Good movie, but poorly edited.

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2003)

For the past four years of my life, I have been waiting and eagerly anticipating the premiere of this movie, the sequel to the classic, "Matrix, The (1999)." So was it worth skipping part of work to watch on opening day? Sorta kinda. The movie is quite good, but it has too many flaws.
SPOILERS HERE!
First of all, what was the deal with the whole mushy Neo-Trinity I'm-so-in-love-with-you-that-I'd-die-if-you-left-me-for-two-minutes nonsense??? I realize that they love each other, but for God's sakes, their relationship only has so much to do with the rest of the movie. They focused way too much on their relationship, almost to the point of silliness. The make-out session in the elevator, for example, was not necessary, and ended up becoming pointless. Later in the movie, it turns out that Neo loves Trinity so much that he forfeits saving Zion in order to save her; he "reaches" inside her and removes a bullet, then massages her heart to restore her to life?! LOL. Here's my question: if Neo knew that he could do that, why didn't he save the Keymaker???
Secondly, the part the frustrated me the most was the Zion rave party scene after Morpheus' speech. My God, that drove me insane. It lasted for at least 10 full minutes. What the hell??? Neo and Trinity making out in a private room while half naked people danced and danced...what does this have to do with anything? Seriously, maybe I didn't get it; could someone help me figure it out? Did I miss something important? That entire scene was completely useless, and just made the movie worse for me.
The other thing I couldn't deal with were all the philosophical monologues and other mumbo jumbo from different characters, including Agent Smith! It's not exactly clear to me how he's back, or why he's an agent, considering that he claimed that Neo "set [him] free." The late-night chat with the councilman: garbage. No point to it. The talk with the Maker: borderline mass confusion. I got most of it, but I think that whole dialogue should have been re-written for better clarity. I understand that there was a deeper meaning behind the Matrix that needed to be conveyed to the audience, but it seems that they went out of their way to make it so complex-sounding. I even started laughing at one point 'cos the dialogue began to sound silly.
The saving grace of this movie, however, are the fight scenes and action sequences. Goodness. I've never scene such complex fight scenes in my life. The fight between Neo and the 100 Agent Smiths, for instance, was absolutely incredible. It just went on and on, and I thought that I would eventually get bored, but the choreography was simply so creative and varied, that I couldn't. Kudos there. Unfortunately, however, the filmmakers chose to rely on computer-generated (CG) characters too heavily, and that spoilt it for me, especially because the first Matrix didn't do so. I understand that the fight sequences really couldn't have been done without using CG characters, and they were amazingly realistic, but not realistic enough. You could easily tell between the real and CG characters. The fight scene at the mansion was spectacular, but the big, big scene was the highway car chase. WOW. I don't even know what to say except WOW. Watch and see for yourself. I was also extremely impressed with the scene where Neo swoops in, dragging tons of building debris and cars behind him, and catches Trinity before she falls to the ground after being shot by the agent in the air. As he catches her, the agent smashes into a car on the road, and the debris behind Neo comes flying by past the screen. Very, very cool.
The fights and other action sequences in the movie were off-the-hook, but unlike the first movie, "The Matrix Reloaded" doesn't really break any new ground in terms of special effects. However, they were all amazing, and that kept me in the movie theater.
I'm a bit disappointed with this sequel, but then again, I came in with such high expectations. The editing was really bad, I must say. It almost seems as if they desperately needed the movie to be a little over 2 hours long, and they left in a lot of crap that should have been either cut or trimmed. I hope, for their sake, that they at least show the next sequel to a test audience before releasing it wide in November. I know I could have given them a bunch of suggestions that would have made this movie less disappointing.
And finally, why cut the movie so abruptly? That was so unfair. I was watching to see what was next, and then the screen flashed "TO BE CONCLUDED." Maaaaaan, why??? That was one of the worst cliffhangers I have ever seen. There should be enough of a movie to tie you over, while making you crave the premiere of the sequel. You don't just chop it off at some random point and expect people to be happy. I felt like someone had cut off the power or something. Not a good ending at all.
That's all. Good movie (8 out of 10), but not so well edited. The action sequences saved most of this movie for me, but that's usually not entirely enough. I watched the preview for "The Matrix Revolutions" at the end of the credits, and it looks okay, but we'll have to see. This movie will do extremely well, undoubtedly, but hopefully they'll be able to fix up all these weird problems for the sequel by November.