Movie Review

The Matrix Revolutions

Gravity defying battle sequences, amazing style and grace, philosophical reasoning, intelligent ideas, and inventive story telling are just a few things that can be taken a way from what will probably go down as one of the classic trilogies of our time. It's been one incredible ride and one can only hope that the Wachowski brothers have created a new kind of action film making that up-and-comers are more than willing to use.

As these movies have grown, they have gotten better with age; the first one introduced us to gravity defying feats and the entire concept behind The Matrix. It rarely used action, except for the closing moments, but it engaged with its ideas. Many would argue, but I think Matrix Reloaded is a much better film; it has the idea in place and continues to delve deeper into what it all means, all while creating action sequences that rival "Fantasia" in terms of style and grace (no, I'm not kidding).

Now we have Revolutions, the third and final installment in the Matrix trilogy, the movie that fans saved their lousy $5.50/hr so they could go again and again ? and it is well worth it. The story picks up where Reloaded left off, with the machines tunneling towards Zion with great speed and quantity. The Zion defense council is prepared for a massive war that they know they cannot win, and the only hope to save humanity is Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) making it to the Machine City to try and stop them there. Characters such as the oracle, Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), and of course, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) play big roles in the battle as well.

This is the finale and so that is more than enough excuse for the Wachowski brothers to pile the drama on in droves; like always, this story takes unexpected turns and the best thing you can do is sit back and enjoy. But this time it is also about survival and so other characters are finally thrown into the hero spotlight to perform the do-or-die situations. There is a terrific looking gun battle for Zion between the sentinels (killing machines) and the human soldiers who control giant mechanical robots; the whole thing is jaw dropping entertainment from beginning to end.

Only as much as we want to see the humans win, we are also extremely interested in the progress of Neo; he has now turned into the mythical savior that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) said he would be. He has also established romantic chemistry with Trinity and the two share one scene together later on in the movie that made me start to tear up a little bit.

This all leads up to one of the most phenomenal things I've ever seen: a fight sequence between Neo and Agent Smith, which is completely out of this world. The Wachowski's turn up the choir soundtrack and let both characters do their ultimate battle of good vs. evil for the last and final time, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats thinking, "It doesn't get any better than this.?

This series has been a huge ride, and even though it takes more than one viewing to finally get all of its facts straight, it is impossible to deny the power and excitement of any movie in this series with any viewing.

Craig's Grade: A-

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%