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After such a strong first film, what went wrong with the sequels to The Matrix? Released in 1999, The Matrix seized upon the cultural zeitgeist of the new millennium to tell a story of digital realities, existential uncertainty and bending over awkwardly in order to avoid getting shot. Directed by the Wachowskis and starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Laurence Fishburne, The Matrix redefined what action films could be in the modern era, both in terms of highly influential visuals ("bullet time"), and as a story that married together themes of science, philosophy and technology in hail of bullets and cool costumes.

After The Matrix proved to be such a unanimous hit, it was no surprise when two back-to-back sequels were announced in the form of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but while Neo and the gang retained their box office pulling-power, the widespread acclaim that defined the first movie eluded its follow-ups. Critical opinion on the Matrix sequels has fluctuated over time and neither are completely devoid of positives. Action sequences are consistently awe-inspiring, Keanu Reeves' Neo becomes more and more iconic with each installment and the thematic concept of the Matrix world continues to unlock fun connections between the real and digital realms.

Nevertheless, both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions are widely considered inferior to the original and, if given the choice, many would probably have preferred the 1999 effort to remain standalone in hindsight. With filming on The Matrix 4 now officially underway, fans will be hoping the new film banishes the lingering stench of the older sequels, but why, exactly, were the second and third Matrix movies so underwhelming?

The Matrix Went Bigger, But Not Better

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Any big blockbuster sequel looks to expand on what came before, but turning everything up to 11 doesn't always result in a better film, and so it proved with The Matrix. For all its theoretical musings and intellectual science fiction, The Matrix offered a very streamlined story, following one man as he awakened to true reality and realized his role in the fate of mankind. Ostensibly, 1999's The Matrix is Neo's personal story, but the sequels rapidly became as much about Zion and the world at large as they were about Keanu Reeves' leather-clad hero. This caused the Matrix sequels (and Reloaded in particular) to gain some narrative baggage. Where the first film zipped, the follow-ups dragged, where the story was once laser-focused, the sequels felt scattered, and where Neo was originally the centerpiece of the series, he later became a player in a far bigger tragedy.

As well as snatching away the lean plot that made the original Matrix's red pill so much easier for audiences to swallow, the sequels also get lost down the franchise's own rabbit hole. So many characters in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions exist solely as plot devices, with threadbare motivations and personalities to call their own. There's an irony (one that's fun to imagine was intentional) in that many of these characters are nameless programs created by the Matrix to serve a sole function, just as they serve a nameless function to the Wachowskis' script. Unfortunately, the comparison is all too apt - the Architect, the Oracle, the Keymaker and the Merovingian all act as mysterious entities defined not by characterization, but by how far they advance the plot or how long they serve as a MacGuffin, exposing the shallow story the Matrix sequels were telling.

Reloaded & Revolutions Should've Been One Film

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Crafting a film franchise can be a tricky beast in the sense that both the overarching series and each individual film need to work as cohesive stories, and failing in one aspect or the other has been the downfall of many a movie sequel. In the case of The Matrix, both Reloaded and Revolutions could've boiled down into one much stronger film, instead of thinly spreading a limited dollop of story over the span of two releases. The Matrix Reloaded in particular offers very little in terms of overall plot development, and the most vital parts could've replaced the weakest elements of Revolutions to craft one truly worthy sequel.

Along the same lines, the Matrix sequels both were supplemented by wider media, such as the Animatrix, and while a lot of this material was peripheral to the main story, some of it provided much-needed background that would've vastly improved the movie sequels, had it been included. Essentially, the Matrix 2 & 3 told the wrong story; somewhere between Reloaded/Revolutions and the cartoons, comics and video games, a quality 3-part film series can probably be found, but the sheer volume of Matrix media that followed in the wake of the first movie wasn't justified by the amount of story there was to tell.

