The Movie Expected Vs. The Movie Given. *spoilers*

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2003)

Some comments seem ludicrous. Why would Neo run away (okay, fly) from a fight with a guy he's defeated before? He flies away because he knows he's not going to defeat all the Smiths as he hoped he would, and that staying there could prove fatal for him. They miss that the motivation for escape would be fear, but that this would be a Neo better in control of his fear.
They say that the Architect is boring. Well, he's supposed to be somewhat pedantic, he's an anal retentive computer program without a sense of humor. What makes the scene interesting is what he says. He reveals that this prophecy stuff is junk, that the Oracle has been another form of control, that "The One" is just ONE of a series of Neos, going back hundreds of years, that Zion is nothing more than storage space for the troublemakers, who are weeded out of the system to keep it stable in the face of unpredictable human choice.
Some, appealing to the idea that in a computer program you can do whatever you want, question why the machines didn't simply delete the programs that gave the cars existence, or some cheat like that. A good question, except if you understand one important thing: The people are doing exactly what the machines want them to do!
Frankly, I think that the Wachowski Brothers have done a good job of taking a film that could have been a rote continuation of the last films, and instead creatively expanding and altering that universe. They didn't just reiterate the rules of the last movie, they turned them in a completely new direction. That takes skill.
I can forgive a movie being rough around the edges, if that movie is willing to break free of formula and expectation, especially if the story can proceed in new directions because of that.
With the old story, it was simply a matter of Neo remaking the Matrix, and defeating the Machines because it was his destiny. But in the next film, because of the developments of this one, he will no longer be fulfilling a shopping list of tasks to save the world, he and the others will be taking on novel and unexpected challenges to accomplish whatever victory they gain in the end.
I like that. And damn it, I'm willing to put up with flawed movies in order to get creative ones. Because you know what? Sometimes you have to make a good flawed movie in order to have the experience to do a perfect, great movie. A bit more patience on our part might actually encourage better filmmaking, at least better than the strategy of jumping on every weakness. This is film, not computer programming.