about as deep as a video game

Rating: 3/10 (16 May 2003)

even though i got the urge to walk out several times in the first half-hour of this film, i held back, since i learned my lesson about sitting films out from 'moonlight mile' last week. and admittedly, when the film turned away from its shallow dialogue-based scenes and became more focused on the fighting and the car chases, i started to have a good time.
yeah, the effects rock. yeah, keanu and carrie-anne sexin it up is hott. yeah, the fighting is exciting. it's all good as long as you're not taking it too seriously. i mean, you can seriously picture the dialogue in these scenes coming straight out of a video game.
however, the thing that saddens me the most is reading the reviews on here and repeatedly seeing comments on how this film is so 'deep' and 'philosophical'. i liked the first matrix installment. it did bring up some philosophical questions of man vs. machine. however, these questions are not further explored in this film save a three-minute slew of jargon recited by 'the architect' at the end, which really only bring up a rehashing of what happened in the first film. it's sad that this is what people these days think is a 'deep' movie -- something that is basically a one-theory shtick.
and let's quickly address how this movie essentially promotes the continuation of the man's world. yeah yeah, there's trinity. and there's niobe. but we're still in a world where the fighting breaks out as suddenly as it does in a steven segal movie, and no one really gets hurt. it's not like we are in space or in middle earth where we can disconnect ourselves a little bit, as this is something that could, according to the theory of the matrix films, happen to our world, and we'll be forced to worship 'the one' who straightens it all out by, essentially, kicking ass. sounds a little familiar when you compare it to recent world events.
oh, and did the scene in zion really have to look like an r. kelly video?