The Matrix Rehashed

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2003)

Here we go again....a hyped-up movie can only do one thing....disappoint. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good film, but nowhere near as good as I had hoped. And nothing near as good as the first one. There are some minor spoilers ahead.
I think the problem lies partly with the effects, which we've all seen in countless films since the original Matrix was released. In the original, it was all new and added to the Wow! factor. Here, it's all been seen before, so does little to add to the magic.
The other problem, which I wondered about from the moment I heard they were doing a sequel, was what they did with Neo. At the end of the first movie he effectively became a god of the Matrix. A kind of Q-like figure able to do virtually (no pun intended, honest!) anything he liked. How do you make a story about an omnipotent being and not have it dissolve into a "Neo waves his hand and the Agents die" type of thing? The answer here was to shift much of the action out of the Matrix and into reality, such as it is.
The plot, contrary to the opinions of many, was not unecessarily complex and was easy enough to follow. In fact the characters did a little TOO much exposition, no doubt for the hard-of-understanding amongst us. That said, there are questions left unanswered and no doubt all will be made clear in the final installment at the end of the year.
I saw a documentary about the making of TMR in which they stated that TMR was "action-carnage, action-carnage" all the way through. Not true. There are overlong scenes which have you shifting uncomfortably in your seat, thinking "when are we going to get back to the action, or even the plot?" One such scene is the relatively pointless "rave" scene. Yes, I guess it's there to show us how wonderful humanity is and how we can't let it fall to the machines etc. but it's a real Duracell moment - it just keeps going and going and going. And the sex scene with Neo and Trinity? Could it be that they are desperately in love with one another? OK, I get that, can we please move on now?
I also have to say that some of the fight sequences went on a little too long also. Morpheus on top of the 18-wheeler, for instance. OK, I accept that the Agents have been upgraded since last time and Morpheus is having a hard time dealing with one, but really, how many times do we need to see Morpheus almost get knocked off the truck before we understand that?
The fight scene with Neo and the legions of Agent Smiths was enjoyably silly, but the bowling ball knocking down pins noise that appeared at one point was a foolish addition that ruined it somewhat.
Good points: The car chase was pretty neat, though someone ought to point out to the effects editors that it isn't enough to merely edit out the wooden logs that get shot out of a steam cannon under the car in order to make cars flip and roll, but they should edit out the residual steam too. But one of the best car chases I've seen nonetheless.
Overall I'm a little disappointed with this movie, as you may have guessed. Rarely are sequels as good as the original, and this is no exception to that. This isn't a bad movie by any means, but not a patch on the original. Or to put it in perspective, I have the original on DVD, but I doubt very much if this one will be joining it.