An admirable follow-up to a blockbuster beginning...

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2005)

In my review of the third installment of this film trilogy, I wrote:
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For those of us that went to see THE MATRIX: RELOADED in the theater, we saw a film that displayed for us what it would have been like if the first half of THE MATRIX had been expanded to a full-length film. This was alright, however, because we got to have our interlude -- the search for the "McGuffin" of the Key-Maker lead us to the Architect and gave us a list of questions dealing with the nature of the matrix that would keep us talking for months until the next film came out. It was not as good as number one, but it served its purpose. After all, the big payoff was coming in the third installment, right?
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And this is how I still feel. This was a good film with so much potential that it was practically dripping off the screen like the green matrix code the characters are always watching. The ideas and concepts in the film are solid, and the build up is very cool. Some of the special effects are not as effective here (mainly because we have seen it all before). But the story reaches its peak in the last few minutes of the film -- as a good cliff-hanger should.
The problems with this film are reflective of the fact that it is not a complete story -- it it a first half, and so has to be taken with consideration for how it propels us into the third installment. The first film does not suffer from this problem because it is a self-contained whole that can stand alone if need be (and in my opinion, that is exactly how you should look at that film).
The context of this union is very important. And unfortunately, the third installment does not live up to the hype built up by this second installment. So, we are left with questions asked in this film that never get answered in the third film... and thus, it is unsatisfying.
I would recommend skipping this one and its follow-up entirely, and just enjoying the first one as a stand-alone movie.