By now, you’ve seen The Matrix Revolutions and you are saying, “Well, it wasn’t as bad as the second one.” You may even claim to like it.

Last week, I espoused the heretical notion that the movie actually sucked. And now, a week later, I’m able to tell you why.

It all has to do with resolution. Not “answers,” as many have told me I think I’m missing, but plain old fashioned resolution. I don’t need answers. I walked away perfectly happy from The Usual Suspects without them. No, what I want is something entirely different. And it’s something Matrix 3 does not offer.

For example, the entire focus of the first film was on humanity’s war with the machines. “We’re here to free these people,” Orpheus tells Neo. The whole point is to free humanity from slavery.

Here’s the problem: at the end of Revolutions, is humanity free? The answer, of course, is “No.” None of the millions of lives powering the machines are freed. They’re still there, being bred to be copper tops. Is this issue resolved? Is it even addressed? No. All those lives – billions of them – are still trapped in the Matrix… and we’ve been instructed by the film that they really weren’t important at all. The real issue is Agent Smith. Just forget about the whole point of the first film. That’s nothing. It’s Smith… all Smith…

Sorry, but that little hypnotic trick can’t fool me. I want to know what’s going to happen to all those people. I want to know how the machines and men are going to solve that problem. It isn’t addressed, isn’t resolved – it’s just a big, fat mess that the Wachowskis either consider unimportant to clean up, or they’ve forgotten about themselves.

And speaking of Agent Smith, just exactly how did he learn his little trick? How is he going around doing what he does? We’re told in the second film that we’ll learn this secret, that we’ll understand how he’s doing this. Of course, we’re never given a solution. We’re just left with the “trust me” answer. “He’s just doing it.” Sorry, I don’t buy it. I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t important. I’m like most people, I don’t need to know how a lightsaber works to believe it. But, I was told Smith’s “evolution” was an important story element, and that understanding that element is important to understanding the film. That was the promise. “Here’s a mystery, and it’s gonna be important later.” Well, guess what? We’re never told how Smith is doing what he’s doing or even why he’s doing it. He just is. So, the Wachowskis again have forgotten to add an important detail to the final film… just moments after telling us that same element was going to be important later. It isn’t important, and I don’t like people who break promises.

And what exactly does Neo do at the end of the film? How does that work? Why does it work? What clue are we given that Neo is also given that leads us to the logical conclusion that it would work? We’re given nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a sausage. “Trust me,” the Wachowskis say. “It just works.” Like reading an Agatha Christie novel, where at the end, the detective solves the mystery because he had some vital piece of information the reader never even saw, we’re cheated. What’s worse, in this case, the detective doesn’t even show the reader how he knows who dunnit. He just winks at us and says, “Trust me, I just knew.” Cheat, cheat, lazy cheat. No biscuit for you.

Finally, there comes a point in the film where the following conversation takes place:

NEO: Hey, Source of the Machines; if I kill Smith, will you leave humanity alone?
SOURCE: Uh… yeah.
NEO: Cool.

This moment comes when humanity is nearly defeated. Completely and utterly wiped out.

Neo destroys Smith (somehow – we’re never told how) and the Source decides to keep its promise – despite the fact that the machines have all but defeated humanity.

Someone tell me, for the love of machines and man, when this has ever actually happened in a war? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

The answer, of course, is FUCKING NEVER!!!

I didn’t buy it. Not for a second. Not even a millisecond.

And so, like the Highlander series, there should have been only one Matrix film. Just one. It was fine the way it was, it didn’t need any sequels, and the sequels they gave us didn’t further the plotline, didn’t explore the theme, didn’t really do anything but give the Wachowskis the excuse to show the world they really didn’t know what the fuck they were doing this entire time.

I hear they’re gonna tackle Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta next.

God help us all.