By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * *)
We are now into part 3 of the Wachowski brothers' series where, if the film-makers followed logic, tradition and the pattern set by Peter Jackson, everything would be revealed, no matter how long it took.
The Matrix Revolutions picks up where part 2, Reloaded, finished. Neo
(Keanu Reeves) is lost between the Matrix and the Machine World. While his pals Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) try to bring him back, the rogue Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) has slipped out of the Matrix' power and is on his way to dominating the whole shebang. Zion is about to be attacked by the forces of the Sentinel invasion and Machine army.
Neo decides there is only one thing to do. With help from the Oracle (Mary Alice, er ... standing in for the late Gloria Foster), he heads to Machine City to confront the power that threatens Zion. There are only 20 hours to go before the attacking Machines break through Zion's defences, and it may feel as though you are going to watch every second.
That's not to say there are no entertaining moments, the best courtesy of Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), the decadent nightclub boss, before the final showdown between Smith and Neo.
The DVD has an impressive collection of features, though even the most desperate devotee may feel they've heard most of it before, specifically on the DVDs that accompanied the first two episodes. It's a reasonable hunch that most fans will wait for the three-film package that will surely arrive soon. Around Christmas, I'd pick.
* DVD, video rental April 1