The Matrix Sequels Suffered From The Midi-Chlorian Effect

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It's a strange paradox of storytelling that the more mysterious something is, the more an audience wants to know about it, but actually discovering more removes the very sense of mystery that first made that thing so popular in the first place. Some have coined the phrase "the Midi-chlorian effect" to describe this phenomenon after Liam Neeson sat everyone down in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and gave a science lesson that laid bare the true nature of the Force. Everyone loved the Force when it was just a weird invisible energy that could push people over and choke annoying subordinates, but having the mysteries of the Star Wars universe spelled out in biological terms shattered the mystique - and some of the fun.

The Matrix sequels fall into exactly the same trap. The original 1999 release leaves plenty to the audience's imagination, and although viewers do learn the nature and purpose of the Matrix, Neo flies off with many mysteries still untold. As with the Force, the ambiguous nature of the Matrix is a key part of its cinematic allure, but each reveal in Reloaded and Revolutions chips away at the enigma, only to prove the veil itself was more appealing than what laid underneath.

In fairness, the Matrix sequels would've been just as heavily criticized for not expanding on the fictional world's mythology, and that sweet middle ground isn't easy to strike. One example of a trilogy that manages to reveal just enough, while still retaining an aura of the unknown is another Keanu Reeves property, John Wick. Although nowhere near as lofty in concept, John Wick has a rich mythology with plenty of unseen dark corners. The second and third films in the series haven't lifted the lid completely, but nor have they held back, instead adding layers of new information (and new questions) with each installment. By contrast, the Matrix sequels rely on sporadic info-dumps that fail to either provide definitive answers or maintain an illusion of mystery.

Neo Lost The Art Of Subtlety

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Everyone has that friend who goes away travelling for a year and comes back "enlightened," preaching the fruits of their newfound knowledge to all who'll listen. Speaking to said friend is fun for a while, but the more they talk, the sooner everyone else realizes "enlightened" is really just a byword for "pretentious." The Matrix sequels are this friend.

In the first film, The Matrix uses philosophical subtext to provide deeper levels of meaning to its outward science fiction themes. The red pill/blue pill dilemma, the spoon, the question of whether or not Neo is The One - all examples of conventional sci-fi tropes presented with a more spiritual, thought-provoking edge. Arguably, this is what first attracted viewers to The Matrix, with the initial release offering well-woven philosophical elements that underpinned the fighting and intense action.

Arguably the most damning mistake of the sequels, this careful balance is lost from The Matrix Reloaded onwards, and instead of well-integrated spirituality, the Wachowskis begin driving their point home with all the subtlety of a grenade launcher. The Jesus-like qualities Neo assumes are nauseating, the once thought-provoking dialogue morphs into meaningless, deliberately obtuse guff, and the story relies on transparent bursts of exposition, rather than the more natural world-building seen in the first film. As discussed above, there's a thin line between revealing too much and too little; the Matrix sequels attempt the former, but actually just muddy the waters, and by the time Neo finally meets with the Architect to discuss the true nature of the Matrix, the smart philosophy of yore has been replaced by vague attempts to sound meaningful without actually providing any meaning.

The Rave Scene & Trinity's Death

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A single questionable scene is rarely enough to condemn an entire feature-length film, but when the movie itself is already on shaky ground, moments of ridiculousness certainly aren't helpful. The Zion rave scene in The Matrix Reloaded is a prime example of this, pausing the main story for a gratuitous sequence where the occupants of the real world spend the night clubbing while Neo and Trinity are off having sex. Distracting, unnecessary and jarring, the scene takes viewers away from the fantasy world of the Matrix and right onto the dancefloor of their local disco, epitomizing the less focused approach of the sequel.

In a similar vein, Trinity's death in The Matrix Revolutions was another baffling head-in-hands moment. Obviously sacrificed just so Neo can move onto the trilogy's finale alone, Trinity's demise is needless, contrived and painfully transparent, proving the lack of thought that went into the sequels compared 1999's original The Matrix.

The Matrix 4 (2021)
Release Date: May 21, 2021