No improvement over the first film.

Rating: 2/10 (23 May 2003)

As you may recall, mine was one of the few small voices who didn't sing the praises of THE MATRIX in 1999. Granted, the film had a unique look to it and became heavily imitated and parodied. But I found it to be rather pretentious in its intentions. After viewing THE MATRIX RELOADED, all I've got to say is: It's more of the same and not too different. Keanu Reeves returns as Neo, the one chosen to free humanity from the enslavement of machines that are feeding off of it for power. As before, the machines have set up defenses in the form of the reality-altering Agents led by the ever soulless Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who now has the power to multiply himself by jamming his fingers into a person's chest and turning them into a replica. The relationship between Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is now deepened to the point where they have a sex scene while the citizens of Zion, the last city of humans, dance in mud like an underground version of "Soul Train". Reeves, Moss, Weaving and Laurence Fishburne, as Morpheus, all return from the first movie. They are joined by Harold Perrineau as the new pilot of the Nebuchadnezzar with Nona Gaye (taking over for the late Aaliyah) as his wife. There is also Monica Bellucci as a mystery woman who may or may not be quite on the heroes' side, Jada Pinkett-Smith as Niobe, another ship captain who had a relationship with Morpheus but is now involved with one of Zion's city leaders (Harry Lennix).
As with the first film, the stunt work and special effects are dazzling to the eye. An opening sequence showing Trinity being chased in a freefall by Agents has to be seen to be believed as bullets (and bodies) literally go flying across the screen. However, as with the first film, the story seems to be a little full of itself. I understand that there are quite a lot of religious references in the MATRIX movies, but I find them to stand out like a sore thumb. Maybe my atheism makes them go over my head. Perhaps this movie seems so spare because it is the second in a planned trilogy. Maybe that will make everything crystal clear when it ends. Maybe they'll also explain why nearly everyone is wearing dark glasses when there's precious little sunlight in the movie.