90 minutes of good movie crammed into 148-minute running time

Rating: 5/10 (4 July 2007)

First off, I didn't hate the movie. It was alright. The problems are 3-fold.
* Every scene is about twice as long as it needs to be. Every fight scene, every chase scene, every dialogue scene. They just dragged on and on to the point where you're actually wishing a previously cool scene would just end already. Which probably has much to do with..
* The filmmakers take themselves way too seriously. Everything was done for the sake of itself. Fight scenes because a fight scene would be cool here. A love story because they think they should have one. Philosophical babble because it'll make them sound deep. I think they bought into the rantings of the "Philosophy of the Matrix" books and such that tried to read into it as more than just entertainment inspired by various influences (pop culture, religious, and otherwise). They're trying to be so deep, to create a mythology, but come off as just posturing and rambling.
* The effects. Sure the fight scenes and all the FX in the movie are cool, but they were just given too much money this time. There was a seemingly endless, pointless scene of watching a ship come in and dock. I swear it had to be ten minutes. They also relied on CGI when the scenes were looking just fine with practical effects. It's jolting when you can notice the exact moment whenever it converts to a CG shot.
Part of the dissatisfaction with the movie may be the lack of resolution. As the middle chapter of the story, it obviously has loose ends, right down to the quite generic cliffhanger-style ending (bum-bum-BUMMMMMMM!!!). But while I enjoyed parts of it, it will be a much better film when I can watch it with a fast-forward button.