Admittedly, the first two movies were always going to be a tough act to follow.

Hugo Weaving as the myriad incarnations of Agent Smith

As an avid fan of both the original Matrix movie and its sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, it was hard not to see this final instalment as a disappointment.

As a piece of cutting-edge cinema-making it's immaculate, with special effects as accomplished as anything else you'll see.

What's missing is a satisfactory storyline, a comprehensible ending, and that all-important 'wow' factor.

Fans of the series will doubtless need no reminding that at the end of the previous film, Zion (the subterranean human stronghold) was preparing for imminent attack from the machines.

And indeed, much of the film revolves around this mighty battle, culminating in 20 minutes or so of CGI mayhem which apparently cost $43m dollars alone to film.

It all sounds very impressive, but strangely, it's not. Much of the time the action is so dimly-lit, fast and furious, it's incredibly hard to follow.

And because so much of the plot revolves around the real-world fight for Zion, there's much less opportunity for the famous 'bullet-time' slo-mo sequences that have become the franchise's trademark.

One can understand the Wachowski brothers not wishing to retread old ground, but in truth the film is less spectacular for it.

The One to miss - Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix Revolutions, a movie suffering from the law of diminishing returns

It's probably not giving too much away to reveal that Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Agent Smith (the excellent Hugo Weaving) naturally lock horns again, but even this confrontation is strangely hollow.

It certainly doesn't match the outstanding fight sequence between Neo and hundreds of Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded.

Dialogue and plot cause problems, too. The first Matrix movie was a mental mindbender as well as a seat-of-the-pants thriller; its sequel might have been more opaque, but at least it left you thinking.

Revolutions, though, has less of the mind games and more of the action. There are interesting philosophical questions hidden in this movie, but they're far from explicit.

Unless I'm missing something (which is quite possible) there's no explanation of the origins or nature of either The Oracle or The Architect, or for that matter, the motivation of the machines.

Add to that Neo's unlikely inheritance of real-world powers to match his plugged-in prowess and you might find, like me, that the ending leaves you cold and unconvinced.

I desperately wanted this movie to be so much better - and perhaps that weight of expectation is the movie's biggest handicap.

The Matrix Revolutions is a reasonable movie, but no way to end a cult series.