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Heheheh... pretty good review. He does a tremendous job of hacking apart that ridiculous review by the other guy. What a pile that was.

I haven't seen Matrix 3 yet. What makes me not want to see it is that there is something I "figured out" in the 2nd movie that doesn't seem to be in the 3rd. Several things that happened in the 2nd could ONLY happen if Zion were itself another layer of the matrix - Neo could not "zap" machines nor could Smith upload himself into Zion. My understanding is that Matrix 3 does -not- make Zion an aspect of the Matrix. If that's the case, it makes the 2nd movie even worse than it already was. I would've preferred the logic of the trilogy to be predictable and reasonably logical than to have it be unpredictable but make absolutely no bloody sense.

Qwinn

This reviewer has the right attitude. His observations of the movie and especially of uberFANBOY Knowles was dead solid perfect. The entire Matrix series was at best a B-movie. Lots of action and special effects and producers just as strange as Ed Wood.

If you look at it as a B-movie, you don't mind the fact that Keanu Reeves can't act and that one of the major stars, Lawrence Fishburn, has gained over 40 lbs since the first movie, which is about six months in the Matrix timeline. You'll also enjoy seeing Hugo Weaving continue to ham it up as a whacked out agent with a serious identity crisis -- everyone just has to become Smith. His acting style, though overdone in Lord of the Rings, is just perfect for his character in the Matrix. All of the battle scenes, special effects, and tense moments make the movie an enteraining piece of eye candy.

Even though it is eye candy this movie made me think. It made me realize how shallow we are and how quick to forget what is really important. If you look at the first Matrix movie the things you looked to have resolved concerned the machines controlling the humans, using them to produce their energy, growing humans in fields and liquifying some to produce food for the others. At the end of Matrix 1, we want to know how all the little hints and threads in this movie are woven into a resolution, hopefully one that benefits the human race.

By the end of the Matrix 3 little has been resolved except that the machines are no longer attacking Zion. Are the machines still using humans for their own benefit? Yes, the humans are still batteries, the machines are still killing and liquifying humans to feed others and the real world outside of Zion is still uninhabitable for human life.

That few people seem to be bothered by this is what has caused me to start thinking. Have we become so desensitized by all the flashy CG that what has really happened goes over our heads? The machines won people, they still have everything they ever wanted except now the vacuous humans in Zion have "PEACE." Morpheus dreamed of the end to the war and now they have it. Their greatest wish has been fulfulled. Not justice for all humans -- just peace and there will be fewer people willing to fight for justice for all now that some have peace.

Just like the politics of those who are willing to give up everything they know is right because of their desire for peace. You will never have true peace without justice. The Machines know it will be a matter of time until the humans wise up, but they had this whole thing planned from the beginning. Everything they did including the careful creation and nurturing of the One and the One mythology was to counterbalance and control what they perceived as human behavior and tendencies. So that they could continue to use human beings for fuel while on the other hand making humans feel they had accomplished something.

The ending of the movie with the Oracle, and the little girl was very disturbing to me. The false sense of security from the Oracle the humans were given with this token acknowledgement of Neo by the little girl reminded me of something political. The patronizing condescending treatment of blacks by the Democratic party. The same way they have pulled the wool over the eyes of my people, the Oracle and the Architech have pulled the wool over the eyes of the people of Zion.

It seems the Wachowski brothers may have pulled the wool over the eyes of a few others too, but not so many as they would have liked.

I haven't seen any of the Matrix movies, but I love the way he sliced and diced Harry Knowles. Highlight:

Alas, he cannot write. He is a horrid stylist; he writes like someone mashing the keyboard with bratwursts; his politics have the sophistication of a preschool crayon drawing, and his self-confidence in his insights is matched only by his inability to see how fatuous his work often sounds. Mr. Knowles is often held up as an example of New Media, one of those outsiders who’ve wrested the mike from the old tired media. Usually I support that sort of thing, but if ever there was an argument for restricting the role of Critic to the white-gloved aesthetes, the Lucius Beebes, the Jay Shermans, the guys who, y’know, have done it, with a laidy, nudge nudge, it’s Harry Knowles.

Jusy saw it.

I won't even attempt to write a long meaningless bongwater-induced essay on the philosophical implications of the storyline. I REALLY enjoyed the first movie. The second was disappointing and I actually was drumming my fingers on the arm of my seat in the theater during some of the fight scenes because I was totally bored. Now, the third. Hmmmmmmmm............

I'll make one comment: The amalgamated face at the end of the movie, representing (I guess) the AI conciousness says, "It's finished". Isn't that Christ's line? Shouldn't Neo have said this since HE'S the Savior? I didn't like this misattribution of the words. It spoiled the ending for me.

All in all though, amazing special Fx during the fight for Zion.

Awaiting ROTK.