Lots of bad reviews but it's not really so bad if you get it

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2003)

First off, the Matrix 2 is not as good as the Matrix 1. The first Matrix had an elegance in its editing, sound, production, color scheme, and story. It was so elegant in fact I can't stand to watch it many times over because the package is too tight.
Now the second Matrix. As other reviewers have pointed out, the beginning of the film isn't editted well, it doesn't have enough interesting parts. And the beginning sequence with trinity is out of place as well. It seems that the brothers and studio have fallen in love with themselves, they think they can put anything out there and without polishing it everyone will love it.
The film does get better as it goes along however. An idea that sounded good on paper, Neo fighting many copies of Agent Smith didn't turn out to be that thrilling. But at least it is some action.
Some concepts do turn out well, like the two albinos and the car chase scene. Although people have put down the superman scenes, I like them. The set design, except for the Zion rave is extremely consistant and elegant, continuing the tradition set by the first movie.
I like the relationships in this movie, I didn't find them contrived. It is strange how characters in the Matrix all fall into a few categories. There is the mystic who says important stuff very quickly and cryptically. There is the action hero who doesn't say anything but does cool stuff and looks good. And there are a few support characters who are mostly standard movie cliches.
Many people don't have time for the philosophy of this movie. It isnt' very well explained, it's a lot deeper and less solid. Most people aren't willing to figure out the reasons behind things that seem stupid, for example why does a guard fight neo when he is on neo's side? Well the guard says that he fights neo to know him, but it isn't very slickly presented so it makes the scene nonsensical at first glance.
Even with its flaws, it is a good movie. Even with certain effects lacking, it advances effects forward. The acting is no worse than the first, and the characters who are supposed to give speeches give them well, and the main characters who are just supposed to do stunts do them well. The music and sound is unfortunately worse than the first one, but I think it's a product of the times, in 1999 techno was really being innovative and fresh and interesting and now it isn't as much.