Decent For Its Time.

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2014)

It has it's ups and it has it's downs, but it's still pretty damn good. True enough there is a lot more of a heavy focus on exploiting CGI rather than acting. Whenever I think of the 2 follow ups to the original "Matrix" (1999), the colour green becomes prompt in my brain. If memory serves me correctly I cannot think of a time when "Reloaded" doesn't look 80% green.
This time around Neo (Keanu Reeves) is still bland and is like us, trying to make sense of all this "reality" in front of us. Through whatever hazy scenarios the plot seems to take us on, they all lead to some pretty fantastic set pieces and superb choreography. Some new characters arrive and definitely became fan favourites, even though they didn't do too much at all. The final 20 minutes of this film we obviously know leads into "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003), but even so felt abruptly silly that I found this as the turning point where the series began to implode on itself.
Regardless there is plenty to enjoy about "Reloaded". With a much larger budget, they planned to go all out and it definitely shows. The scenarios are more impressive and the acting in some areas get some much needed tweaking, but it is far from being the "story" driven ride the first movie was. Where they mixed story and effects together well enough, the later sequels put effects over everything else with arguably disastrous results.
Final Verdict: After everything I've said, this movie doesn't really offer anything new to the franchise. But what style! 6/10.