Ken Nordine lives!

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2003)

QUICK NOTE: Stay until after the credits to see a preview of the
third installment.
Short review: The good parts were very good, the bad parts were
pretty bad and most of it was fair to middlin' and tended to go by
quick.
The good parts: The action sequences. They went on waaaay too
long, but the producers knew that they were the only thing people
would take away from the movie, so they put in a lot of them.
Most of the other special effects are okay (notably the ships) but
there's nothing really clever about any of them, and they go out of
their way to avoid any really impressive, world-building, effects.
For example, the way the transitions between the doors is handled
is awkward and doesn't add to the world. Zion is okay, in a Mobius
sort of way, but the curves and lack of right angles doesn't really
contrast with the Matrix... because you never see the Matrix. The
comic relief works, mostly.
The plot doesn't hold together as yet, but this is the middle of a
trilogy, remember? The acting is horrible. I mean, really really bad
for too many of the secondary characters. Keanu, Fishburne and
co. do okay, but not really better than that. There are a couple of
exceptions: Mergovingian and Persephone not only have the best
names (which will tell you what happens to them, if you're
following the theme) but make their characters believable. The
Keymaker overcomes an inconsistently written role. But mostly it's
Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect. I could have sworn that was Ken
Nordine. He was great. The only really good bit of acting in the
whole picture, and it comes near the end to save the day.
By himself, Bakaitis raises Matrix Reloaded at least one star, and
maybe two.
Ah well. Maybe I'll change my mind when I see all three episodes
together, but I didn't think this was such a great movie. Loads of
pulse-pounding action, pseudo-philosophy and the occasional
good line of dialog, but I don't feel particularly excited about seeing
the third one.