Matrix Revolutions’ biggest mistake was abandoning what made the franchise so compelling in the first place

The Matrix Revolutions brought the epic sci-fi film trilogy to its conclusion, and while the film had a thrilling ending, most of the story fell victim to a really confusing choice made by the Wachowskis. Released just six months later The Matrix Reloadedboth 2003 films act as the first and second parts of what is essentially one big story – even if 1999 The Matrix It was what laid the foundation for his next two successors. Revolutions marked the end of the original Headquarters trilogy, but it didn’t work very well.

A fourth film in the franchise has already been made, with 2021 The Matrix Resurrections serving as a legacy sequel to the first three films. The confirmation of The Matrix 5 means that the saga will expand, so each The Matrix the film will be part of an even larger narrative. Hopefully when the next sequel comes out it will avoid what it did The Matrix Revolutions stands out from the previous two films for all the wrong reasons.

The story of Matrix Revolutions takes place almost entirely in the real world

The third Matrix film mostly avoids the franchise’s titular scenario

The entire franchise is built on the concept of a complex computer simulation made to keep the human mind occupied while the Machines collect electricity from everyone’s sleeping body. The first Headquarters The film goes hard on worldbuilding in this regard, showing how those who know they’re not in the real world can manipulate the rules of the film’s titular simulation. These scenes are what the films quickly became best known for, but Revolutions turned his back on the Matrix and I focused almost entirely on what was happening in the real world.

Revolutions‘immediate predecessor, The Matrix Reloadedwas also lighter on the simulation scenes than the 1999 franchise opener, but struck a much better balance than Revolutions he did. The film that concluded the original trilogy paid a lot of attention to the defense of Zion from the Machines. It was an interesting part of the plot for a while, but after so much time watching new characters who are hard to root for incessantly throwing chunks of metal out of the sky, it quickly becomes monotonous. Meanwhile, the Matrix scenes are sparse at best – and infinitely more intriguing.

Neo vs. Agent Smith is the best scene in Matrix Revolutions for a reason

The most rewarding moment in Matrix Revolutions takes place in the digital world

Keanu Reeves’ character facing off against Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith makes for a brilliant ending to The Matrix RevolutionsBut part of that may be because audiences have had to wait so long to return to the digital world. There are other fight scenes in Revolutions that happen inside the Matrixbut by the time Neo and Smith’s confrontation, it feels so long that it could almost have happened in another film.

The complex fight choreography perfectly augmented with CGI lets viewers know what was missing for almost the entire film, and the cool battle between the saga’s protagonist and the main villain easily becomes the final film’s best scene in The Matrixoriginal trilogy. Arguably, the plot of The Matrix Revolutions could easily have been included in the previous film, as the third film is made up of almost all action sequences – despite them being largely the worst parts of the film.