My tastes and opinions have a tendency to deviate from the norm when it comes to sequels, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps my standards are just naturally lower going in at first and others’ are too high, but there are a few series for which I love the second (which most people hate) and hate the third (which is usually more beloved). Of course, why I wind up hating the third is probably because of my higher expectations due to how I loved the second. Whatever it is, this is the case for The Matrix series; I’m the only one I know who thought the second, The Matrix Reloaded, rocked. Thus, The Matrix Revolutions is the choice for today’s: “Movie That Disappointed.”

I’m a nut for the metaphysical underpinnings of the whole Matrix trilogy; numerous philosophies hold that the physical world that surrounds us is an illusion, and to deny it is to transcend. The Wachowski Brothers took that into the dimension of science fiction, but there are enough symbols and themes throughout to make giddy those who have studied such things. The second film, with its introduction of “The Architect” and its revelation that Neo is the sixth of the series of chosen, was thrilling to me. The notion of the impersonal power behind what we call fate was one thing, but to have Neo be the sixth… that’s Kabbalistic, baby.

The sixth Sephiroth of the Tree of Life is commonly known as that of the Sacrificed God (or the Messiah), though this is not Christian imagery. It’s the power of the divine in us all, where it touches earth and becomes manifest; the point of transmutation between the planes of force and the planes of form. So Neo is really The One of the ones. When, at the end of Reloaded, Neo actually stops those mechanical thingies coming at them in the “real world” as easily as he denied those bullets flying toward him in the Matrix at the end of the first, I was like, “Holy shit! Neo has transcended not only the computerized Matrix, but the illusion of the physical world. Wicked!” I was thus very eagerly awaiting the third and final installment, which I was sure would blow my mind out of this world.

But then Neo spent the first third or so of the movie in some sort of a coma. Another third was taken up focusing on new characters in “Zion” whom we’d never really seen before, didn’t know, and about whom we did not care. Morpheus and company flying about trying to get back to save all the people there was a bit interesting, but still not what we wanted to see. They showed us bits of Neo and Trinity, but immediately got all Greek Tragedy on us by blinding Neo to give him “sight” and turning him figuratively into an embodiment of the Christian Messiah (although even that is an evocation of the pagan one), and literally as a sort of boot disk to clean install the Matrix. Finally, we’re told that everyone from then on is going to just be freed from the Matrix if they want to be. The end.

Seriously? Now, I get that most were probably not eagerly awaiting the movie as a sort of mystical treatise, but I think at least some of the above points are valid for everyone. What was very much not the filmmakers’ fault was the death of the brilliant Gloria Foster, who played “the Oracle” to perfection in both the first and the second films. What was their fault was the choice to replace her with another African-American woman, yet make notice in the script that she looks different (there’s some nonsense about how she’s changing, so her form shifted or something). Now, I’m sure she’s a very nice lady, but she doesn’t have even an ounce of the presence of Foster. If they were going to make a point of her being different, why not cast someone completely different? Male? Whatever?

Ugh. I was nearly crying walking out of the film, so intense was my frustration with it. Poor Desha tried to make me feel better, but I was inconsolable (sorry about that, Desh). Such a waste of potential.