Lets start by saying I'm a Matrix apologist. I love the first trilogy. The first movie is a 10/10, the sequels rate maybe 7. Not nearly as good, but peppered with moments of brilliance. They are elevated in my eyes, partly because they take place in a setting that I find to be quite intriguing.
So, I was extremely excited to be getting a new entry into the series! I liked Animatrix and would love to have new stories told in the Matrix universe. Learning that Neo and Trinity would be coming back worried me a little. And I think I was right to worry. It feels like a bit of a retread.
I actually enjoyed the first act. The meta questions about what is and isn't reality harken back to the themes of the first movie.
But after that, things go downhill pretty fast. They play loosy-goosy with lots of the in-fiction rules, making up all sorts of new stuff that barely hangs together.
Bots? Bleh.
How did they build a new city without the machines noticing?
No more Oracle but somehow the Merivingian survives?
The super speed of the Analyst doesn't make a lot of sense or why Smith can suddenly match him at the end out of NOWHERE to save Neo with Deus Ex Machina. Or why Smith is alive at all really -- he should definitely be destroyed.
Sigh.
Just really sloppy writing for the entire second half of the movie. And none of the gravitas or excellent dialogue from the earlier movies. The new Smith and new Morpheus don't hold a candle.
So, I was extremely excited to be getting a new entry into the series! I liked Animatrix and would love to have new stories told in the Matrix universe. Learning that Neo and Trinity would be coming back worried me a little. And I think I was right to worry. It feels like a bit of a retread.
I actually enjoyed the first act. The meta questions about what is and isn't reality harken back to the themes of the first movie.
But after that, things go downhill pretty fast. They play loosy-goosy with lots of the in-fiction rules, making up all sorts of new stuff that barely hangs together.
Bots? Bleh.
How did they build a new city without the machines noticing?
No more Oracle but somehow the Merivingian survives?
The super speed of the Analyst doesn't make a lot of sense or why Smith can suddenly match him at the end out of NOWHERE to save Neo with Deus Ex Machina. Or why Smith is alive at all really -- he should definitely be destroyed.
Sigh.
Just really sloppy writing for the entire second half of the movie. And none of the gravitas or excellent dialogue from the earlier movies. The new Smith and new Morpheus don't hold a candle.