (who, judging from some of the remarks I�ve read online, seemed to expect more in the way of Big Snogs and Happy Endings), it scores major points with this reviewer. For all it matters.

The actors performances carry over from the second (and first) movies, and aside from the occasional bad speech, they�re as good as ever they were. Hugo Weaving, of course, steals the show. One wonders if he asked to be paid by the clone, however�

Special congratulations must go to the replacement Oracle, Mary Alice Smith, who substituted admirably for the late Gloria Foster at the last minute, and Nathaniel Lees, possibly the greatest shouter since the Blessed Brian Blessed abandoned the stage for the tops of stupid mountains.

The action scenes range from the gerryandersonesque (and, indeed, the frankmilleresque) to the terrifyingly real, and cement, for this writer at least, the notion that we do not need to see another Superman movie in this generation. Really. It�s been done, now. Flying and punching and everything. Drop it. Come back in 2013, when we�ll all be doing it.

If I have a criticism of Revolutions � and I may well be the least critical reviewer this film will know, so bear with me � it�s that we should have seen it six months ago. While the anticipation surrounding the film had grown exponentially since the end of Reloaded (in fact, I last time I was this nervous about a film was when Spider-Man came out), so too had the speculation. Theories ranged from the gobstopper nature of the Matrix to the folly of waking up a billion human batteries at once, and every armchair director with a bottle of Bacardi and someone to talk to had written a different end to the story.

While this all fed into the great hype machine, it did nothing for the film, except to set two-thirds of the audience up to be disappointed. And while there are some people who may take a little bit of pleasure from that notion � myself included (these films were about transcending expectations after all) � I�ll bet it�s hurt the box office.

It would have been different if the Wachowskis had made two films, instead of one dirty great one (in fact, I have my fingers crossed that the fantasy movie industry will follow the lead set by Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowskis on this score). But they didn�t. And the exploitation of the marketing dollar has, to my mind, back-the-hell-fired on Revolutions. Because how can the real thing possibly compete with a million fantasy endings, constructed in a million minds?

If nothing else, it�s an elegant metaphor for the Matrix itself.

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Review text (C) Matthew Craig

Originally published in the pop culture magazine Robot Fist