Grossly Inferior to the Original - Spoiler-Free

Rating: 2/10 (15 May 2003)

I will divulge none of the actual plot of the sequel but only comment on the overall merits of the film. Simply put, it is no match for the power and revolutionary storytelling of the first movie. The original movie had such a groundbreaking concept - the idea that the real world is no more than a computer program. It then backed it up with a solid plot, a good hero, and a virus program as a villain. Many of the visuals, I believe, will go down in history like the bicycle scene from E.T. or the horse-head scene in the Godfather: Trinity doing cartwheels to dodge Uzi fire or Neo bending space and time to dodge bullets on the rooftop.
The new movie lacks all of the above. It has some phenomenal special effects and the groundbreaking technicality of the "burly fight" and the highway scene have already been well established. That said, there is none of the mystery or the "whoa, my brain hurts" revelations of the first. The dialogue at times is downright horrible. There are whole, extended scenes that do nothing to advance the plot, nor do they even flesh out characters. They exist solely to showcase bad techno music without even some action to temper the tedium.
The effects, likewise, while technically brilliant, come too fast, too often so that they have none of the power that they did in the first movie. There are a few totally new innovations that are very cool and I won't give away. But, by and large, it is more of the same wirefighting techniques. Quick punches and flips. Jump, stop camera, rotate, kick butt in slow-mo, then resume action. It gets very boring, very quickly.
Positive notes: The new character, Link, is a revelation. He definitely steals the show. And Hugo Weaving is still a solid villain. Some really cool cameos too (Roy Jones, Jr.!!)
Sadly, it has sapped a lot of the desire to see the third. I gave it 3/10.