"But the ending was a letdown. Basically, Neo just suddenly acquires magical powers and kicks the bad guys' ass. He doesn't have to do anything for this, it just happens. So after 2 hours of buildup, the movie went out with a whimper."
I think you missed the point here. What you interpreted as magic, I saw as conciousness/awareness. I know it sounds cornball, but Neo had the power the whole time. He just didn't have the sentience to use it until that point in time. The fact that he could see the Matrix everywhere was the equivalent of a light bulb coming on.
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"But the ending was a letdown. Basically, Neo just suddenly acquires magical powers and kicks the bad guys' ass. He doesn't have to do anything for this, it just happens. So after 2 hours of buildup, the movie went out with a whimper."
I think you missed the point here. What you interpreted as magic, I saw as conciousness/awareness. I know it sounds cornball, but Neo had the power the whole time. He just didn't have the sentience to use it until that point in time. The fact that he could see the Matrix everywhere was the equivalent of a light bulb coming on.