An extremely disappointing sequel...

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2003)

I loved The Matrix. I have it on tape at home and have seen it many times. It holds up extremely well and all the logic is consistent within itself (in other words, nothing happens in the film that can't be explained within the context of the rules of the film). It was clever and witty and funny at times and filled with great action.
Now we get "The Matrix Reloaded", an extremely disappointing sequel.

Before we get to the bad, let's examine the good (some contain spoilers):

I liked the fight scene with the clones- well done

The woman who leads them to the Keymaker was very interesting and well-acted

Here are my complaints (some contain spoilers):

the film has no sense of humor; no attempts at jokes were made until the last half of the film

the action scenes were overdone; most of the action scenes looked like they came right out of a James Bond movie

the extreme powers of Neo in this film take away all suspense - if he can win any fight, then what is there for us to cheer for?

the fight with the clones should have happened near the end - that's the ultimate fight that would create suspense; after this fight, it's obvious that Neo can beat anyone in a fist fight

if it's the year 2999 and they know that the only way to beat the agents is to blow them up, why don't they make some kind of bomb instead of relying on cars blowing up?

one of the best parts of the original Matrix was the Oracle; now we find out that she wasn't even a real person? How disappointing...

the supporting characters were fairly boring and the acting not very good; the original had much better acting by the supporting characters; for example, The Keymaker had absolutely no reactions while on the back of Trinity's motorcycle even though she was dodging cars the whole time

No, I didn't stay for the trailer for part 3 - at this point, the next part of the sequel is not on my "to see" list.