Praise be!

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2004)

As I begin to write this, I notice that 4'277 IMDB users have rated this film 10/10. I fail to imagine why and blame the use of hallucinagenic drugs. This film is terrible. I say 'Praise be!' in the summary because it is over.
This film shows how terrible a trilogy can go. Granted it should not take all the blame, Reloaded was also dire. Two crimes against cinema, especially considering that 'The Matrix' was one of the best more imaginative films of recent years. Why was this? - Interesting premise - Characters we cared about - Fantastic plot twists - Visually stunning techniques that had not been seen before Had the sequels delivered these then the series would have worked. But no. Interesting premise? Somewhat, but made too complicated with needlessly added philosophy. A better premise would've been the hunt for Zion rather than trying to defend it against poorly animated machines. Characters we care about? No. Morpheous became a parody of his former self. Neo and Trinity became irritating, due to bad acting. Several other minor characters came into the fold with no plot development or decent storylines. Why everyone keeps going on about Monica Bellucia I don't know, she was only in it for 5 minutes. Plot twists? Meet an incredibly linear storyline. Stupidly, the chance for such a twist (a matrix with in a matrix - dodgy but doable, and redeemable) was passed over with nary a mention. Visually stunning techniques? No. A brief kung fu scene in reloaded that was inferior in every way to the original, and then several fights made with incredibly bad CGI, made worse by the release of Kill Bill and the House of Blue Leaves. What do we have? In fairness, there were some good set pieces. The mech scene was interesting and kept my interest for a bit, but it went on for far too long. The final fight scene between Neo and Smith wasn't bad in visual terms. Not great but not bad. However, it went on far too long as well. They fly apart, they crash together. They fly apart, they crash together. The visuals get wasted, the scene is boring, my bum hurt and I was waiting to get out of the cinema.
A wasted premise. 2.5/10