I actually thought Machete was terrible, I was bored most of the movie and considered walking out at some points. I think the problem was that the movie was way too complex, especially the plot, for what it was supposed to be.
Planet Terror was so much better and I think its because it was set in a Zombie setting, something that didn't require ANY explanation on part of the audience. Everyone knows what to expect and what the "rules" are for a zombie situation, also Planet Terror had almost no character development whatsoever, every character was so one dimensional that no development was required.
Machete on the other hand had character development stuff for every protagonist and most villains. So we had to watch Machete be betrayed, then be content being a laborer, than tempted for cash, than spurred to action as he finds a new cause. Likewise "She" and Alba's character had several development scenes. Robert De Nino also had several scenes of character development. I also thought there was way too much talk of immigration, I was sick of hearing about the "plight of our people" or De Nino's speeches and confession at the end.
And lastly, going back to characters, why were there so many of them? This is another place to compare to Planet Terror. In that movie you had several characters but again because of their situation with the zombies they took on roles found in all zombie movies so no explaining had to be done. This was also aided by the zombie situation in that almost everyone had the same goals for the most part, where in Machete explanation for every character as to what their motivations and goals were was required because they were all different!
For example Machete's priest friend has scenes almost TWENTY Minutes long explaining to Machete, and thus the audience, to who he was, why he was a priest, why he's not a cop anymore, what he wants from Machete and life, and then Machete has to explain what he's doing, what he wants, etc etc something the audience already knows. You may not think 20 minutes is a long time but in a movie only 105 minutes long its almost a fifth of the time devoted explaining everything about a minor character who gets killed in the next scene he's in.
Then you have Lindsey Lohan who's entire character, scenes, and character development is devoted to building up to a quick topless scene. Every scene in that movie with her is completely pointless, the only one I see as having "value" for a film like this is the one where its implied that Machete sleeps with her. Her entire character development should have been cut, and she should have only been in one other scene or two as Booth's daughter where her character could easily be established with a few short lines and actions.
Then you have the Booth/Torrez(Steven Seagal) relationship. There's probably about 5 scenes in this movie where these two characters waste about 5 minutes doing the same dialogue over and over. "Did you kill Machete?" "No" "Well you better or I'll kill you." In my opinion Booth/Torrez should have been combined into one character, called Booth. Seagal's character could easily have been written into Fahey's(Booth) role, it would have cut the meaningless dialogue while preserving the role as a villain, and it wouldnt even have affected the plot because both their goals are EXACTLY the same. Plus Seagal has a horrible performance in this movie, he's too fat and sounds too retarded trying to speak Spanish.
Edit: In fact De Nino's, Seagal's, and Fahey's character should all have been combined into Booth's character who would have been the Senator.
I'd write more but I think I've made my point.
