The Smith Experience

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2004)

Let's look first at this whole trilogy. Matrix was great, by far one of the coolest films of our time. Visually stunning, story well thought out, even the acting was good. You have to admit Keanu Reeves nailed this part. Then came two. And then three. I have already discussed two, so I'll just skip over to this monstrosity.
Spoiler warning-
Neo wakes from his cliffhanger dream inside the Matrix, without attachments. So, they trapped his consciousness? Dear God. So then, he needs to think about what he must do. Only to come to the simple conclusion he must confront the head honcho. Wow, took him a long time to figure that out. So, those pesky humans race back to Zion, a trip that usually takes a few hours, takes them near eternity? Please. So Neo gets half way to his destiny, only to confront a Smith, and eve when he says Mr. Anderson, Neo is still confused. Holy crap. Then comes the climactic conclusion, which I will not spoil here.
There are so many bad things to say about this movie, I hardly know where to begin. First off, the characters. I found that I stopped caring what happened to them about twenty minutes into it. With exception to one, I will come to that momentarily. I didn't give a flying crap what happened with Morpheus. In fact, half way through I was rooting for the machines to just end it.
Which brings me to a major complaint I have. The war scene, way too long. It was like they were trying to duplicate LOTR: TTT battle scene. I was actually falling asleep, and again hoping the machines would just hurry up and win. It was inevitable anyway. Humans had nothing. Why didn't they use the electroguns on the killer robots? Then, just in the nick of time comes Morpheus and the gang. But, do they really help the situation? No. Just delay longer.
The only pay off this film has to offer is a character to which I absolutely loved. And that was Agent Smith. He is the reason I give this such a high rating. For those few moments, any moments with Smith, I was energized. His dialogue, the articulation, the anger towards the end. The asking of why. I loved it. Both Hugo Weaving and Ian Bliss did an amazing job. Hugo, at least, should win a best villains award. I was literally creeped out when his army came after the Oracle.
Otherwise, this was a complete waste of time. If you liked Smith in the first, see this for just that. Skip all the other crap, because that's what it was. I left the theater feeling like I had wasted money, wasted money on the Matrix. When the first came out, I saw it several times just to try and understand it. Then, it becometh a ruin. One thing it was though, was better than Reloaded.
6 out of 10