Great ending, but little else

Rating: 6/10 (22 May 2003)

The final 10-15 minutes really makes this film great, but the rest lacked that greatness and provides nothing new compared to the original. And just like the Matrix copy cats must be compared to the original, so must the reload.
If it weren't for the fact that people could walk away from this with a completely different interpretation, I'd give it a much higher ranking. So there are the problems with this film. Lack of originality and lack of clarity in the story.
For those unsure whether they want to spend over 2 hours in the theater, you can get by with watching the final hour without missing anything significant. Monica Bellucci provides far more sex to her character and the movie than the scenes between Neo and Trinity.
As to the soundtrack/score, it has some very impressive moments. For a movie that you'd expect to cause you to jump out of your seat at least once because of surround sound FX, there is nothing. The visual FX, on the other hand, live up to the hype.