Notable Science Fiction Gaffes Part 2

The Matrix Trilogy

The Hype: Oh my god! The Matrix was freakin awesome! Coolest movie ever! What? There are going to be two more movies? Oh my god! I can hardly wait!!!!

What Went Wrong? Yeah yeah, at this point piling on the Matrix is like kicking a dead horse, but such a colossal let down cannot go without mention. It started as an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach that only got worse as you watched The Matrix Reloaded, and by the time the movie was over you had a full-on migraine coupled with a shocked sense of betrayal that The Matrix Revolutions couldn't possibly have cured, no matter how many cool robot suits with machine guns it had. Sure, each movie had some good bits, but it was ultimately a goddamed convoluted overreaching letdown. It was somewhat well documented that Larry Wachowski, one half of the directing Wachowski brothers, started to pretty much lose his mind during production of the final two films. It is somewhat disconcerting to see 50 percent of the creative force behind a franchise you have a lot of hope invested in flitting about town dressed as a woman and fraternizing with a well-known Dominatrix. (Not that there is anything wrong with that) Admittedly, the brothers did a great job with V for Vendetta, so the stumble was hopefully only minor. It just happened to come at the worst possible time, screwing up a franchise that could have been among the elite. The Animatrix, on the other hand, was quite good. It serves as a tease of how great things could have been.