TERRIBLE!!!!!

Rating: 2/10 (5 November 2003)

This film is an absolute travesty. It betrays the other pictures and makes a mockery of the entire franchise. Part of the charm of the Matrix, was seeing extraordinary things happening in regular places. People having kung fu fights on top of buildings, a showdown in a subway station, a shootout in a lobby, etc. These kind of scenes were great, because the audience could connect with them, and the viewer almost felt like another world existed inside of their own. This movie abandons that magic, choosing the force-feed the viewer with shot after shot of the `real world' (which I wasn't particularly crazy about in the first place), which looks less and less impressive every time you see it (the newer Star Wars movies, anyone?). All of the interesting characters from Reloaded are gone or forced into the background, including a certain Frenchman and his gorgeous wife. The death scenes are corny and forced (with god-awful speeches to match), Hugo Weaving is given some positively rotten lines and the ending is abrupt and ill-conceived. The philosophical dialog (which we all hoped would lead to some greater purpose or idea) is completely lost and the religious symbolism is overbearing and shallow. Furthermore, Neo has ceased to be a human being the audience can relate with and is now cold and uninteresting to watch. The bottom line on this film is that is was under thought and over funded. It shows a lack of control in all regards. To top it all off, some of the visual effects are particularly hideous, hindering this waste of celluloid even further. My only hope is that the first film will survive this terrible ending and perhaps be viewed as a stand-alone movie, and not part of a trilogy (which it really isn't, although I thought that Reloaded setup the franchise for a great finish, but I guess I was wrong). I was sorely disappointed....