The Matrix Revolutions

So this is what Matrix fans have waited six months for?The Matrix Revolutions should have been the film to cap off a satisfying trilogy, but unlike Reloaded, this just seems like a stale action film stuck in neutral. Reloaded may have had its critics, but its safe to say in retrospect that those arguments may have been too harsh. Revolutions proves its predecessor definitely could have been worse. Revolutions begins with Neo (Keanu Reeves) stuck in limbo between the Matrix and the real world. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) set out on a journey to find Neo and get him back to Zion, where war has broken out. The sequence where the machines penetrate Zions defense is easily the highlight of Revolutions. But unlike Reloaded, which was kick-started by a magnificent freeway chase, this sequence comes way too late to matter. Instead, Revolutions is more concerned with continuing the alarming trend developed in Reloaded, where everyone goes into psychobabble that serves as a way to bore instead of stimulate. For those people who thought Reloaded was too talky, it pales in comparison to all the fortune-cookie riddles that filmmakers Larry and Andy Wachowski decide to pass off as dialogue in this mess. The riddles only add questions to a film that should have provided more answers, especially when the previous films suggested those answers would come with time. But that isnt the only problem with the Wachowski brothers screenplay. At least two-thirds of the film takes place outside the Matrix, which eliminates most of the charm of the first two films. Gone is the imaginative world so elegantly created in the first two films, substituted by a dreary-looking film that seems like a morph of Robocop, Starship Troopers and Terminator. Even the final battle between Neo and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, who sadly has about 10 minutes of screen time) seems like a ripoff of the climactic battle in Superman II.The actors seem tired and bored now, but that could have a lot to do with the grueling schedule demanded by shooting Reloaded and Revolutions back to back. And the new characters introduced serve absolutely no purpose. Billed as the final chapter, the Wachoski brothers cop out and leave hints of a potential fourth film. Heres a suggestion: Dump the franchise, because this series has clearly overstayed its welcome. Sportswriter/movie reviewer Micheal Compton can be reached for comment by e-mailing mcompton@bgdailynews.com. If hes real, that is. Because, well, how would you know? He may just be a virus, or a rogue program … did that computer-generated mugshot really fool you?