Matrix?

The Matrix is an example of a movie that was too successful. The first matrix was a self contained story. The only reason they made the sequels was because the first one made so much money. The reason the plot went directions you didn't expect is because they decided to change the plot entirely.

Sequels born from commerical success of the first movie are almost never a good idea. And there was only one batman with George Clooney. Yes it sucked, but Batman returns didn't suck that bad and it was a sequel, so I had to not vote for that. The same thing goes for Star Wars. If Empire Strikes Back had been excluded, I could maybe have voted for that. Ah well.

Yeah, I really liked the Matrix sequels too. I did think the pacing was off in Revolutions though- it seemed to peak in intensity early on with the battle for Zion, and didn't match that peak at the end.

I kind of liked all the Matrix movies, but they all required a HUGE dose of suspended disbelief for me. I am a horrible person to watch sci-fi with. I know big parts of it take place in a fantasy world inside a simulation and that explains a great deal, but even the "real world" had a huge amount of flaws that made me grit my teeth.

o Why do you die if your avatar dies in the Matrix? Does your whole consciousness leave your brain and go into the Matrix computer, or is it connected like your computer is now connected to the internet? Ok, so the shock of getting killed in the Matrix allegedly kills the real you. Yeah, right. I can jump over buildings and learn Kung-fu in 3 seconds, but I can't convince myself that I am bullet proof? All you need to believe that in the real world is to become a Marine. They all think they are bullet proof, and would make excellent Neo's.

o In Revolutions, they had those walking robot gun platform things, that could pump out the rounds at a ridiculous rate, but they couldn't put any front armor on the damned things?

o The machines raise humans to harvest electricity from the bodies? Why not use whatever you are feeding the humans to make electricity? To make the worlds most inefficient and unreliable (like a tendency to rebel) generator? Heck, for that matter, why not use balloons to raise solar panels above the cloud layer? If Neo could ballistically fly over the clouds, why couldn't the darned machines?

o If the Agent dude can dodge bullets, why not dream yourself up a nice laser cannon and vaporize his ass. Try dodging photons, pinhead!

I could go on, but I'm sure a lot of people would prefer if I didn't.

Well, Matrix II & III were bad because it just became too far fetched.

The Matrix (I) was good because it was meant to be a good, underdog movie whose real appeal were the 3D shots. People liked it because it represented more or less a world into which nerds (like us?) like to believe.

But thats it. originally, Reloaded & Revolution weren't planned. The brothers only started thinking about it when they saw everyone wanted to see the movie once on DVD/Tape.

actually... the same can be told for several bad sequels, including superman and batman. The real work was put on the first movie, after that, they only stretched the same theme, relying on the popularity of the original to make money. Just gotta make a lot of big boom bang & flashes to keep your public going "whoa" and that's all.

There have been a few exceptions, a few movies that were sequels and ended up being in fact better than the original but I got a blank and cannot remember which (o.O)