It was on Thursday that I finally went to see the new Matrix kinematograph. Given that I thought the first one was merely adequate, and the second a shudderingly incoherent mistake, I’m not sure quite what possessed me to see it. Perhaps I was assuming that my expectations were no so low that it couldn’t fail to exceed them.
But it did. They even managed to make the dialogue worse, and I don’t believe a single character trait was exhibited by any member of the cast, with the possible exception of The Guy Who Says Goddamn A Lot. I could sympathise with his frustration with the rest of humanity as he knew it, and the whole thing veered dangerously close to The English Patient: the only movie from which my attention has ever been completely diverted by the blinking LED on the smoke alarm on the ceiling of the cinema for longer than a full hour of screen time.
However, the second half of The Matrix Resignations improved somewhat. Perhaps my expectations had finally been sufficiently diminished to accept anything, but I found the conclusion reasonably satisfying. They didn’t bother to wrap up any of the plot holes, but they managed to avoid having Neo just magic everything away with his unlimited magic. Or wake up and it was all a dream or was it. Despite expectations, I managed to leave the cinema without feeling like I had wasted my money.