I usuaIly stick to business and technical posts, but I felt I had to post a contrary view to the overwhelmingly negative reviews for Matrix Revolutions:

Tom Duff "marginally better than Reloaded..., but it wasn't anything to write home about"
Ned Batchelder "too pat a resolution for the clever story begun in the original Matrix"
Colin Williams "Bored me to tears actually - one can only hope they don't make another "
Carl Tyler "I went, I saw, I got very very bored"
Colin Pretorius "Pffff. I left disappointed. Great special effects (as expected), but the plot didn't live up to expectations."
Karl "No Spoon? Christ, There's no Kitchen!" (actually said about Matrix Reloaded, but such a great quote)

and those were just the bloggers.  The reviews in the papers and on-line were downright brutal.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer gave it a D rating.  

Anticipation
So, when my 13 year old son asked me to take him and three buddies, I had low expectations, to put it mildly.  I was never a huge Matrix fan, and going with him to Matrix Reloaded was a grueling experience at best, but if my 13 year old still wants me to take him to the movies (even if just to get in the door and with the promise of sitting on the opposite side of the theater, which I did), I'm there.  Gritting my teeth all the way, or so I expected.

The Experience
Well, I was very surprised.  Not only was I not gritting my teeth, I was downright entranced.  I really, really liked the movie.  In fact, it even made me want to go back and watch Matrix Reloaded again.  I have no idea what all the griping is about.  The special effects were cool, sure, but not dominant and pointless the way they were in Matrix Reloaded.  The new characters were interesting, the plot twists tied up some of the story, and the end was appealing and intriguing.  Perhaps best of all, the humans were actually human, the love story between Trinity and Neo was actually believable (unlike Reloaded), and the story went somewhere.  I would even voluntarily go see the movie again.

So why was my experience so different?  I don't honestly know.  I wasn't even dosed up on the codeine cough syrup I have had to take for my horrible cough.  I simply thought it was a great movie, and that it redeemed a lot of the promise of the original.  Heck, it even made me like the original more.  Go figure.

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