Better than its reputation

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2004)

POSSIBLE SPOILER
"The Matrix" was one of the best American movies of 1999, and this movie proves that it is not easy to follow up on a success as big as "The Matrix". "The Matrix Reloaded" is the inevitable sequel to the 1999-masterpiece, but is it as good as the original? No, a bigger budget and more gorgeous-looking action does not equal a better movie. You cannot deny that this as the first of two Matrix-sequels is one of the most ambitious movie-projects lately(apart from "Lord Of The Rings" of course). "The Matrix Reloaded" still suffers from Keanu Reeves poor acting, but this time also the lack of an adequate narrative. The plot turns out to be unnecessarily difficult to follow and many, many scenes should have been explained more(like who the Merovingian really was, and the previous "The One"). Much of the dialogue/monologue in this movie is in my opinion completely out of place and seems just like an excuse for the directors and writers to impress us with their knowledge of philosophy. One example of this is how the Merovingian suddenly delivers a long an quite unnecessary monologue about causality. I have studied philosophy, so I am familiar with the theories of causality, but this is not important for the telling of the story in this film. Another disappointment is the city of free men; the city of Zion. Zion as a city did not impress me, and it is a real problem for this movie that the directors did not convince me that it was worth fighting a (losing) war for this city. Despite of all these problems, this is good movie that is worth seeing. Why? Matrix-fans will absolutely want see this, simply because it is a Matrix-movie. Remember that it is an absolute must to have seen the first movie, in order to understand anything at all. It also remains an impressive scifi-action-movie with action-scenes to die for. It is also vastly superior to "The Matrix Revolutions" which I think was the biggest disappointment of 2003. All in all, this was not so bad, it was actually quite good.
7/10