Convoluted nonsensical special effects snoozefest.

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2003)

Quite simply, if you like "The Matrix Reloaded", you like crap. This film is a high-cost version of a flying kung-fu movie with none of the humor and a stale plot. This is not a movie, it's a marketing ploy. How many times can we watch the same fight scene with the same (now cliche) slow-mo stop n' rotate camera effect? How can anyone feel any sense of urgency or interest when all physics and reality have no meaning anymore? How can we ever feel that any character is in danger when we it is impossible to tell if anything is actually dangerous? Neo's essentially become a ridiculous black dress-wearing Superman, and I would assume the third movie will end with something as brilliant as Keanu Reeves flying around the world to reverse time.
By the tenth or twelfth meaningless repeat of the same flying kung-fu scene any sane person above the age of 12 will be thinking about getting up and watching something more intellectually stimulating, like wrestling. If you stripped all the meaningless scenes out of this movie and left nothing but the scenes that actually advance the plot or build characters you would probably have about 20 minutes of footage.
"The Matrix" was a decent movie. It was not great, because it was anti-climatic. It starts out with its best scene and is a slow slide from greatness to mediocrity throughout the rest of the film. The idea of machines using humans for power is ridiculous and anyone with even the most basic understanding of physics can explain to you why it cannot possibly work. However, the movie was at least somewhat fresh, entertaining, and self-contained. "The Matrix Reloaded" is none of these things. It is stale, dull, and a meaningless prelude to what promises to be more of the same.
I no more believe that this was the planned middle chapter in a trilogy than I believe in the tooth fairy. It is an obvious attempt to cash in on the first film two more times. I, for one, will not be suckered into paying to see the next film We should have learned our lesson about what film geniuses these guys are from their other masterpieces, "Bound" and "Assassins" -- more cliche crap.