How could they finish the story with this Drivel?

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2003)

It is with great sadness that I have to return a verdict of Dire for the Matrix 3. For those who haven't seen it yet, I genuinely hate to be the harbinger of doom and gloom, but it truly is an unimaginably bad film. Everything that was cool about its predecessors (e.g. the slow-mo fighting, shades, overcoats etc) was left out of this installment. There is really only one proper slow-mo/shades/overcoat-style fighting scene in the whole film, and it isn't even that good or long. The final climactic fight scene is so over-the-top that I genuinely didn't particularly enjoy it. Most of the film is just flying around in spaceships, or fighting outside of the Matrix against the insect like 'Sentinels' ala something out of Starship Troopers (not that I have anything against that film, its underrated).
The story is awful. The way in which they paper over plot cracks and wrap things up is so poor that it will leave a sour taste in your mouth. Something that was fantastic about the first film was the elegance with which they explained 'The Matrix' to the audience. It was handled with real finesse, in a way that didn't leave us going 'this is utter nonsense'. One of the lowlights of the second film was undoubtedly 'the Architect' and his infamous soliloquy. It was all a bit convenient and lazy to have this one guy just gush a load of philosophical, metaphysical and technical nonsense in order to (essentially) divulge the entire plot. Instead of finding out things on a piece-meal basis, they just threw it all at us at once under a veneer of confusing jargon and hoped we wouldn't notice. We did. And we weren't impressed.
Well, if you didn't like that, you are going to HATE the third film. Its not that there is another 'single' speech to rival the Architects, but the whole film is laden down with vague assertions and inexplicable behaviors. For instance, Neo will often be observed to say something like 'I know what it is I have to do now'. We will not be enlightened as to how he came to his epiphany, and when he takes his (now apparently prescribed) course of action, you will be saying 'what the hell was all that about anyway?'.
Also, the script was laughable. The awful nature of the script's dialog was happily accepted in Matrix 1, and tolerated in Matrix 2 (the architect scene notwithstanding). But when the script has to be endured in this truly awful third installment, without the more enjoyable facets of the first two films to dilute and mollify its effect, it becomes almost unbearable. There are only two types of characters in the Matrix. Those who know nothing (type a), and those who know something, but inexplicably wont tell you (type b). Neo usually falls into the former category. As with most of the characters in the films, he is perpetually stoic, and 90% of the time will only say one of the three following things: 'Why?', 'But how?', 'I don't know'. Then there is the latter type (type b), the one who knows but wont tell. This category is championed by 'The Oracle', but, hugely annoyingly, would encompass virtually every character (including Neo at times) of the third installment. These Bastards answer every question with another question or riddle. So a conversation between any two characters in the Matrix will usually go as follows:
Type a character: 'What do I have to do?' Type b character: 'You will know when the time is right?'
Being such a fanstatical film, the Matrix was always going to have to paper over plot cracks and holes, and I think this was achieved with real gusto in the narrative of Matrix 1. But in part 3, its like trying to paper over the grand canyon with one measly roll of toilet paper. In my opinion, the Wackowski brothers wrote half a good story, but then got so out of their depths that they couldn't come up with a decent, satisfying, meaningful way to bring their story to conclusion. The tag-line of the film is 'Everything that has a beginning has an end'. The Irony is that I feel that the Matrix 3 is so bad, that the story almost 'doesn't' have an end, at least not a satisfying one. And now for my trademark over-the-top, controversial, climactic rant polemic: I feel that the Matrix 3 is so incredibly dismal, that I would even sacrifice part 2 (which I regard as a decent enough effort) for the Wackowski brothers to have just stopped after the first film. I genuinely think I would prefer if the story had ended after Matrix 1.
I thank you for your time.