a movie worthy of a boycott

Rating: 1/10 (21 May 2003)

The first Matrix is a good movie, with great choreographies, beautiful action sequences which, I must add, already existed in Hog Kong cinema, an almost flawless photography, a quite good idea destroyed by one of the more stupid scenarios ever. But it is a quite good movie, a pleasure to see. Thus, I expected something of the sequel, I thought that, at least, it would be beautifully shot, that the action sequences would be as great as in the first one. So I tried to get in three times and the cinema was always full. Of course, this fact increased my expectations and I even hoped to see a really good movie. At last, I managed to see it yesterday night, and when the lights were on again, I was furious. What is wrong with you people? How can you like this million dollars trash? First, the choreographies are really not very special and the way they are shot is worse than lousy. It is always the same thing, a kick, or a long jump, the camera freezes for two or three seconds, turns 30 degrees and the action continues. This scheme is repeated every time. Besides the special effects use too much the computer and the characters are often replaced by computer images lacking of realism where men look more like Play station figures than to real flesh and blood human beings. In an other side, the film lacks completely of rhythm, it is boring, the action sequences are too long and there is never a climax of the plot, you never fell the great moment of the picture, maybe because there is no end. As the first one, The Matrix Reloaded has dialogues really, but I mean, really ridiculous, false, cheaply melodramatic but without poetry, big sentences trying to sound philosophical without even being intelligent, sometimes even without meaning anything. And this great pieces of intelligence come in completely unjustified moments. If Morpheus could be more stupid, we would not be able to speak. They try to make feel that this movie has a philosophic content with a debate between Sartre's determinism and free will, a debate so shallow and stupid that it would be better to erase it. The film, thanks to this story and to these awful dialogues, becomes a sort of parody of the first one. The plot is too complicated and seems to take time from the characters who are not explored, often just presented. With characters, the Matrix Reloaded seems to treat them like trilogies, like Star Wars, but the problem is that the first Matrix was not thought as the first chapter, not like this second episode. And could someone explain me what is this thing with the Bible? Why is Neo dressed like a monk and why does Morpheus preach to Zion (the Bible again) from a mountain, like Moises from the Mount Sinai? This is an analogy typical in epic trilogies, but completely useless and senseless, put there to make us think that this movie is not as shallow as it seems. Is this a profound metaphor, where Neo is Jesus, the Architect is The Father, Trinity Marie Magdalene and Morpheus who knows who? Ridiculous. Even using an allegoric interpretation in this movie, dramatically, there is too many loose ends, and these resemblances with the Bible are as stupid and shallow as the rest of this lousy picture. Don't tell me everything is going to get clear in the third one, because every movie has to have a story and be worthy to see alone, even if it is part of a bigger story. To conclude, let's just say that this is one of the biggest cinema scams ever, an awful picture with lousy (comparing them to the first Matrix, of course) and long action scenes, obvious computer special effects, bad story and dramatic content without even a Hollywood structure, really cheap philosophy, and dialogues overwhelmingly bad, shallow and stupid. I should not be wasting my time writing about this movie but I am going to all the bad publicity I will be able to do, and I will never see the third part.