MATRIX OVERLOADED

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2003)

MINOR SPOILERS herein
I´ve seen MATRIX (a well deserved 9/10) in the course of a premiere double feature for the 8th time and it still has been a gripping and entertaining experience all over again. As aloof and amazing the story might be, it still strikes you as coherent altogether ... in part 1. Anything seems to have rhyme and reason.
RELOADED on the other hand is missing almost any of it´s predecessors charm.
The Action sequences turn up to be a means to an end; the overuse of bullet-time becomes tedious after a short wile, instead of the well metered, all the more effective usage in part one. At the latest after the third fight you´ll probably sense an uncomfortable feeling of satiation, which nearly transforms itself into nausea till the end of the motion picture.
The punch-ups and chase sequences are staged rapidly; as usual; impressive they are not (often ). Moreover it equals an evidence of incapacity if moviemakers copy shots from the orginal 1:1 . This technique most likely should provoke a comfortung déjà-vu, I just was under the impression that the bros run out of ideas. And the overhyped highway chase ?
Let me put it this way: RONIN has better ones. In fact, it has two superior scenes.
Furthermore the Wachowsky brothers made wrong decisions in the cutting room. Whereas they could have cut at least 5 minutes of the first 30-45 minutes (BTW if they HAD to feature a Zion rave party, they should have used GOOD techno music, NOT a cheap Stomp-combo and preposterous barefooted bouncing) the movie seems far too rushed whilst it´s "climax".
The worst thing about the flick are the largely vacuous and continual, tedious dialouges. It´s a pity that after two hours of, with a few exceptions, repetitive fight choreographies, recycled special effects and fatiguing kitchen philosophy, one can´t appreciate the well written and acted architect scene. By then I was too unnerved to absorb all the information, which is given to us whilst this particular scene.
Something positive ? Some of the action is fine, Hugo Weaving is great as Smith as is Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, plus I liked the conceptual design of Zion.
The bottom line:
Chances are high that people who always criticized MATRIX will feel themselves confirmed, fans of the first movie (like myself) probably will be disappointed and bored.
That´s it !
Thanks for reading
6/10