OK so now I'm onto my last part of the Matrix posts, with the final film in the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, which wraps up the whole story of Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Smith and the fate of Zio as well. So without further to-do let's have a look at the plot....
So the film begins with Neo lying unconscious in the medical bay onboard one of the hovercraft, the Hammer, and next to him lies, Bane, one of the survivor's from one of the destroyed ships. Bane however at this point has been mentally taken over by Smith, who assimilated his avatar inside the Matrix, but Bane remains unconscious at this point. While he is in his unconscious state, Neo's mind is trapped inside a nether zone between the Matrix and the Machine city, which takes the form of a train station. In the station Neo talks with an Indian family, a husband and wife, who have a young daughter called Sati. The father tells Neo that the train station was created by a program called the Trainman (Bruce Spence), who is actually holding Neo hostage for the Merovingian, who eventually arrives, allowing the family onboard the train, but he stops Neo from getting on, and overpowers him, the Trainman then leaves with the family on the train, with Neo stranded. Meanwhile the Oracle's bodyguard, Seraph (Collin Chou) contacts Trinity (Carrie-Ann, lovely!) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who asks them to meet with the Oracle. On meeting the Oracle (Mary Alice) we see the Oracle has physically changed her appearance from before, and she tells them that Merovingian is holding Neo hostage. Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph then go to Merv's club (called Club Hel, which is filled with goths!) where they confront him, and Trinity points a gun to his head, demanding that he let go Neo or she will kill everyone in the room. In the next scene, at the train station, a train arrives and Trinity gets off, embracing Neo, they escape the station.
After this Neo visits the Oracle to ask her some questions about the Matrix, Smith and where he was in the train station. The Oracle explains that the station was transition point between the Matrix the Machine world, and that Smith is intent on destroying all life within the Matrix and in the real world. On leaving the Matrix, Neo asks for time to think over what he has been told before he can act on what he has to do. Meanwhile in the Matrix, the Oracle recevies a visit from Smith and his clones, who assimilates her as well as Seraph and the young girl Sati (who was set free by the Trainman from her family). Back in the real world, Neo after some time tells Morpheus and Trinity that he knows what he must do, and that is to take one of the ship's to the machine city, as that is the only way he can end the war. Niobe, although she doesn't believe in the Oracle's prophecy, has faith in Neo, and let's him have her ship, the Logos. Trinity goes along with Neo on the Logos, however before they can get off, they encounter a now conscious, and psychotic Bane (Ian Bliss) who by this time has killed one of the medics on the Hummer, and stowed away onboard the Logos. Bane, speaks like Smith from the Matrix, and fights with Neo, blinding him in the process, with a power cable. Although he doesn't realise at first, it dawns on Neo that Bane is now Smith in human form, but as Bane moves in to kill Neo, Neo stops him, telling Bane that he can see him, despite his blindness, he kills Bane. With Neo blind however, Trinity now pilots the Logos to the Machine city, however as they fall under attack from a swarm of sentinels, the ship crashes, and Trinity is killed on impact, in her dying words she professes her love, and tells Neo to not be afraid before she dies.
Meanwhile Zion falls under attack from a hoard of sentinels, and the humans make their stand to try and hold them back, with their military personnel, who use strap-in robots with arm loaded machine guns to destroy the sentinels, but they suffer heavy casualties in their battle. Morpheus and Niobe in the meantime pilot the Hummer to try and leads the Sentinals through the tunnels into Zion, when they arrive, they blow the EMP to knock out the sentinels. Despite this success, they await yet another attack from the sentinels, which is inevitable. Neo arrives at the Machine city, where he speaks with the Dues ex Machine like machine leader, and warns it that Smith is growing beyond their control and is intent on destroying the Matrix and the real world, but he insists that he can stop him. Neo also says he wants peace if he suceeds in defeating Smith, the machines allow him to plug into the Matrix, where he confronts Smith, who by now has turned the Matrix into a rain drenched, dark world, populated with Smiths as far as the eye can see. And its here where the two men face each other in the ultimate showdown to decide the fate of the Matrix and Zion.
