(Caution: spoilers below)

If I didn't care about the characters and the story-line, I would have been a bit more tolerant of this final installment. If I had come to Revolutions with less interest, I would have been content with being blown away by what was there. *sigh* You leave yourself vulnerable when you care too much.

Some of the previous fan-reviews credit disappointment to "not getting it." My disappointment rested in the fact that I got it--how can you not get it? What was relatively subtle in the first Matrix had become a big look-at-all-these-allusions parade by Revolutions.

Like I mentioned, I've become too involved in the characters (pegging me as a big geek, I know). By Revolutions, the energy the actors gave to the parts remained primarily in the action sequences--which were stunning. Their hard work in training for these scenes paid off, but it was at the expense of the line-delivery. To be fair, they didn't have much to sink their collective teeth into script-wise.

The luscious lines of the Merovignian and Persephone in Reloaded were not continued in Revolutions. In this third installment, they might as well have not even been there: their lines didn't enhance the characters at all; they merely set up the fight scene. Oh, and Persephone looked really hot in red.

As has been established already: The Architect clearly is not meant to be God--as in the ultimate Divine Creator-Being. Yes, he created the Matrix, but he did not create human life. He is more akin to the gnostic Demiurge, the jealous sub-god who keeps all us fooled into thinking there's some white bearded guy running things. The Merovignian is not Satan (as a few "you-don't-get-it" folk postulate), per se, but more related to Pluto or Hades (his consort is Persephone, he uses food to enthrall the will of a woman). But these things were clearly established in Reloaded. The additon of a Charon-like character (the train master) only reasserts the point.

That Neo is the Christ-figure was also well-established in the previous episodes; there was nothing to explore or uncover about that (was that a cross? ooo, profound).

Trinitiy's death was pathetic.
The Zionists had no real reason to believe that the war was over. Just because the machines suddenly stop attacking shouldn't automatically indicate an unconditional peace treaty.

I lump those last two because they contributed to my dissatisfaction with the ending. At first I hesitated to carp on the ending because I didn't have a clue how they might have ended the three-part extravaganza in a more appropriate way. On reflection, however...

Trinity shouldn't have to die at all--though she might be critically wounded and Neo has to leave her not knowing if she survives or not (cut some of the unweildy dialogue there). Yes, Neo has to go into the heart of the Machine City alone--these type of moments have to be done solo. That would make his sacrifice more poignant and it wouldn't necessarily diminish the significane of choice--a reflection of the choice he was put to in Reloaded, but this time on his own terms. By Trinity still being alive, she could return to Zion as the machines stop fighting and declare the war over as she would know in a way none of them (not even the Kid) could suppose. It would be a beautiful bittersweet declaration--all the Zionists going crazy with joy while she can only half-participate.

But that's just me.