Please don't bother.

Rating: 2/10 (6 November 2003)

I've just caught the first local screening of this film, and I'm sorry to say the news is bad.
I've seen quite a few saggy, tired blockbusters this year and to be fair this film doesn't share the faults most of them have in common - the technical people have obviously put a lot of time and energy into this film, the production department have really carried things off (the sets are great) and there's no point where the effects overextend themselves. It looks just fine.
The main problem - and this is huge - is with the story itself. This film has none of the intriguing ideas of the first film, or even the half-baked ideas of the second. It simply exists to pay off the cliff-hanger established in Reloaded, nothing else, and it does so very poorly.
If you found the love story aspects of the previous film overworked and dull, this film will simultaneously bore and nauseate you (and don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good love story). The action is even dull, except as one reviewer has pointed out the scene in the dock, which will perk you up for all of five minutes. Otherwise nothing you'll see here will compare with anything from the previous two films.
The actors seem to realise there's no rescuing the film, and it's kind of painful to watch Laurence Fishburne and Carrie Anne Moss (who carried the first film on their shoulders) looking sleepy and simply reciting their lines. I can't blame them, they're terrible lines. Hugo Weaving rants and raves and at least earns his paycheck.
And worst of all the end just falls apart. Very little is resolved or explained, it basically sort of finishes. The lights come up and the audience can finally go home. You should have seen the audience I was with tonight - not a single happy face walking out of the theatre, the movie just died in front of our eyes.
I have a feeling half the world will see this film out of a sense of obligation to the first movie. This kind of depresses me. Your money would be better spent on pretty much anything else.
I generally like the Wachowski Brothers and wish them better luck next time.