The Matrix Revolutions, for all its flaws still remains an entertaining action fest and is a fairly statisfying conclusion to the series. And it also partly suceeds in getting you involved in the people of Zion for a change, as they battle against the machines, you want to see them overcome the mechanic evil bastards. ;-) And where it does score better than Reloaded does is that it doesn't feel as padded out, and it keeps the action and dialogue scenes on a fairly quick pace, whereas Reloaded had that rather tedious opening 30 minutes intro to Zion.
Action wise things are just as good as ever, and there are plenty of good moments, such as where Morpheus and Trinity storm the Merovingian's club, as well as the very intense and length sentinel attack on Zion, with the humans fighting against them. And one of the highlights of the film comes from the scene where Neo and Trinity are confronted by the deranged crewmember, Bane, who has been taken over by Smith, and he reveals to Neo who he is. Its also helped along by the actor, Ian Bliss, who delivers a good performance as Bane, and he apparently was chosen for the past because the Wachowski's thought he did a good impersonation of Hugo Weaving's Smith, and it isn't bad.
The regular cast are all on the same form as usual, and while Keanu Reeves has never been the best actor, he put's in a good last hurray as Neo, as a man who finally realises what he must do, and he also finally get's a good line, after he has been blinded by Bane, he says to Trinity "I'm OK, Trin, but I think you better drive!". Carrie-Anne Moss, who is easily always been better than Reeves in the acting stakes, also puts in a good final performance as Trinity, and she too get's a cool line, probably the best in the film where she holds a gun to the Merovingian's head delivering her ultimatum to free neo, she says "Time's up. What's it gonna be, Merv??". And Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus does as well as he can ever do in his role, however in a way I feel he is sidelined quite a bit in Revolutions, and is appears to revolve (no pun!) around Neo, Smith and Trin more than him (a ryhyme!).
But again the best performance in the film comes from Hugo Weaving as Smith, who by now has fully relished in playing the evil bastard, as he literally consumes the Matrix, by cloning and copying everyone in it! Smith also by now has developed a dry sense of humour, and he makes quite a few quips in the film, with my fav probably being when Neo goes back into the Matrix for their final confrontation, and he says "Welcome back, Mr Anderson, we missed you! Do you like what I've done with the place??". The scene where he goes to the Oracle and copies her is also a rather chilling moment where you realise after he assimilates that he has gained her precognitive powers, and he laughs maniacally, relishing the fact, leaving the other Smiths to back away fearfully. Another one of my favourite lines come from that scene where the Oracle looks at Smith with disgust and says "you are a bastard" and he says "well you would know, Mom!".
Of the supporting cast there again is some enjoyable performances, again from Lambert Wilson who plays the Merovingian, who demands Morpheus and Trinity to get the eyes of the Oracle in order to set Neo free, to which Trin replies "I haven't got time for this shit!". And Mary Alice, who replaces Gloria Foster, who sadly passed away between the production of the two films, does a good job as the Oracle, although she isn't quite as good at the part, but she does well enough. And the Australian actor, Bruce Spence (from Mad Max 2), also puts in an enjoyably quirky performance as the Trainman, and he has a funny moment where he is being chased by Morpheus and Trinity, and he goes to check the time and he has a dozen watches on his arm! Jada Pinkett is also good again as Niobe, and she get's a bit more screen time in Revolutions, which is a good thing as she plays Niobe as being pretty feisty, and it helps add a bit more character to the proceedings.
The film however of course isn't without its flaws, the main one for me was the big climactic battle between Smith and Neo is a bit too long, and it is rather more an anti-climax than anything else. The end of the film might also leave some people a bit confounded by what its all about, and I for one was a bit perplexed by it at first. But as far as I can see and THIS IS A SPOILER!!! that when Neo allows Smith to assimilate him in the Matrix, Smith's task in the Matrix has been complete, and by assimilating Neo he cancelled himself out, as the Oracle said to Neo that Smith "is his negative image", and as we know two negatives cancel themselves out. At least I think that's what went on, and with Smith being destroyed (and presumably finally returning to the source as a used program does!) the Matrix is rebooted. However of course, Neo in the process of doing this, himself is sacrificed, as the machines lay his body to rest once the battle is over with.
But anywayyyyyyy overall the Matrix Revolutions is an entertaining, and at times pretty intense finale to the trilogy, and it may confound you at times, but it rounds off the series very well.
So on that, I will finish right there!
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