Watch Only In Conjunction With The Animatrix

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2016)

I used to own this movie on DVD, but after a couple of views I dumped it because it was goofy and confusing as Hell. Recently I watched the 2003 film 'The Animatrix' and it finally gave me some understanding of the 2nd film in the trilogy. Don't get me wrong, as a whole it's still quite confusing. New characters are introduced with no backstory, many characters look somewhat similar to other characters which occasionally makes distinguishing them difficult and the long expositions only serve to confuse things even more. 'The Animatrix' will only help you understand some, but not all of this.
'The Matrix Reloaded' basically introduces us to a whole new world in Zion. This is good because it makes us care more about the fate of the humans who are disconnected from the Matrix. We see them living in a crowded city with families just like us as opposed to simply sticking with Morpheus and the gang. A lot more cinematic influences are clearly shown in this film from spaghetti Westerns to Bruce Lee to Shaw brothers films the movie never hides from it's origins. Occasionally the CGI is over the top as it is in every movie made after the original 'Matrix', but I don't have too much of a problem with what is supposed to be a giant computer program looking like a computer program.
Neo has become a messiah and a superhero by this time and he seems unsure of whether or not that's a good thing. Although only shown briefly, Neo is basically Jesus to many people and that's when we also get to see some of the influence of the Bible on this movie. Neo is actually called Superman in a scene because of the unbelievable powers he now possesses. Granted when a hero or villain is this unstoppable the numerous fights in the film could get boring, but they don't. In fact the fight against the Merovingian's henchmen is possibly the coolest fight scene of 21st century cinema. Yes, Neo is going to win this battle too, but it's interesting to see just how. If you don't understand the movie you aren't going to like it and if you have no previous experience with the Matrix universe you will probably downright hate it. However, if like me you think the 1st film is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made and would like to comprehend it better watch the other films in the series. Watch 'The Animatrix', watch a documentary or read the plot synopsis a few times before going in because I honestly believe that the better you understand this, the more you will be able to appreciate what is actually a pretty decent sequel...