another nail in the franchise's coffin

Rating: 4/10 (10 March 2005)

OK, so the matrix was great - there's no doubt about it. The look of the whole film was cutting edge, it presented action scenes the like of which had never been seen before, and the plot - if not as "deep" as some might suggest, was at least coherent, and held the attention for the whole film.
The Matrix reloaded ranks as one of the biggest disappointments in my movie-going life. Not only was it completely unnecessary, it was boring beyond belief and even the (admittedly spectacular) freeway scene couldn't relieve the embarrassment of the "rave" scene and superfluous religious imagery.
The Matrix revolutions may or may not be worse than "reloaded" - it's hard to tell since my expectations were so much lower. What is for certain though, is that it is a bad film. It still takes itself way too seriously, still alternates incongruously between tedious pseudo-philosophising and implausible action sequences that go on so long they themselves become tedious.
And it's so stoopid! - OK so here's the possible spoiler - at the end when Neo makes a deal with the machines, WHY would the machines keep their part of the bargain? They're machines! If they were programmed in the first place with some sense of honour, why weren't they programmed not to want to take over the world?
If you've seen the matrix but not it's sequels - don't! If you have seen the sequels, just try not to associate them with the original - no point in tainting the memory of an outstanding film..