The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Barely any of the last Matrix movie happens inside the Matrix. The thing that made the first one special, bending a fake world, gets swapped for a long war in a dock full of giant robot suits shooting at a storm of metal squid. It’s loud and expensive, and the people fighting it are mostly side characters you met at a rave last movie and never learned to care about. Neo opens the film stuck in a train station, which is a metaphor nobody asked for. The showdown with Smith in the rain is the payoff, and it’s a great image, two guys punching so hard the clouds ripple. Hugo Weaving is still having more fun than anybody. It made $427.3 million worldwide, but critics left it at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, and honestly that tracks. A 4.5 because the finale has style and the road there feels like sitting through someone else’s group project. $281 says a week from now you remember the rain fight and absolutely nothing that happened at the dock.

What works: The rain-soaked final fight between Neo and Smith, and Hugo Weaving chewing every line like it’s his last.

What doesn’t: Most of the movie is a long robot battle in Zion with side characters, and the magic of the Matrix itself goes missing.

Who it’s for: Completists who need to see how the trilogy ends, no matter how long the dock battle gets.