10 Movies That Tragically Wasted Their Genius Premise

2. The Matrix Sequels

in time justin timberlake amanda seyfried
Warner Bros.

The Premise: A mystery, another world, a philosophical question, all packaged together with revolutionary action scenes, the first Maxtrix film was an incredible success, so naturally it had to have a sequel.

Two of them, in fact, with the idea of expanding upon the world created in the first film.

What Went Wrong: Making the sequels in the first place, for a start. The mythology in The Matrix is one of the great things about it, and the film itself is pretty self-contained, so it didn't really need more.

Obviously, though, the money came a-calling, and Reloaded and Revolutions were made. There are some good moments in the sequels, where you could maybe see that if there had been one follow-up then a solid movie could've been made.

Instead, though, there were two, which stretched out the story, showed us too much of the real world, brought lots of CGI with it, and lost a lot of interest once the mystery was explained.

Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.