"You no know, no?", or: Reaching beyond its grasp...

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2003)

The real shame about the second and third films is that they've killed the mystery and thus most of the joy of the first. Whilst the Wachowski directors are very good at posing and presenting interesting thought-provoking and downright *philosophical* questions, such as they do in abundance in the first film, they prove unsurprisingly bad at answering them, meaning that the dialogue sadly dissolves into a sequence of dispiriting dead-end shuttle exchanges along the lines of:
Character 1: Why am I here? (impassive stare)
Character 2: Only you know the answer...
Character 1: How can I know the answer when I cannot know how to answer no to what I do not know? No?
Character 2: It is your choice to know or not to know. There is no no-no. (even more impassive stare)
Character 1: What is choice?
Character 3: (clearly agitated, interrupting) Look guys, this is giving me a migraine. How 'bout some kung-fu!!
All: Great idea! *CARNAGE*
=> The nice thing about movies that pitch themselves in the way the Matrix trilogy does is that there are always going to be holes which the fans can go home and fill and explain with their imagination. This, however, cannot negate the fact that Matrix 2 and 3 have clearly overstretched themselves, and their directors' brains. (you can just see the Wachowskis desperately trying to tie all the ends together over a pack of nachos and a Bud: "No, dude, Neo can't say no to not knowing about there being no knowing, no? Whoa, sling me another beer and let's just send this thing off to Warner. Sack it..") That, incidentally, is no criticism: if you're looking to the Matrix films for an answer to life, the universe and everything, I'd recommend that you simply take the answer as given by Douglas Adams in the Hitchiker's Guide: 42. It's so much less strain, and it also releases those poor Wachowski brothers from being unfairly labelled visionaries. They're not - give 'em a break!
Personally, I'm happy to applaud the first film as a revolutionary piece of cinema which actually got people thinking about a blockbuster, and to shelve the other two on the DVD rack with The Mummy Returns and Independence Day with a sympathetic smile and a nod: "nice try, pal, you did good. Too bad you were caught out." which is incidentally by no means, in my opinion, to do them a disservice. Loved all the CGI. Great.
:-)
10/10