Ok, lets hear it. What exactly happened? Has Neo been absorbed into the Source? Did he and Smith cancel each other out, balancing the equation? What is the deal with the little girl? Did she paint that sunrise for Neo? What is her role? As a program, does she now serve a purpose in the Matrix? Did the Architect and the Oracle say that people who wanted to be freed from the Matrix would be? What do you think?

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Overall I think Revolutions finished well, but agree some things still went unanswered.
The ghosty twins seemed to survive the explosion in Reloaded, but were not seen again... why have it seem like they survived then?

The Merovingian was supposed to be this unbelievably tough cookie and they just walked all over him.... and was Persephone there just to show off her breasts?

Why didn't Neo recognize Bane as being Smith when he first addressed him as "Mr. Anderson"? He has always been the only one to address him as such. Perhaps he was too confused.

I liked the movie, but can see why I've heard critics call it "dull". It did lack much of the wonderment of the first two movies. Even the big final battle between Smith and Neo lacked punch (pun intended). It reminded me more of a superman movie than the Matrix.

Still a great movie trilogy, but leaves one slightly unsatisfied.

Humanity has lost all their ships. Zion's a pile of rubble.

This is something that's puzzled me since we first learned of the previous incarnations of Zion and The One. If the machines destroyed Zion each time, then how was it rebuilt and where did the ships come from each time? Did a few humans "awaken", go underground, and begin building a city from scratch? Did they find the remains of Zion, assume it was simply the remains of humanity prior to the machines taking over, and build upon that?

It seems unbelievable that newly freed people with zero resources could build a society dependant on machinery for survival using technology far beyond our own, which is all they should have an understanding of considereing the world they were raised in, inside the Matrix, was based upon the present day world. I mean, a bunch of regular people living in a hole in the ground can come up with massive military hovercraft, those sick mechanical soldier exo-skeletons, and an oxygen/co2 exhange system that allows them to live hundreds of miles beneath the surface?

I've seen all the movies, including Animatrix, I've beaten the game and witnessed all the insight it has to offer, and I still have tons of unanswered questions. In a way, I guess that's what makes it a great trilogy. I'll still be thinking about it long after its conclusion.

Doubtlessly, all your answers will be available in The Matrix MMORPG, for a mere $10 a month. After 24 months.

And for all practical purposes, they really can't be living hundreds of miles underground. But, then again, practicality was thrown out the window with hundreds of miles of tunnels everywhere fit for hovercraft.

I don't know that it's quite clear what happened to Neo at the end. Or exactly how the Smiths were eventually defeated. Was it just a balancing of opposites? Did the Source "send a spike" into Smith?

More questions than answers. Which is a fine way to end the film. But so many other questions from the other two movies were also dodged.

Okay, here's some of my take on the paper-thin symbolism and subtext in the movie which ultimately is so haphazard that it doesn't add up to much (and never mind the plot holes like why doesn't Zion have EMPs all other the place, and does Neo have a WiFi Adaptor in his skull)

Merovingian, what with his underground S&M club and the reference in Reloaded that he collects old, lost things like The Twins,is supposed to represent the Lord of the Underworld. Morpheus and the gang travel to his S&M club to retreive Neo much like Orpheus in Greek mythology whent to the underworld to retrieve his wife.

That subway station is a form of purgatory. It's name "Mobil Ave". "Mobil" is an anagram for limbo. I'm not sure if its supposed to be a conduit between the real world and the Matrix, or the Matrix and the actual machine world. Perhaps the Trainman is supposed to be like Charon, who boats people across the river Styx to and from the Underworld

Sati, the little girl program in the subway, is a free, program created from the love of the other two programs and serves no purpose. I think she's their to demonstrate to Neo and the audience that the machine world programs are capable of reaching beyond the limited parameters defined by their functionality, have free will and choice, and their own sense of humanity. Ultimately humanity and the evolving machines are not all that different.

This could play into the end of the movie when Neo decides that rather than be a champion soley for humanity, he sort of becomes a champion for humanity and the machines and brokers a peace between them.

Bane (the downloaded form of Smith) was a dissapointment. He really served no purpose other than to blind Neo. This is another common element in Greek and Norse mythology: the hero sacrifices his eyesight in order to gain wisdom, insight, and the ability to pierce the veil of the mundane and see the underlying true reality. Im Matrix terms, this means Neo gets to see the machine world as I suppose, the Machines see it, gold beautiful light everywhere. It really doesn't add up to much unless, like Sati, it too is to allow Neo to further develop some empathy with the machines

Since Neo is supposed to be a messiah, Trinity's death was inevitable. In Reloaded's scene with the architect, Neo made his choice based on personal consideration for Trinity. Killing off Trinity and removing her from the picture and making her a moot point thematically allows Neo to make his choices not for personal reasons but the good of humanity and the machines, allowing him to assume the role of messiah and matyr.

When Neo "dies" the machines carry him off in a sort of noble viking or anglo-saxon manner. It's all very Arthurian, much like King Arthur being carried off to Avalon where he will wait until being resurrected again when needed. In this case, Neo is carried off to the Machine equivalent of Avalon, which is probably the Source.

Since the Architect is the father of the Matrix: all logic and math and Order, and the Oracle is the mother of the matrix: Chaos, empathy, a humanistic outlook, and Satie, a humanistic program is sent for protection to the Oracle, you could say that "Revolutions" refers not just to the iterations of the Matrix, and not just he human revolution or rebellion, but to a growing revolution within the machines to reach beyond their rigid functionality and make their own choices and have their own free will.

I too am baffled by the Neo / Smith battle. The Oracle let herself be assimulated by Smith so she could pass on the message to neo, much to Smith's own bewilderment "that which begins must also end". So Neo allows himself to be assimulated to Neo. Since there is duality between the two, by assimulating and removing Neo, does Smith remove himself? Or is it that Neo is a conduit for the Source and the Source removed Smith?