Waiter! One film heavy on action, heavy on the banter, light on substance please.

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2007)

I saw "The Matrix Reloaded" at 12 a.m. on a Wednesday, its opening day. It was being shown that early in anticipation of the large crowd that would come to see it. There was a large crowd alright and I was amidst that crowd. My thorough enjoyment of "The Matrix" plus the excellent trailers for "Reloaded" made me decide to go to the theater an hour or so early and wait in line to end up having to fight for a seat. I'll never do that again.
"The Matrix Reloaded" started off quickly, just like the first Matrix, they got right into the action and action would be the main ingredient for this movie from then on. Well, that and a bunch of confusing banter.
"The Matrix Reloaded" was a significant drop off from its predecessor. This movie seemed more of an attempt to cash in on the success of "The Matrix" more than it was an expression of creative genius. Whereas "The Matrix" was deep, well thought out, well put together, and impactive; Reloaded was not so much so. This one lacked the content value of "The Matrix" although it tried to make up for it in the action and adventure department. There was no shortage of action in this movie, and I can tell that it was a calculated move on the part of the Wachowski brothers. But, as much as I can't believe I'm saying this, there was a bit too much going on; Neo's fights lasted too long, the big orgy (I mean rave) scene seemed out of place (I mean you guys are living in a cave and are in imminent danger for God's sake), the Trinity/Neo love scene was almost robotic and completely unnecessary.
I was watching this movie for more action, yes, but even more so I wanted to see progress amongst humankind and more answers to it all. But, there were a lot more questions raised than answers in Reloaded.... I know, I know, that is to tease so that we'll watch part three, but some of the stuff was just down right confusing. Maybe I'm not as "plugged in" to the Matirix as others out there are, but there was a lot I didn't understand; e.g. the multiple agent Smiths (now no longer an agent), or how Neo was able to affect the sentinels outside of the matrix, or that damn rambling superfluous architect (I had to watch the movie 4 times to get what he was saying), or even that pompous arrogant Merovingian. It just seemed to me that whenever there was a break in the action there was a lot of philosophical and prophetic type conversations with each person asking rhetorical question after rhetorical question, or giving some supposedly life altering, illuminative soliloquy. I think the script was way over the top. The same messages and information could have been delivered in a much simpler manner and had the same effect.
"The Matrix" was just so fresh, so innovative and unique, that I had very high hopes for Reloaded. Reloaded didn't totally flop, but it definitely didn't deliver like I thought it would.