quote:
Originally posted by Pig Iron:
But did they tell you...what was the point of the merovingian? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy too many lost plot points or unused/unresolved ones...
Seraph, The Merovingian, Persephone, The Trainman... All potentially cool characters and subplots that never had a resolution. You're right, Pig Iron. What was the fuckin' point of having all these characters running around, if they weren't doing anything? This is especially true in the Trainman's case. Who the fuck was he? He was an Exile who helped smuggle programs from the Source into the Matrix. This I understood. But how did Neo get to the Trainman's realm (Mobile Ave)? And all that power (he punched Neo into a wall)... for what? They chase him, he runs, he shows back up at the Merovingian's club. And then he takes Trinity to Neo. So? That could've been anyone. Why make a big deal out of a character (who's nothing more than a plot device to further the story), and then throw him away?

And who is the Merovingian, too? A really, really powerful dude. I get that. But beyond that, he never exuded a real threat. In Reloaded, Neo dispatched his henchmen with relative ease. And when it came down to just the two of them, Merv ran away ("I have survived your predecesors... and I will survive you!"). What the fuck is Merv so afraid of if he's almost as knowledgeable and powerful as the Oracle?

The whole Hell Club scene was a total disappointment. I was expecting something akin to the lobby shootout from the first movie: ten minutes of slow-mo bullet-time fire-fighting, with our heroes acrobatically dodging lead, leaping, jumping, cartwheeling, etc. Oooooh, so the bad guys could walk on ceilings. This had the potential of being REALLY FUCKING COOL, but came out TOTALLY LAME. Rushed, rushed, rushed.

The ONLY part I liked in the Club Hell scene was the Reservoir Dogs-esque everybody-pointing-their-guns-at-everyone-else standoff, and Trinity's subsequent, "Oh, I'm through with this bullshit". Three people disarming over a dozen badguys was pretty cool.

The Zion Battle was visually stunning. But almost TOO stunning. So much shit was going on in front of me that I didn't know what to focus on. I understood the basic gist of things: the APU's were shooting the Sentinels. But everything was happening so fast, the explosions were so numerous, the action so intense, that I didn't know what the fuck I was watching. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, in this case. And why the hell did the Sentinels form a line? Why didn't they just disperse as soon as they breached the docks and come at the APU's from all directions? Instead they stayed in a swarm, an easy target for the humans to aim at. In any case, there was a lot of fun stuff to watch, but in the end, it was sensory overload. It had no emotional resonance.

Neo going blind? WTF?! Utter bullshit!! What was this supposed to represent? That Neo shouldn't rely on his senses to guide him? There was NO NEED for Neo to go blind. Did he HAVE to go blind in order to reach 01, the Machine City? Someone please explain this to me, please.

Trinity dying. Dude. This had no emotional impact whatsoever. She already died once! Of course, Neo brought her back. But dying AGAIN in this one? We've seen it once before... it just lowered the intended emotional impact, for me.

Neo sacrificing himself to save humanity. I didn't necessarily like this, either, but I understood the purpose. Neo was always intended to be a Jesus/savior metaphor, and his sacrificial offering of himself made sense in that aspect. But... dude. I don't know. I'm on the fence with this one. On one hand, I kind of understand it and accept it... But on the other hand, I wanted our hero to see everything through to the very end.

Smith. Smith... I don't know. He was fucking menacing as hell in the first one. A true threat to our heroes. In the second one, the Agents lost all their scariness. First Morpheus kicks an Agent's ass, and then Trinity goes head to head with one. What ever happened to the "You see an Agent, you run" concept? If these guys are so bad-ass, then how come everyone and their mother's standing up to them? I understand the reason why Morpheus went up against Smith in the first one (to help Neo escape), but he got his fucking ass kicked. This went out the door in the second film, and wasn't even addressed in the third. Smith's virus-like infection of the Matrix made sense, but... again... this whole idea just left a bad taste in my mouth.

The final duke-out between Neo and Smith was visually awesome. This was probably the only part I really liked. This is EXACTLY what a Superman movie should look like. Aerial kung-fu, Dragonball Z-style... I don't care what anyone else says, this was fucking cool. A few scenes looked a little hokey, but all in all, you could just FEEL the intensity of their punches as they lay waste to an entire city block. I did NOT, however, like the resolution in the giant crater. Neo wins by simply giving up? He could've ended the whole fiasco by letting Smith overwrite him during the Burley Brawl, from the second film. Oh, well. I guess that would've been too easy.

All in all, I was diasppointed. Yes, the movie was visually cool, and I enjoyed watching it. It dazzled my senses (being stoned really helped out a lot, too)... but in the end... I felt let down. I didn't get the answers or the ending I wanted.

Oh, and one thing that kinda bothered me... If a hovercraft could go high enough to pass out of the scorched layer of atmosphere and see the sun and blue skies... why didn't the machines just build solar batteries on top of giant towers that poked out above the layer of blackened sky?

Sigh. They pulled a fucking Lucas on us. How come everything has to suck as time passes? I would've waited five years for a Matrix sequel, if it had been good. Reloaded and Revolutions just seemed TOO FUCKING RUSHED. Like they had to get it out NOW NOW NOW to keep the fans interested. Fuck, dude... I read somewhere that they could've cut out all the unnecessary bullshit from the two sequels and made it ONE movie. But trilogies are popular these days. Directors/producers aren't interested in telling stories... All they're interested in is creating franchises.

So much potential, all for nothing.

Non