Samuel Cloete

Classic - wish they made more!

It's a fun ride back in matrix memory lane. Filled with countless nostalgic references to the old movies. It's a fun movie, with decent action scenes, it does not take itself too seriously. It's humorous, but in a good way, not a silly way. Bugs is a wonderful addition. It gets something right that many sequels simply mess up - it shows us where the characters we love from the previous movies are now, where they were the past few years and where they are possibly heading (if they make more movies). It also gets something right that I usually hate - recasting, they did it in a way that works and make sense. Watch it if you dare.

More wokeness for the modern audience to consume... The MCU is really going down hill fast.

Sadly this turned into another woke-infected tragedy. It could have been so good. They had the opportunity (and certainly a big enough budget) to create something awesome that could have paved the way forward for a great show with the potential of delving deeper into world of Middle Earth. If they only stayed true to the source material... but no, they wanted to use the name and do their own woke-infected thing. This is not the Lord of the Rings. If you can look past the plot holes, the poor writing, the poor casting choices (not to mention just casting people for the pure sake of being diverse... which just makes no sense at all), the poor use of budget (I mean where did the budget go? Compared to the movies, this looks like a fan creation), the change of characters to fit the current political agenda (turning alpha males into beta males and turning a strong woman lead character into a mere shadow of her former self and completely ruining the elves)... if you can looks past all of that, well then you are left with a C- of an action fantasy drama with some pretty scenes and okay-ish fighting scenes. If you're a LoTR fan, please spare yourself from this and rather rewatch the trilogy - better in every sense.