Not that stealing thunder from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is that much of an achievement, but that is exactly what The Matrix did in the summer of 1999. The Wachowskis took their love of Japanese anime and all things cyber-punk and turned it into something that western audiences had never seen on such a scale; a sci-fi action epic that combined ground-breaking special effects with bullet ballet and traditional martial arts. In the sequel, the action scenes went from mind-bending to straight up ridiculous and the longer Reloaded goes on the stronger your urge to pull the plug. The Wachowskis would have been better served going backwards down the timeline and showing us how the resistance began a young Morpheus being freed from the Matrix, becoming captain of the Nebuchadnezzar and beginning his search for The One. This would have eliminated the need to bring chief antagonist Agent Smith back from the dead after being obliterated by Neo, and given the Wachowskis the chance to explore arguably the franchise's most iconic character in depth. Morpheus is known to have been romantically involved with fellow hovercraft captain Niobe in the past, who could have helped a young Morpheus spearhead the rise against the machines. A Morpheus-led prequel would have served up another dose of the Matrix while addressing how the hell they realised it existed to begin with. With any follow-ups, focus ought to have been on the underlying story, not on special effects as was the case with The Matrix Reloaded. Instead of pushing the boundaries they set with the first film, the Wachowskis just made a sequel that was slightly harder to comprehend and hoped that everybody would be too busy concentrating to realise it sucked.
