If you don't like this movie, you need to free your mind and wake up!

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2003)

These people who say that "The Matrix: Reloaded" is crap are the same people who sad that the original "Matrix" was garbage and believe me, there were many of these people. There is a difference in the reasoning of this, though. With the first one, people were expecting garbage, so that's all they chose to see. Now that "The Matrix" has achieved such high status in pop culture and become so critically acclaimed, they like it because they knew there had to be something good in there and now they see it. With the first long-awaited sequel, "The Matrix: Reloaded", any bit of straying from the original formula will result in so-called disappointment. What the Wachowskis have done, in typical brilliant fashion, is defy all formulaic conventionalities of the sequel, where the same story is simply used over again and stretched out beyond boredom and predictability. They have completely changed the face of the Matrix universe and in huge plot twists, altered everything you think you know. We come to the movies to be surprised, don't we? What fun would "The Matrix: Reloaded" be if all the humans do is free more minds and do more kung-fu simulations and in the end, Neo discovers that all we need to do is dump water on the machines and cause them to short-circuit? The tagline of the movie, "Free Your Mind" was a message for the audience to throw their expectations out the window. I have to admit, when I first saw the movie, I thought, "What the hell? This is too convoluted and too much!" But I was wrong as multiple viewings of "The Matrix: Reloaded" continue to be fascinating, thought provoking, and brilliantly noodle-cooking. This is truly the most re-watchable movie ever made. Many things are still ambiguous, but I consider this just one half of one really long sequel, so I expect things to be all wrapped up, come November. Don't expect "The Matrix", expect something else entirely. But man is it good! 10/10