Too Much of Not Enough

Rating: 3/10 (17 May 2003)

Keanu Reeves is the perfect "new" Hollywood star. His wooden performance is perfect for a film with more CGI than story. The film is a convoluted and shallow mess. I had been eagerly anticipating this film ever since "The Matrix" was first released, but now that I've seen it I couldn't be more disappointed. Are nth-degree choreographed fight scenes and high-tech chases now regarded as all that is necessary to make the audience sit still for a couple of hours? Hollywood seems to think so. Shame on us for accepting explosions and Kung Fu as a substitute for a coherent story. "The Matrix" told a mind-bending story of reality vs. fantasy and created an alternative universe that was fertile for plot and character development and internally consistent. "Reloaded" is more mind-numbing than mind-bending, and makes no pretense to take the audience into a alternative, yet believable, alternative reality. The plot holes are big enough to swallow a multiplex. Suspension of disbelief is strained beyond the breaking point. How is it that this movie is popular yet no one in it is actually acting? Each character speaks as if they're overdosing on Valium. None of the characters show that they feel the weight of what is supposedly at stake. "Matrix Reloaded" is like giving a starving person a bathtub full of very weak tea. It's too much of not enough.