Much better than M2

Rating: 7/10 (21 June 2004)

It took me a long time to get over M2, but finally I decided to rent M3 and surprisingly, I was very pleased.
You really have to put your thinking cap on a few times here and pay particular attention to all conversations that the Oracle and Agent Smith partake in. This will help you to understand what is going on. What is going on?
Spoilers: Don't read unless you've seen the movie
Bottom line: The Oracle gave herself up in order to make Agent Smith so big, no one would be able to stop him, not even the machines or the Architect without help from the One. Thus, Neo, was able to broker a peace deal with the Machines provided he wins because he believed he was able to stop Agent Smith from taking over the Matrix and ultimately everything. Of course, this was exactly what the Oracle was rooting for.
I loved the "battle of wits" between the emotional, caring Oracle and the logical, cold Architect. The former being referred to as the Mother of the Matrix and the latter, as the Father. The Oracle wanted to stop the war and wanted the machines to give the humans a choice-to choose either a peaceful existence in the virtual reality Matrix while feeding the machines, or freedom from the Matrix and hunkering down in the dirt, darkness, and nuclear fallout in the Earth. Which would you choose?
Unlike its predecessor, the battle scenes were not too consuming and boring this time around. (Neo vs. 1000 Agent Smiths in M2 was the biggest culprit!) The battle for Zion was pretty intense and I'm sure satisfying for most. As for me, I'm not a big battle guy. However, the final brawl between Agent Smith and Neo is a classic for all times. Yes, even I liked that one.
The ending was a surprise to me because of course, I expected the humans to win over the machines. I like this ending much better. As for Trinity's death--yawn! No big deal to me; this freed up Neo to allow him to do what he was meant to do. Sorry Trinity, you were okay while you were.
Fortunately, M3 did make me forget almost all the mistakes M2 made. Now, it's time for me to head over to Hollywood to rent the Animatrix DVD. I understand this DVD will answer some of the questions still haunting me today.