Reloaded 0wnz!

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2003)

The Matrix Reloaded is like a high octane video game for GameCube, brought superbly onto the screen by the Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry), with plenty for the audience to enjoy and soak up. This is indeed a film that doesn't match up quite to the original (what could, really), but what is breathtaking is how the Wachowskis' feel a confidence, mastery of their medium of sci-fi action storytelling. Even when the film gets all too deep into the philosophical speculations and dialogue (which the first balanced with the action perfectly), it rebounds to get to what the audience wants to see- fights, chases, gun and knife/sword battles, and all the visual effects that can be brought forth in a Hollywood picture.
I won't say too much of the plot except that in the second installment we see our heroes, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, facing the oncoming of the war with the machines, and how they, and more specifically Neo, will be tested to their limits. These limits make up the sum of the visual effects and action sequences, which are about 60 to 65 percent of the whole movie. And that's what makes the film a worthy watch (not the acting, since it's even lesser than in the first one, as Keanu Reeves proves) is that there seems to be always something to look at, admire, and maybe even dismiss as TOO un-real.
Bottom line, The Matrix Reloaded isn't a great movie, like it's monumental predecessor, however it doesn't leave I, as I'm sure it won't leave others, with a sense of money not well spent. As one character said, "The choice, I leave up to you." Grade: A