Does the Matrix series have only one good movie?

[Harvey]

The first movie is a fun, if at times overwrought action movie predicated on a silly sf premise. The second and third movies are about the same in my estimation; critics and audiences seemed to pan them partly because the first film was so successful. The sequels might be a bit more self-indulgent, but they're essentially in the same league as the first film: competently-made action pictures that aspire to more intelligent than they actually are.

 

[FPAlpha]

I am a die hard fan of the first movie.. i didn't know much about it at the time so i was spoiler-free and it blew my mind. Not the pseudo-philosophical garbage they incorporated to give it an illusion that it's a deep movie (it's really not) but the underlying imagery of man losing to machines in a distant war and those machines using people as an energy souce just rocked my world.

On top of that the absolute striking visuals, ideas (uploading knowledge and skills into a brain directly!) and the kick ass action scenes (bullet time was a revelation back then) made this one of the coolest movies i ever saw besides Star Wars and some other movies like Inception.

I bought some of the merchandise too (a first for me), i.e. Animatrix (some really cool single stories in there), the comic book with stories set in the world of Matrix (also cool), thought up some ideas for a roleplaying game set in the Matrix world and even bought some cheap knock off Neo-Style sunglasses which i still wear today.

The building hype though for the sequels were unbearable and i feared they wouldn't live up to them and i was right in a way.. they were not as bad as many make them out to be, merely decent action flicks with a high budget (akin to the Star Wars prequels) but they had none of the uniqueness of the first movie and i sincerely doubt the Ws had an overall story planned out for the entire thing or if they did they just sucked at implementation. The architect was just the worst example.. minutes of high sounding and confusing babble about the nature of the Matrix which just wouldn't stop was just too much.

So it is as it is.. a brilliant first movie followed by mediocre sequels.. par for the course in Hollywood.

 

[Set Harth]

Okay, I've noticed that these days that whenever the word Matrix is mentioned, there is constant mention of how the first movie is a classic while the sequels sucked.

You know, that reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on it.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I enjoyed the first movie because of the "pseudo philosophical garbage". I'm not sure why people call it that. What was presented was lifted largely from Taoist and Buddhist philosophies and the story itself has been around for thousands of years. It's an age-old tale dressed up as a scifi action movie.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

The first film was a classic in that it shows us things that had never been done in live action up to then. The story was original (for a feature film) with a definite anime influence. There was some campy dialogue, awkward exposition (people in danger taking time to explain to NEO what an EMP is), and a horribly tacked on love story.

The sequels, however, were terrible. The W's didn't even try. They must have figured that what the public loved about the first film was the special effects and action, so decided they could churn out films with very little story, but bigger effects and action and it would make millions. And, for the most part, they were right!

However, the films effectively killed whatever chances The Matrix has to be a franchise. If there ever is a fourth film, it will need to be incredibly impressive (or have Johnny Depp) to get the twice fooled public to pay attention.

 

[Set Harth]

"Your lies are old but you tell them pretty good." - Jon Voight, U-Turn

 

[the G-man]

First one is a whole lot of fun.
The second, it's ok.
The third, fucking stupid.

So, yes. Only one good movie.

I'm the G-man and I approve this message

 

[XFozzboute]

I just recently bought the blu-ray set. I only wanted the Animatrix. I watched the other movies again. Haven't seen them in years and hated all of them. This time around I kind of enjoyed the first movie. It really was something new and interesting. The problems I have with the next two movies are that they are just alot of the same thing over and over again.
Also the two follow up movies are structered like a tv show. I kept expecting comercial breaks or a voice over saying next time on The Matrix. Zion is boring as hell. None of those characters matter, you just don't care about them.
And the biggest problem of all is that damn stupid rave scene.

 

[Kemaiku]

First one is a whole lot of fun.
The second, it's ok.
The third, fucking stupid.

So, yes. Only one good movie.

I'm the G-man and I approve this message

It does sum it up rather well.

 

[Dream]

Do people here think Return of the Jedi was a way better movie than The Matrix Revolutions? Maybe if Revolutions had been better made, the whole franchise might have been remembered more fondly.

People will overlook a weak middle act as long as the beginning and ending acts are great.

The huge hype that the Matrix had just before Reloaded was released prettty much evaporated before Revolutions came out.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Zion is boring as hell. None of those characters matter, you just don't care about them.
And the biggest problem of all is that damn stupid rave scene.

I agree. Am I the only one who pictured the last human city underground being shiny silver towering skyscrapers and advanced tech under the Earth - not people in drab clothes living in caves acting bored out of their minds.

