Could have been so much better...

Rating: 4/10 (10 November 2003)

Well. We didn't expect all that much after Reloaded but I'm still disappointed. Number One, as many here already pointed out, was great in its newness in thinking, creation of action/fight scenes, use of special effects and mesmerizing the audience with its unconventional ideas that almost brought us back to old Plato, who believed that everything is an illusion and we never get to see the 'real' world. A philosophical, interesting, and beautiful movie. Neo is a code name of a normal computer guy who we accompany in discovering the 'real' world. We are as surprised and fascinated with the whole idea as Neo the newborn rebel is. Morpheus is as grand as a god in number one. We listen to him with open mouth as he explains us about the matrix and teaches Neo all his tricks. We meet the mean program Smith, we get a taste of Zion and sentinels chasing hoovercrafts.
But then: Reloaded evolves into an ordinary sci-fi B movie. The Wachowski
brothers fall for easy money as they choose to bore us with more of the same (often unnecessary) fight scenes, the much-hated orgy scene (sigh), stereotypes all over the place (the love of Trinity and Neo, the love of Morpheus and Niobe, the Merovingean and his babe, etc.). They had a chance of fixing things when they introduced the Architect, but Revolutions shows us that they didn't take it. Doesn't everybody feel that Reloaded is totally unnecessary now that you've seen revolutions? What did it contribute actually? It gave us one mildly interesting idea and that was that Neo wasn't the first one, and we weren't sure what to believe anymore.
That idea could have been used to torture the audience with uncertainty and doubt. Couldn't they have done more with the Oracle and the Architect, given them more depth and mystery, couldn't they just have given us a more interesting ending, have lifted a little tip of a veil that would uncover again something new, like the experience we had in the first movie? Was it so hard to come up with an interesting idea?
*warning, spoilers!*
Besides the ending, most of the movie was ridiculous, though not totally unpleasant to watch if one set aside any expectations that were left. Morpheus has unfortunately transformed into any stubborn guy who believes in a messias. His character has not contributed anything in the last two movies. Then, the scene in the Merovingean's club was also totally unnecessary and stupid. And of course there has to be a woman dancing naked and the babe sitting there with her breasts almost exploding. Sigh. It makes me tired. And just one thing about when Neo and Trinity fly over the clouds - how hard would it be for the machines to use solar energy? Just wondering. And it was too easy for them to get to Machine City, but I suppose the film makers were running out of time. And of course he would face Smith again, and we had to sit through 10-15 (how long was it?) minutes of useless fighting -- why??? We KNEW he would have to find another way of getting rid of Smith, just like in Reloaded it was useless with that looooooooooooooooooooooooong fighting scene with all those Smiths. It's boring to watch! And oh, Zion and the defense of the dock. Sorry but that was completely ridiculous. A couple of APUs against the sentinels, the EMP that wiped out the computer system (but not that of the ships when they use it??). The more I think about it, the worse it gets. A missed chance to make film history.