Review of The Matrix Revolutions (2003) by Necromus — 06 Dec 2012

Alright, after being left with mixed feelings about the second movie I was hoping to have the question of how Neo managed to stop the machines answered adequately in this movie, but it was not. Also, this movie adds even more questions along the same lines: how does Neo manage to see in the real after he is physically blinded? (BTW: The same thing happened in the Dune saga which is probably not just coincidence, there's some deep philosophical meaning to these in both I'm just not entirely sure what it is).

How does Neo absorb the sentinel into himself in the end? Three possible theories I have are: 1) Zion and the outside world are just another layer of reality inside the matrix created to fool the people who escape the inner layer of the Matrix that they are free.

2) Neo is actually a machine himself (or possibly the cookie the oracle gave him lets him carry a machine program somehow, after all in computer lingo a "cookie" is a small piece of data you give to a user visiting your website so you can track them), 3) Neo has achieved enlightenment inside the matrix but a side-effect is that he's also achieved enlightenment in the real world, in Buddhism for example it is said there are high-level monks that can bend reality melting snow with their minds and/or make thing materialize out of thin air, etc.

. It's possibly Neo's enlightenment lets him do something similar in the real world. Any of these explanations work but we never really know what the creators of these movies really intended since they have stated they would rather let us figure out things for ourselves.

The other confusing part of the movie is the manner in which Neo defeats Smith when he realizes he has to stop fighting Smith and just give in to win. I think it has something to do with him realizing he is only fighting himself or duality is an illusion, since a lot of spiritual paths say this.

But once again we'll never really know. After watching the trilogy once or twice I suggest you view the versions where they have the audio by two philosophers watching the film over the film, you will understand the film a lot better after seeing that.

Overall I love the trilogy. The one thing about this last movie is the beginning is really lame. The first and second movies had epic scenes to start them off, this one just starts up with the characters on the hover-ship having a conversation with each other, how lame is that? I docked a point from this final one for that.

They should have started with the scene in "Mobil Ave" (ie: Limbo) that would have been more exciting to start with. But other than that a great movie, albeit still confusing the first time you see it.