Action, too many effects, but little story if any

Rating: 2/10 (19 January 2004)

Warning may contain spoilers
A boring, essentially special effects driven action movie, that lacks the mysticism and solid scripting of the original. To me it was just a standard sci-fi. The action scenes in this particularly the battle at the Dock and in the Tunnels were so long, and removed from the theme of the original that they were simply dull. What made this different from the second was that there were no moments of incomprehensible dialogue, but continuous action. I am unsure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, however neither were any good.
While special effects are highly present in The Lord of the Rings, they are used where necessary and the triology is not reliant on them, as it is also moved along by the solid story and characters. All three concepts carry the story, with the first merely assisting the other two which are most important. The same could be said for Harry Potter. Any themes that the Matrix tried to convey were lost in the overboard action and special effects, and poor script. So much work was put into the action sequences and effects, it was though they were compensations for lack of story and used to fill in time. Effects are taken for granted these days, and can be boring if there are no descent accompaniments to them. There were so many they were not impressive.
It seemed the basic plot was Neo awaiting his final duel with Smith after Smith had reached the height of his power, and long fights. I was so bored with it all I was sympathetic to the machines hoping that they would drill through the dock. There was so much imagery in this I felt like I was drowning in it.
The ending in the film itself was good, but I didn't come out feeling rewarded. The film was not a good ending to the trilogy. It tried hard, but failed, to impress.