I still don't get it...

Okay, back to Matrix: Revolutions...
If you look at any good movie and its sequels, each movie, though part of a greater story, can stand on its own. You might be a little lost on some character development, but you can still enjoy the movie. If give you, for instance, the following:

- The Indiana Jones movies
- Star Wars 4,5,6 (the jury is still out on 1 & 2)
- The Rocky movies (I never saw the original and was still able to enjoy, or at least follow, the others I did see)
- Father of The Bride 1 & 2 (or Father's Little Dividend for the purists)
- The Lethal Weapon movies

There are, I am sure, other examples, but that's over a dozen movies that are connected but can be seen individually.

Not so with Reloaded and Revolutions. The Matrix stands well on its own - it had to or we'd never have seen the other two. It has a definite beginning, nice plot twists and interest in the middle and a definite end. Yes, it was left open for a sequel but had the sequels never materialized, I felt satisfied with the resolution.

Reloaded was a joke. I mean, he walked through a door. That was it. That was what the first hour and a half was building up to. HE WALKED THROUGH A DOOR!!! How f-ing lame can you possibly be??!! I tell my friends, "It was a great middle of a movie." You know, the middle of the movie. The part where you yawn a bit and go get more popcorn. The part that you must suffer through for sake of the plot.

Revolutions at least had a good chase scene but it was ultra-dependent on Reloaded. It picks up right where the other one left off. It's like walking in on the middle of a conversation or at the punchline of a joke. You're lost without the other part of it.

Here's what I would have done differently...
First, 86 the rave scenen from Reloaded. The speech beforehand works but the rave was just a vehicle to watch data-port-laden Trinity and Neo bump uglies to a beat. It wasn't at all arousing (I couldn't even tell who was who) and there are other ways to show that they love each other. I mean, if you're going to do something like that in an R-rated movie at least show some flesh.

Show the failed pre-eminent strike. This would let you see not only the betrayal brought about by Agent Smith - making a better case for his destruction at the end of Revolutions - but also the scale of the sentinel attack. I mean, they built up to it by showing the advance but then blew it off like "oh, yeah, we lost every stinking hovership we have." To paraphrase a line from Crimson Tide, you don't put on a condom unless you're going to screw.

Either condense the last two movies into one, or spend more time during Reloaded making the audience care about the residents of Zion.

Take out one of the "Superman" shots from Reloaded. We don't need two - or were there three?

I already said the Agent Smith fights were tired. The multi-Smith fight in Reloaded could have been much shorter and had the same impact of, "Holy $(&^ there's a bunch of them!" and establishing the spectators for the fight in Revolutions.

End Reloaded with a fight. At least end it with and "I'm still here and I'm still after you" moment. Maybe have Neo kill the old dude's bodyguard before he walks out the door.

The focal shift from Matrix to real world for Revolutions was a good move... but why give Neo super powers outside the Matrix? You can do the whole second-sight thing without the, "Look, I can kill sentinels with the wave of my hand," thing.

The train man? Did we even need to see him? And since when did programs - other than viruses - have children?

Why the hell did Neo go off to think in Revolutions? Just let him wake up and say, "I know what I have to do."

Is Neo dead? Is he being re-introduced into the Matrix or ground up for nourishment?

I don't get it.