I’ve never been any sort of partisan of the ??The Matrix?? and its follow-ons.
Honestly, I didn’t even see it until it had been out on DVD for at least a couple of months, and although I thought it was a fine adventure flick, I certainly didn’t think it was quite deserving of the rabid following it developed–just about anything ??The Matrix?? seems to get cited for, I think Philip K. Dick did better.
Still, when ??Matrix Reloaded?? came out, I did actually go see it at a matinee, and while I thought it got mired down in exposition that sounded like it was right out of 50s pulps, it had some visuals that were interesting and wasn’t really, well, _bad_, so I didn’t feel cheated or anything. Maybe that would have been different if I hadn’t gone to a matinee.
However, ??Matrix Revolutions??, really leaves me cold. It’s not a horrible sequel, per se–it’s hard to have a truly horrible sequel without Ewoks, or obvious Ewok stand-ins–but it succeeded in being boring even when there was action going on. Quantity of shell casings do not translate to interest, no matter how much you want it to. Chase scenes with zillions of sentinels, no matter how important the outcome is to the future of the human race, have already been done. Neo and Trinity’s tender moment: vomit.
Glad I went to the cheap show.