Since it was the point of this thread, here is my review.. and don't go reading if you haven't see the movie.. Consider yourselves warned...
I must admit, the first movie simply caught me by surprise.. I actually like Keanu Reeves (another Canadian actor BTW) and I went when a friend of mine told me it was really good.
I wasn't expecting the Matrix to be what it was, that caught me off-guard and the rest of the movie was like eye-candy for me.
So alright, I loved it, I own the DVD, and I enjoy it altough I don't specifially like all the action sequences, IMHO, you can cut them and the movie would be good, it's the story that is interesting, all the CGI/Fight Scenes just make the movie longer.
After seeing the first movie, I read several comments that made me realize that this was indeed a movie based in the story of Jesus, so nothing was really invented, isn't it? ;) or any other prophet I guess...
So, here I go, 4 years later, wait until things calm down and go see it on a full price night to have peace and quiet (it worked, there were only a few people in the room) and expected to be disappointed because I had too much expectations, then.. well.. I wasn't really.
The only dissapointment is the same I had at the end of the first Lord of the Rings movie.. "Wait!!! That's the ending? I'll have to wait to see what's next?".. it's not a movie in itself, you NEED to see the 3rd one to complete it, and this is probably why there is no real "oh my god, I wasn't expecting that" because that will be in the 3rd movie.
Just think, I've read a few comments of people, and you have all clues to have a real surprise in the 3rd movie.. first, Neo is able to stop the machines in the real world.. so is that world real? How come an Agent become a human being in the "real world", etc.. so if those questions aren't answered in the 3rd movie, I will be very pissed!
I've read another comment that someone notice that the architect doesn't answer yes or not when Neo assumes the "mother of the matrix" is the Oracle.. he now assumes it's Monica Belluci's caracter, hence why she wanted to feel Neo's love for Trinity before making him choose at the end between his love or the other way.. (well, last part was my intepretation, because they guy told she wanted to check her own work).. that is possible, but who knows.. and Lambert Wilson's caracter is not enough present to explain how come he saw the "predecessors", and everything.
So actually, I'm not sure of what I saw, and I plan to go back to see it again when it will be shown in IMAX theatres (it should be within the next 2 weeks!) so maybe I'll catch more clues, altough I hate to guess what is happening in movies, I prefer to be surprised!
So basically, it was nice, but I don't think the action scenes were part of the reason why I enjoy the Matrix.. I was really bored half through the Neo fight with a lot of agent smith, because it was too long, and come on, even if done really well, the highway scene is much too long as you already know what will happen anyways... especially when you know that the only person able to fight an agent is Neo (as told in the first movie)...
Well, there are a lot of questions to be answered in the 3rd movie, and I seriously expect to have a major surprise on what is or isn't real, let's hope it will be better that what I expect it to be...
