When I first saw it I thought the first film was delightful: an unexpectedly jolly fan-boy/nerd romp with imaginative use of the latest technology and an intriguing concept (even if it sometimes felt a bit forced). And Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith was one of the best screen villains to emerge for a long time:
I tried not to let my irrational love of Keanu overly colour my critical faculties, but there's no escaping the fact that Neo/Thomas Anderson is a perfect character for Keanu's particular acting style. I found him sympathetic and utterly engaging.
Though there were so many characters that many of them were thrown away -- I loved this pair, enforcers for the Merovingian in Reloaded but who seemed to disappear (were they really destroyed in that explosion on the Freeway? Seems a bit of an easy way to dispose of them):
But, interestingly, my overwhelming perception this time having viewed the films as a trilogy was of the relative unimportance of both Carrie Anne Moss (whose unquestioning devotion to Neo makes her seem less of an individual) and Laurence Fishburne (who becomes a sort of unthinking lunk-head as the series progresses); and, instead, the total dominance, without even seeming to try, of Gloria Foster:
Foster's Oracle is -- perversely given that she's a machine program -- easily the most human and humane character in the whole shebang. Dominating every frame of each scene in which she features, the Oracle is a pervasive force throughout the three films. Which makes Foster's death at the end of filming the second movie all the more tragic.
Her replacement for the third movie, Mary Alice, was faced with an impossible task, and Gloria's absence may have contributed to the feeling of "going through the motions" that, for me, was the dominant theme of Revolutions.
In summary? Pretty much as before: the first film of the trilogy is joyfully exuberant and engaging, while the two sequels are earnest and lumpen.
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