Elizabeth and I were still talking about the movie this morning, so I guess that's a good sign.

The usual disclaimer -- if you haven't seen the movie, don't bother reading the rest of this entry, as it'll probably spoil the fun of seeing it the first time. And if the damn trailers didn't already steal some of the fun of the effects, this entry will steal the rest of it.

Overall, I liked it. They did the right thing and didn't just copy the first with some small tweaks. I really loved the idea of Agent Smith as a rogue element (one reviewer called him a "free-range agent" which I liked!), and Hugo Weaving REALLY hams it up in a good way. I didn't really see the POINT of him popping up so much, at inopportune times, but like so much of the movie, I'm hoping that it is resolved in the next and final flick.

That's probably my biggest beef with the movie -- pacing. Because it's half of what I'm assuming is basically a 5-hour movie, I felt pretty blah about the ending. Yeah, it's a cliffhanger, and I was expecting that, but... The whole pacing of the movie felt off, from the opening scene with Trinity that was "just a dream" (and quite unexciting, for the most part, I think because they'd spoiled it by showing so much of the cool bits in the trailers) to the first fight of Neo vs. the three agents.

And then...

And then, once they make it to Zion...

And then, once they make it to Zion, I felt a bit ill. I was looking for Jar Jar Binks, it felt so much like the horrible Star Wars prequels. There was no sense of wonder, it was just like, yeah, we're here, we're just part of the Rebel Alliance, let's... let have a big-ass, boring, talking-about-nothing COUNCIL MEETING! Yeah, that gets me all pumped up.

Man. Show don't tell, folks. Especially by the END of the movie, when you've got all sorts of plotlines up in the air, from the mysterious (and loquacious) Architect to the goatee guy (more on him in a second) to the attacking machines and Neo's new powers, I really don't see why the filmmakers felt the need to beat us over the head with what was going on. I mean, no one really explained the ending to us, did they? Why rehash all this stuff with so much dialog? I mean, really, a council meeting? Ever been to a city council meeting in real life? That is some major boring shit.

But after that first act is over, the movie starts to really click. The action scenes are great, and while not a lot gets resolved with the cool fight with Neo vs. the many, many Agent Smiths, it's fun.

And I liked the way the middle section felt like a Quest, as they go from the Oracle to the French dude and the fight with his henchmen, and then on to the Key Master and finally to the Architect. Like too many action flicks, though, the last act is just muddled and rushed, and the movie kept feeling like it was trying to rev up to big climactic ending, and then kept going.

I liked Neo's Superman powers, and especially dug it when he was pulling along cars and trucks and small buildings behind him in his wake, but he was noticeably absent from the major action scenes toward the end. Morpheus fighting the agent on the back of the tractor trailer was quite nifty, though. And the final scene, outside of the Matrix, with Neo's newfound skills, gives me hope for a very cool final sequel.

As a writer, along with the massive infodumps done via dialogue and the rushed plotting, the other thing that bugged me was the lack of foreshadowing about Goatee Guy. He was only in two really fast scenes early on, and this is the person the whole cliffhanger rests upon? Um, sorry, guys, you can do better than that. His character, along with the little sycophantic fella who looked like Mouse from the first flick (who carries their luggage for them and gives the audience some info about what's happening), was just inserted into the story, quite awkwardly.

Unless I missed something there with the goatee guy? To me he just came outta nowhere. Very frustrating.

Other than all that, I quite liked it. :)