Good but not great by any stretch of the imagination

Rating: 6/10 (30 September 2003)

People who hold the Matrix's schtick as near-religious belief should read a book once in a while and broaden their cultural horizons a little more; the fact is, the only thing the Matrix has managed to do is steal ideas from countless other genres (mostly from anime and Hong Kong 'blood operas'), infuse them with superficial philosophical crap that would make a high school goth blogger blush and blend it all perfectly into one slick, hyperactive and CGI-laden package. The Wachowski's should pat themselves on the back: the emperor has no clothes and no one seems to have noticed. These glaring flaws are even more apparent in the second installment of the series, where the prodigal brothers finally show us that the only thing they can do is retread the same old ground.
Entertaining? Sure; the effects are impressive and the pace never really slows down, even in spite of Mr. Reeve's wooden (to put it mildly) acting. But the fact that this rip-off of Asian culture and post-modern angst is scored higher than movies like A Clockwork Orange or Blade Runner is ludicrous.