10 Movies With Great Second Halves (But Awful Firsts)

4. The Matrix Reloaded

Though not nearly as divisive as its successor The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded was nevertheless a contentious sequel due to the simple fact it failed to live up to the consistent brilliance if its predecessor.

The first half of the movie is a mess of ideas which only occasionally work and often don't.

There's a surprising amount of chin-wagging about The Prophecy and the politics of Zion, not to ignore the introduction of around a dozen new characters, a preposterous Zion rave sequence complete with a perfunctory sex scene between Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and an eye-sore of a fight with dozens of Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving) which looked repulsive even in 2003.

The film picks up almost immediately at the half-way point, with the introduction of the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), the incredible chateau fight, the all-timer freeway chase, and the debut of the fan favourite character The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim).

Sure, Neo's climactic meeting with The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) is a tidal wave of expository guff any way you slice it, but dramatically, thematically, and action-wise, Reloaded's second-half delivers intrigue and thrills in spades.