Ultimately disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2003)

Like many others I had great expectations of the second Matrix movie. The first movie excelled on many levels. Propelled by an amazing storyline and helped by some of the most ingenious filmmaking I had ever seen The Matrix is one of my all-time favourites. Knowing that everyone working on the first movie would be present for this installment, including the brothers, my hopes were up.
***SPOILERS ALERT
But during the first 20 minutes of the movie a nagging feeling crept up on me. The scenes seemed to lack the urgency and style of the first movie and looked more like an extended videoclip. Scenes with people dancing in Zion and Trinity and Neo finally sharing a bed together did not seem to work at all and even annoyed me. It did not get better for the next 20 minutes. The audience was introduced to council-members, commanders and other shipcaptains that were not only uninteresting but ultimately totally irrelevant for the movie. it seemed like 'Phantom Menace' all over again with 20 minutes or so of politics and dialogue. The next part of the movie got a little bit better on the search for 'The Keymaker'. But this part was drawn out far too long, including long and boring dialogue from a hardly introduced character and a feeling of 'this can't be the main pot can it?'.
Next a spectacular freeway scene followed that excelled in style and special effects. No complaints here...But then the end of the movie was set up by breaking in to a certain building while first blowing up a certain powerplant. The backstory to this was about as extended as this description of it and the action was over in a few minutes. Most of what should have been the grand finale seemed to have been landed on the cutting-room floor. But thankfully the very last scenes finally made an effort. Neo met the program that created the Matrix, and we discover a lot more of the background of the Matrices, Zion and even the One. I wish the movie had more of these thinking bits...
***END SPOILERS
Ultimately, Matrix Reloaded is an excellent action-flick that simply does not capitalize on its potential. If you have not seen the first movie you would hardly know the Matrix isn't the real world. The brothers have not been able to recreate the magic from the first movie, and it could take a long time before we get to see another Matrix...