Reviews

This was a pretty decent series of movies, though generally diminishing in quality with each installment. Yet still, they were always good for a decent watch, although I must admit I am far more lenient in my evaluation of horror movies than any other genre. This one just.....fell flat. It's exactly the same as the rest. There's nothing new, nothing special, nothing noteworthy about anything it shows. It completely and utterly lacks any kind of inspiration.

I think it's time for this series to come to an end, because the next one is only going to be worse, at which point it's going to be absolutely awful, since this one was already pretty bad.

The first Matrix movie was lightning in a bottle. The second and third were certainly not of the same quality, but were adequate as action movies. While there are a lot of reasons for why this fourth installment is worse, I will highlight one that I personally found most noticeable.

In the first three the enemies they faced felt severe and dangerous. Agent Smith, the Architect, the Merovingian...they all had a certain gravitas to them. A sense of authority and danger that made them feel lethal and powerful. But none of the enemies this movie feel dangerous, at all. There is a complete and utter lack of gravitas in all their portrayals. They don't feel intimidating or dangerous. They feel like regular people and that just isn't intimidating.

For the most part I really liked this movie. It wasn't amazing, but it was decent and entertaining enough, despite some predictability issues. The ending absolutely ruined it for me however. Do you know those movies where people make decisions so incredibly stupid and unlikely that it almost physically hurts, just because the writer can't come up with another way to move the plot forward the way he wants to? That's what happened here and it's a real shame.

The review on top of this list right now says this movie is not that bad. That reviewer must have been related to the directors. It's pretty awful to say the least. The acting is bad, the story is bad, everything is bad. But if you like cowboys, horror, and witches, and preferrably all mixed together, I guess you don't have a lot of other options. So unless that specific mix is your cup of tea, better to just stay away.

The field of horror movies is dominated by mediocrity. A lot of horrors are actually awful, and only a select few are actually good or great. This one is perfectly medicore in every aspect. It's exactly what you can expect from a mediocre horror movie, nothing more, nothing less.

Imagine any action movie with Stallone. Now imagine Blade going psycho and constantly high on cocaine. Now pit them against each other in a world where violence and cursing are a thing of the past (until Stallone and Snipes entered the fray, of course). It's amazingly entertaining if you like action movies.

I tend to like Gibson's performances, and this is no exception. It's a pretty dark action-thriller that starts off fast and then slows down just enough. There's some intrigue, some action, some emotions, all nicely balanced. Certainly worth a watch if you're looking for a pretty dark action-thriller.

I love action movies in general, but a lot of them are mediocre at best. But this one sticks out as an all-time great, the golden standard of what action-movies should aspire to be. The movie has a compelling and charasmatic antagonist, not a hollow cut-out with some evil scheme, but a man with emotions and depth. The action sequences are great, the characters are convincing, there is some real emotional depth to the story, and it has some great cheesy one-liners. This movie has everything what makes an action-movie great.

I love bad movies. Horrible action flicks with cheesy oneliners, awful b-list horror movies with low budgets and people who can't act. No matter how bad, most of them have some kind of redeeming factor. This movie doesn't. As amazing as the first movie was, this one is just so awful I genuinely wish I could erase it from my memory. It misses all the marks that made the first one great. I don't know what happened during the making of this movie, but for the love of god don't ever let it happen again.

Within the first few minutes it becomes immediately apparent why we use actors in movies, and not everyday people. The characters in the movie are cardboard cutouts of what the American ideal of a soldier is, with little more depth than a pancake. Their conversations and interactions are so rigid, boring, and lacking any kind of creativity that it almost physically hurts to watch.

It's exactly as bad as you'd expect any horror movie to be that has the word 'bride' in its title.

I've seen a lot of horror movies, and a lot of bad ones at that. Despite that this one is easily in the absolute bottom. Everything about it is awful. If you like wasting an hour and a half of your life, this is perfect for you.