Disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (16 May 2003)

I saw The Matrix: Reloaded today. I wish I could say it was good. Really. The first Matrix had a good premise and was brilliant on the follow-through. Reloaded give the impression that they spent four years working on the special effects and four minutes throwing together a screenplay to fit them. Once again, the premise had a great deal of potential, but they never bothered to delvelop it. In the end, the plot was thin and the dialog was pathetic. The sad part is, the effects weren't even very good! In the fight scene between Neo and the Smiths, it was obvious when they switched from live action to CGI. The shots of the ships looked completely animated. Zion is a giant rave full of sexed up, fashion victim hard bodies. For some strange reason, while the crew of the Nebachanezer wears rags and eats flavorless slop, the people of Zion wear the finest fabrics and eat a variety of tasty dishes. What's with that? The whole Zion sequence was an overblown music video and less than steamy sex scene. It did have an element of Star Wars envy, with flight controllers remincent of those of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, and men wearing jedi-like robes and shirts.
For the most part, the fight scenes were good and the car chase was exciting, but all in all I'd rather have spent my movie dollar elsewhere.
The clifhanger ending leaves one with some hope that Revolutions (opening in the fall) may kick the quality back up to the level of the first film. With the price of movie tickets being what they are, I sure do hope so!