 

[Samurai8472]

By the 2nd viewing of "Reloaded" I was already falling asleep at the highway chase and the fights were lifeless.

The first movie is a nice movie in itself. The ending even leaves things open for you to imagine what happens next
.
.
.
And then the studios ask for the sequels.

 

[Gaith]

I agree. Am I the only one who pictured the last human city underground being shiny silver towering skyscrapers and advanced tech under the Earth - not people in drab clothes living in caves acting bored out of their minds.

I pictured Zion as being lush in a very Edenic, biblical sort of way, as its name implies. One great detail about the series is how the Matrix is almost entirely devoid of flora/greenery, symbolizing its inherent fakeness. I therefore thought Zion would be its inverse - filled with gardens, tasteful water sculptures, etc. It'd be a place we'd like to live in, despite being underground, a sort of subterranean Shire.

But, to return to my point from before, the only time we really see any kind of plant life in the trilogy is in the final scene, taking place inside the frickin' Matrix. And it simply can't be a coincidence that at the same time, the W brothers were scheming to make people voluntarily plug into an artificial digital world (exactly the sort of thing the heroes spent the whole first movie fighting) with their MMORPG.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I pictured Zion as being lush in a very Edenic, biblical sort of way, as its name implies.

As did I.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Yeah, me too:

Zion: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zion

1 a the Jewish people
2 Heaven
3 Utopia

While I thought both sequels had thrilling action scenes there was just too much nonsensical and really hard to understand and supposedly deep philosophical stuff. It just weighed the movies down for me. It was too distracting.Plus the final movie had too much stuff about characters I didn't give a damn about.

 

[Starkers]

The first one is clearly the best, thought frankly I still can't tell you whether I like it or not. Saw it at the cinema and was a trifle unimpressed, but then saw it again on TV and remember liking it a lot more, but the last time I tried to watch it I found it really terrible, so go figure.

The second one is terrible though, just a big computer game with a pointless rave and cod philosophical BS thrown in. The third is more of the same yet I like it better, partly for the battle for Zion, but also because it's so unintentionally funny in places, in particular the bit where Neo doesn't realise Smith has downloaded into one of the humans, despite him calling him Mr Anderson, something only Agent Smith does! Plus of course Keannu 'thinking' his way out of the subway station, and Trinity's never ending death scene.

On the whole though there's something about the feel of the films that disturbs me. I don't hold with cinema being to blame for violence in society, don't hold with censorship for censorship's sake, but there's something very unsettling about the Matrix. It's supposed to be about freedom and individuality and not being a drone, yet what do they all do when they jack into the Matrix? They all dress pretty much the same and all affect the same emotionless demeanour, dehumanising themselves, and obviously dehumanising the people they kill because, well they're not really killing them are they, they aren't real.

Probably the one character I could empathise most with in the films is Joe Pantoliano's in the original, he's the only one who isn't a blank faced Terminator.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I have seen the second and third movies only once, but that was an eternity in hell I'll never get back. To me there is only one feature film, though there were a few films in the Animatrix I also really liked.

I always found it kinda fishy that after the huge financial success of The Matrix, it was suddenly announced that it was (and always 'had been') the first part of a trilogy.

Funny that

 

[Deckerd]

Yes: The Matrix

 

[FPAlpha]

Zion is boring as hell. None of those characters matter, you just don't care about them.
And the biggest problem of all is that damn stupid rave scene.

I agree. Am I the only one who pictured the last human city underground being shiny silver towering skyscrapers and advanced tech under the Earth - not people in drab clothes living in caves acting bored out of their minds.

Actually i didn't and it was exactly how i pictured it based on the run down look of the ship's crew.. they weren't walking around in Star Trek attire but old, torn clothes that were not well produced to begin with (the only exception in stark contrast was the harbor control room but i guess they operated in their own Matrix similar to the training Matrix in their ships).

I think it fit well with the theme of the movie of humans fighting against an overwhelming enemy who has taken everything from them.. you just don't have the ressources to build Utopia when you are fighting for your very survival.

 

[Kemaiku]

^The dock controllers are in their own little Construct, plugged in within the Zion maneframe in the city, which was another ironic moment. A mini-matrix within Zion itself.

But yeah Zion was disappointing, I knew it was going to be deep in the Earth and built from whatever humanity could salvage from the war, but I did expect green areas too. I thought more along the lines of hydroponics or arboritums, huge gardens growing wild for a century under artificial light lamps mimicing the sun for them.

That and more pure-borns, the number of pod born seems to greatly outweigh pure making the 250,000 population iffy, sooo many damn pluggies everywhere.