THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

Those mischievous alien scamps are back, and it looks like life for the last remaining human beings on Planet Earth will never be the same.

CAST: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Ann Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Monica Bellucci, Lambert Wilson, Bruce Spence, Harry J. Lennix, Harold Perrineau Jr.

DIRECTORS: Andy and Larry Wachowski

"If you missed the second part, you will be hopelessly lost. Even if you saw it, expect more confusion than your average action movie delivers…aside from a few halfhearted jokes, it’s a pretty solemn affair, full of portentous proclamations and heavenly choirs to underscore Neo’s transformation into a Christ-like Savior…a simple thing has gotten lost in these sequels: they’re not much fun." --David Ansen, Newsweek

"Directors Larry and Andy Wachowski have made the intricacies of the original ‘Matrix’ secondary to the main events of spectacle, fighting, and stunningly wooden dialogue. At its best, the picture is violently exciting; at its worst, banal and monotonous." --David Denby, The New Yorker

"The sibling masterminds abandon all humor and most invention for a series of Mr. Wizard cosmic cliches…a murky pastiche of ‘Alien,’ ‘Star Wars’ and, worse, ‘Star Trek’ that creaks along like a junk heap heaving through hyperspace." -Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"There is plenty of bright light and big noise in ‘Revolutions’…But all this bombast, which may raise an honest goose bump or two, cannot dispel the overall atmosphere of exhaustion…There is very little that is tantalizing or suspenseful. The feeling of revelation is gone, and many of the teasing implications of ‘Reloaded’ have been abandoned." --A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"It doesn't exactly re-create the magic that made the original such an instant classic, but it's faster and more involving than ‘Reloaded’ and it rounds off the premise and themes of the trilogy in a surprisingly satisfying way…On the plus side, the film's central track -- the Neo saga -- picks up some genuine steam here. The now-deflated hero's quest and his star-crossed romance with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) become more compelling, and both stars' performances become unexpectedly touching." --William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"This final installment jettisons most of the Zen mumbo-jumbo from the first two movies in favor of lots of very loud explosions. Since I didn’t take the mumbo-jumbo seriously to begin with, my letdown was minor, but aficionados may feel like they’ve been played for suckers." --Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

"‘Revolutions’ isn't as stupefying as ‘Reloaded’…But it's an abysmal anticlimax all the same…The final battle in the skies is like ‘Superman II’ (1980), only nowhere near as fun…The Wachowskis began with the notion that our lives in this material world are insubstantial, that we must somehow free our minds to break through into the real. But what followed wasn't a free-mind saga, it was a religious parable for 12-year-old boys." --David Edelstein, Slate

"The film is a soggy mess, essentially a loud, wild 100-minute battle movie bookended by an incomprehensible beginning and a laughable ending…There's no great, overarching metaphorical idea that echoes; intellectually, the film is less developed than the first edition… like too many great adventures, from Alexander's conquest of the world to Coppola's ‘Godfather’ saga, the final stage doesn't so much end as bleed out. The only thing remaining is the corpse of our fond memories." --Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post

"This once-smart franchise rapidly implodes into noisy and disjointed incoherence…some of the clunkiest dialogue and wooden acting since the most recent ‘Star Wars’ movies…the more we've learned about ‘The Matrix,’ the more it seems like nothing more than a grab bag of moldy sci-fi cliches and half-baked philosophizing with cool clothes." --Lou Lumenick, The New York Post

"At the risk of understatement, ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ sucks…it all adds up to a supersize nothing…Cliched, repetitive, recycled from other movies and high on its own grandiosity…the hint of another sequel can't distract us from the fact that nothing is revealed. Neo, dude, you blew it." --Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"Noisy, repetitious and bloated with the Wachowski brothers' jumbled, digital-age philosophy…Once you know it to be an allegory of Christ, which was apparent in 1999, you know how the whole thing will turn out." --Jack Mathews, The New York Daily News

"There are moments in which the screen becomes congested by so much computer-generated Sturm und Drang, it’s impossible to discern exactly what it is we’re seeing — or, at least, to make ourselves care about it…an unwieldy, two-plus-hours third act of a movie, guided by the principle that too much is never too much." --Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

"‘The Matrix Revolutions’ blends feather-brained, starry-eyed camp and rock-'em-sock-'em spectacle -- so it's at least more entertaining than the second ‘Matrix’ film, which hung in the air like a noxious cloud…Much of ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ is simple, unadulterated corn…Still, this corn is more organic than the pseudo-intellectual enigmas in ‘The Matrix Reloaded’…‘The Matrix Revolutions’ may be kitschy fun if you don't take it too seriously." --Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun

"A greasy, dark mind-slick and portal into supreme con-artistry, ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ is pure smoke and mirrors -- when everything is counterfeit, so are the emotional connections, and in ‘Revolutions’ there aren't any…When the movie isn't being incredibly talky, it's being incoherently violent." --John Anderson, Newsday