Salvation Army Chic

Rating: 5/10 (3 November 2012)

You've heard it said..."check your brain at the door"...this is one of those movies that is brainless while pretending to be brainy (like the original). It fails miserably and their was really no need. The intriguing concept was already there. The template (or the Matrix) was created and the mythology was predetermined, so why turn it into a mindless exercise in excessive, paralyzing playtime.
The battle scenes are OK the first ten times you view the invasion, but like the fisticuffs battle with Agent Smith at the end, just goes on for ever and ever draining all shock and awe from the events and leaves the viewer, in effect, feeling like they are watching someone else play a video game.
Taken as an action film on its own it might pass as an eye candy (although quite depressing) look at another reality, but the coolness it invented is all but gone and the cyberpunk style has turned into Salvation Army chic.
After all, it is a sad ending to a clever, groundbreaking beginning and we are left with borrowed mumbo jumbo philosophizing and a bleak, depressing, finale despite the pastel sunrise.