Matrix fans might have thought that the franchise had set sail for the undying lands, but it's making a comeback with the upcoming Matrix Resurrections, a soft reboot that picks up where the original trilogy left off. In preparation, it's beneficial to take a look back to the third entry in the original trilogy, which was also its most critically divisive.
The Matrix Revolutions tried to wrap up the series' iconic cyberpunk narrative with a bow, but it ended up disappointing a lot of fans in the process. It remains to be seen how the upcoming fourth film will salvage a story from the wreckage, but one thing is for certain - it will indeed be quite a challenge.
Too Much Of The Real World
One of the biggest feathers in The Matrix franchise's cap was the emphasis on the Matrix itself; a digital construct where rules could be bent and broken, with fantastic results. The moment the story takes audiences into the real world, it's usually to act as a brief respite where exposition can play out.
The Matrix Revolutions shifted the bulk of the focus from the Matrix to the real world, and the conflict taking place in Zion. This was a mistake that robbed the narrative of its most ingenious plot device. When the action finally does revert back to the Matrix, the magic is already gone.
The Zion Battle Was Underwhelming
It's hard to live up to audience expectations when a narrative has been built up spanning three films, but the final payout in The Matrix Revolutions was still a disappointment. The battle between the machines and the inhabitants of Zion feels far too constricted and enclosed within a single space, robbing the story of the much-needed scale it needed to adequately portray the conflict.
Instead, it feels like a small-scale skirmish with large-scale numbers, instead of a grand high-stakes battle for the ages. By the time the dust settles and the machines halt their attack, the entire conflict feels like a pointless waste of life and resources, on both sides.
Agent Smith Lost His Menace
Smith's debut in the first Matrix film gave audiences a sleek and chilling antagonist for Neo to contend with, but his presence in the second film began spelling trouble for the overall story. The Matrix Revolutions turned Smith from a cool and calculating killer into an overacting silly-pants with little to show for it, except a series of menacing one-liners.
The scene where Smith confronts the Oracle feels altogether goofy, but it's nothing compared to the final battle with Neo. With both characters evenly matched, Smith's menace is gone, leaving fans to wonder what all those fancy Neo powers were good for, in the first place.
Morpheus Faded Into The Background
The final act of The Matrix Reloaded saw Morpheus' world implode in on itself at the news that Neo was never meant to save Zion. In The Matrix Revolutions, he seems like half a man; a shadow of his former ultra-coolness. That's not simply because of past events. Morpheus does indeed feel like he fades into the scenery.
Throughout the course of the film, Morpheus displays almost none of his former charisma or leadership qualities, instead relegating himself primarily to a follower's role, while other characters pick up the slack. Since Morpheus is the linchpin that drives the Matrix story, his change in personality feels like a disconnect between himself and the audience, making it harder for the latter to connect.
Neo Lost His Will
Neo started out as an anti-social recluse who came to grips with the fact that he was going to be the savior of humanity. When he finally finds his confidence, he becomes a living superpower in his own right, but that all came to a grinding halt in The Matrix Reloaded. By the time Revolutions begins, Neo questions everything, and never lets up.
His slow trek from Zion to the machine city is a literal dead man walking motif come to life. In his already dwindled state, Neo takes far too many hits that he never recovers from, paving the way for a finale that is anything but what audiences expected, or wanted. The battle does end with one of Neo's best Matrix quotes, but it's not quite enough to haul him over the finish line. Hopefully this attempt to subvert expectations pays off in The Matrix Resurrections.
No Exposition In The Proper Spots
The Animatrix did a good job of exploring the world before the rise of the machines, and the formation of the Matrix, but it would have been nice for a third film to explore more of the backstory on future Earth before that fateful period. It almost seems like a missed opportunity on the back of such a heavy-handed revelation sprung on Neo by the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded.
Without a proper amount of exposition for the audience to cling to, it's hard to sell just how important the conflict between man and machine truly is. The Matrix should have been a repository for ancient archival data that would have created a fascinating backstory. Instead, it focused too much on an impending threat.
A Pointless Cliffhanger
The final act of The Matrix Reloaded saw Neo exercising powers over the machines in the real world - a feat previously thought impossible. It left him in a coma, trapped within the Matrix itself. Audiences were left to wonder what would become of Neo in the final film.
It all went to pot the moment it was revealed that Neo was caught in a sort of limbo between the Matrix and the machine city, courtesy of the Merovingian. This villain's time had already come and gone, and it was a mistake to make him the culprit for Neo's imprisonment, instead of another entity such as an Agent, the Architect, or a completely new character. As such, the entire resolution of the first act feels like a sloppy hijack of Han Solo's rescue from Jabba the Hutt's palace in Return of the Jedi.
Symbolism Overload
The Matrix films are loaded with mountains upon mountains of symbolic references. Putting the Neo/Christ reference aside, the film touches upon everything from existentialism, to what it means to be truly human, and everything in between.
The first and second Matrix films managed to balance that symbolism with the action sequences, but it had become way too heavy-handed by the time the third film arrived. Even relatively short scenes, such as Neo stuck in the subway station, seem like stories unto themselves. Revolutions tried hard to say something but became bogged down in its own intellectual quicksand.
Dull Battles
Watching Revolutions, it's easy to get the feeling that all the rabbits had already been pulled from the hat. Fights started to feel repetitive and unimaginative, especially when compared against those of the original Matrix, which boasted some of the best action scenes of 1990s movies. An upside-down ceiling fight and a pitched battle between humans and machines in Zion weren't enough for fans who loved the unique, fresh ideas of the first two films.
The closest audiences got was the final battle between Neo and Smith, which was too over-the-top with its superhero-style delivery to be taken seriously. It's a far cry from that knuckle-cracking showdown between the two characters in the very first Matrix film, and Revolutions suffered for it.
Tragedy Galore
It's never a good idea to dump a ton of tragedy on the audience in the final act of a three-part trilogy, but that's what happened with The Matrix Revolutions. Neo's end of it was bad enough, but the loss of Trinity halfway through the film really put the brakes on the narrative and squashed any sense of exhilaration and excitement audiences had for a knockout final act.
While such a conflict would incur a great cost, the final outcome of The Matrix Revolutions feels utterly anti-climatic, despite the end nod hinting that the story was not yet over. Both Neo and Trinity are present in the Matrix Resurrections, which means plenty of questions as to how they survived, and in what form.