The end of the Matrix is here

There is one simple question everyone interested in Matrix: Revolutions wants answered: Is it a good film? In short, the answer is yes. The conclusion of the trilogy, though weak at points, has enough visually amazing moments and plot developments to keep audiences happy.

Matrix: Revolutions picks up just minutes after Reloaded ended. Neo (Keanu Reeves) has just fried a few sentinels and as a result, ended up in a coma. We find out that his mind is somehow stuck in a no-man's land outside of the matrix. Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) find a way to bring him back while Zion, the last vestige of human freedom, prepares its defenses for the machine invasion. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) remains a threat in the guise of Bane (Ian Bliss) as he lurks in the background among other minor subplots. The climactic ending parallels the machines invading Zion and Neo having a final showdown with Agent Smith.

The directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski, left a lot of questions at the end of Reloaded to answer and they do an admirable job. All the minor characters' subplots are brought to a resolution and the directors bring a definitive end to the human/machine war.

The Wachowskis also manage to throw in some surprises along the way, including an ending solid enough to satisfy the casual viewer but ambiguous enough for fan-boys to debate what happened on message boards all over the Internet.

Matrix:Revolutions is at its best during the action sequences, which incorporate the type of spectacular visuals that has come to be expected from this trilogy. The style of the film is nearly identical to Reloaded, which is not surprising as the two films were shot at the same time.

The Wachowskis drew heavily on anime, kung-fu movies, and videogames for their onscreen inspirations, including a scene that is reminiscent of the arcade classic Pac-Man. "Bullet-time" and slow motion effects are also used just enough to keep the action sequences from becoming repetitive and dull. The best visuals are the swarming, shifting hordes of thousands of sentinels as they invade Zion and battle against the humans' large mechanical suits with impressive and powerful machine guns.

Unfortunately, the movie does have its flaws. Dialogue-based scenes fall flat on their faces. Everything is played with a melodramatic flair, coupled with an intrusive orchestrated score, giving certain moments a snicker-worthy quality. The only character to break out of the gruff voice and heavy-handed acting is Agent Smith. Hugo Weaving brilliantly walks the line between tongue-in-cheek and terrifying while Ian Bliss perfectly matches the character's vocal inflections as Smith's real-world counterpart.

In addition, some of the subplots aren't as interesting as the central conflict. For example, The Kid (Clayton Watson) is not that interesting a character, and his coming of age story seems to be poorly fleshed out and entirely unnecessary.

As a sequel, Revolutions is superior to Reloaded but inferior to the original. Reloaded seemed like a movie designed to provide exposure for certain theories, it was filled with philosophy disguised as background with some compelling but haphazardly placed action scenes. Revolutions has a better sense of pacing and a story where each fight has a purpose. However, Revolutions is missing the sense of suspense and surprise that the first Matrix gave audiences.

Now that the Matrix movies can be judged as a trilogy, certain characters and situations seem tangential to the main plot of the movies. Most minor subplots do not effectively add to the movies. In particular, the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) seems to have no purpose but to fill out a part of the second and third movies. It is possible the Wachowskis could have told their story in only two films without any critical loss of plot or characterization.

Overall, this movie will satisfy fans, action movie lovers and science-fiction geeks. The causal viewer will likely appreciate the action but may get lost in the plot. Despite its weak points, Matrix: Revolutions is well executed and a satisfying ending to this ambitious sci-fi trilogy.