Shockingly Bad -- SPOILER WARNING

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2003)

I honestly almost fell asleep in the theater and found myself cringing during most of this movie. What is it about the third movie in a series? All this movie needed was Ewoks. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw so many cliches in a single movie, all of which might have been bearable if the ending actually "ended" something.
Basically, Neo saved the Matrix from Smith. That is all. End of story. (?) I guess we are supposed to think that machines have a sense of honor and will therefore release all of the humans from the matrix because they gave their word?? The dollop of pseudo-philosophy heaped on top of the last two films in this series cannot mask the fact that the directors didn't have one original idea after the first shockingly brilliant film. Of course, expectations were absurdly high after the success of "The Matrix," but the depths that this third film plummets to are absurdly low. The "acting," focus on minor characters (uh, who cares??), lack of story, almost laughable script, and over the top (and unoriginal) special effects (see "Aliens" and "Superman III") ensure that this movie will go down in history as one of the biggest let-downs ever.
I guess they forgot that a movie about the matrix should be...about the matrix. I guess they forgot that the Matrix was supposed to be about "robots and kung fu," as the directors once said themselves.