‘The Matrix Revolutions’ Is Good, Actually

A new Matrix sequel is premiering in theaters and on HBO Max this week, the kind of long-delay, nostalgia-driven follow-up that inspires both amnesia about what happened the last time people were really excited about sequels to The Matrix (for many, crushing disappointment!) and, more productively, re-evaluations about whether those “disappointing” Matrix sequels really deserved their poor reputation. 

Taking another look at the Matrix sequels makes a lot of sense, given that, at the time, that trilogy comprised three-quarters of the directorial output of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the siblings who made them. As great as their directorial debut Bound was, it was hard to see The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in any terms beyond sky-high expectations set by the ’99 original. In the years since, the Wachowskis have failed to produce anything so financially successful or widely beloved—but their earnest and visually arresting style has informed plenty more cult classics, including Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending. If anything, Reloaded and Revolutions are more in line with the Wachowskis’ later work than the more universally adored original Matrix. The weirder, thornier follow-ups fit better in the context of a filled-out filmography. 

Even in these rosier terms, though, more fans and critics seem liable to reclaim Reloaded, the second/middle installment that premiered in May 2003, than Revolutions, which followed that November. This, too, makes a certain amount of sense. Though it quickly developed a reputation as a lumbering, overstuffed, self-serious letdown, Reloaded has a head-spinning combination of ante-upping action (the freeway chase/fight!), detailed world-building (the Zion rave/sex party!), and sci-fi subversions of the original (The Architect, who reveals that this is not the first Matrix—and that Neo is not the first “anomaly” to attempt to bring it down!). Those citing the many good things about the Matrix sequels tend to lead with something from Reloaded while Revolutions is brought along for the ride, lucky just to be there. In a way, it’s a light form of penance; much of the blame for the sequels’ less-than-sterling rep can probably be safely attributed more to Revolutions. Reloaded did big business and got respectable reviews in its initial release, with the caveat that the last installment of the trilogy would need to stick the landing. The consensus, six months later, was that this had not come to pass. Revolutions did not restore the trilogy’s reputation; arguably, it helped torpedo it.

Nearly 20 years later, though, The Matrix Revolutions deserves more careful consideration—even without the benefit of a beautifully conceived freeway chase or those ghost-y twins with the dreadlocks. If The Matrix Reloaded gives us a supersized, recontextualized version of the original film, cutting back and forth between the sleek, stylized, slow-mo-heavy action in the humanity-wide computer simulation and the scrappy, gritty strategizing (and homemade sweaters) of the underground “real world” of Zion, Revolutions pushes both recognizable halves of the Matrix world into new terrain. 

Some of this involves following up on plot twists from the end of Reloaded, where Neo (Keanu Reeves) uses his Matrix-y powers in the real world, then falls into a coma; and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who has grown independent of his programming, sending one copy of his consciousness to jump into the real world and possess the body of an unplugged crew member. Zion, meanwhile, faces a major threat from the encroaching machines, who breach the underground walls and commence a massive combat sequence that lasts for nearly a half-hour of uninterrupted screen time. Amazingly, the Wachowskis don’t cut back to Neo and Trinity at all during this section, which features enormous mech-suits blasting endless rounds of machine-gun fire at legions of squid-like drones. It’s a stark contrast with the sleek and acrobatic action of the first two movies (and even a brief shoot-out earlier in the third): The violence is messier, bloodier, and more desperate. It’s more Aliens than John Woo.

Granted, this James Cameron-style battle material is hampered slightly by involving vanishingly few of the characters we know and love from the previous movies, especially the first one; Morpheus is there mostly just to serve as copilot Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), who was only introduced in the previous installment. Several other characters briefly introduced in Reloaded have expanded roles in the Battle of Zion, but their personalities don’t fill the extra space. Agent Smith, on the other hand, has personality to spare. When Neo does re-enter the Matrix for a final (for now) time, Smith has spread, turning the elaborate simulation of reality into a videogame abstraction of it: Thousands of Smiths watch as a single Super-Smith faces off against Neo in a showdown that has more comic-panel clarity and memorable imagery than 90 percent of comic-book movies—the style of the other Matrix action taken to iconic extremes.

Both that final brawl with Smith and the Battle of Zion are, in addition to exciting works of sci-fi imagination, distortions of the first movie’s vision. It’s a bold gambit for a trilogy-ender. Even bolder: Neither fight is really winnable, and the heart of The Matrix Revolutions is in the places where the Wachowskis get smaller, poking around in the corners of their seemingly mythic conflicts. (This is a shorter and, despite all the hardware, less unwieldy picture than Reloaded.)

Late in the film, Neo and Trinity journey to the surface of the ravaged, machine-covered Earth. Neo has been blinded, his vision reduced to a fiery variation on the Matrix code, but at one point Trinity gets her first-ever look at the actual sky. It’s a fleeting moment of emotional awe before the pair descends back into machine hell. In another scene earlier on, Neo is stranded in a kind of between-the-code purgatory, manifested as a subway station where he meets Sati (Tanveer K. Atwal), a young girl who is somehow the offspring of two programs, her virtual parents who will now do anything to protect her. Suddenly the puzzles of rogue programs no longer seem to be in service of humans hoping to solve them. They make their own choices.

“Choice” is an ongoing theme of The Matrix Revolutions, and one that’s grown more poignant with time.

Consider that back in 2003, euphemisms about non-heterosexuals engaging in a “lifestyle choice” weren’t too far in the past; viewed now, especially given the Wachowskis’ identities as trans women, Revolutions’ emphasis on the idea of choice feels like a reclamation from those who would use that designation to dismiss marginalized people. “Choice” here isn’t a frivolous preference; it’s an essential part of human nature. That’s Neo’s answer when an enraged Smith demands to know why he keeps fighting: Because he chooses to. A simple sentiment, yet a powerful one.

It’s understandable that general audiences did not find The Matrix Revolutions satisfying. By the end of the movie and trilogy, the machines are not vanquished, and humankind is not freed en masse. Trinity and Neo die, and not together. Compromise is reached, and there is beauty inside and outside of the Matrix—which does a convincing impression of the “real” sky in the trilogy’s closing shot. It’s not a conventional wrap-up, but haven’t so many other attempts at crowd-pleasing sequels made a case for something stranger and more unexpected? If The Matrix Resurrections turns out to be the barn-burning years-later sequel of our dreams, consider that the choices of The Matrix Revolutions may have laid the groundwork.

Jesse Hassenger is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com and tweets dumb jokes at @rockmarooned.

Watch The Matrix Revolutions on HBO Max