Pretty Gloss, But Less Underneath than First Film

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2003)

What made The Matrix such a phenomenon was a perfect balance of visual-warping and mind-warping elements. Here the balance is terribly out of whack. The plot can essentially be summed up in a few sentences, but the extended effects scenes could take an hour to describe. And they're not even crucial to the plot. While I enjoyed this movie, it was more the enjoyment of a roller coaster than a supposedly thought-provoking movie. There are some interesting plot iterations and set-up in Revolutions, but they seem to be poorly tacked on at the end, a reminder that "oh, yeah, and then this stuff will matter in the third movie". The much-raved about fight scene between Neo and the Smith flock drags on far too long and looks horribly fake at some instances (very, very video game). Similarly, the non-action parts of the movie feel more like a middling RPG. "Go here, talk to this person, get this, then fight some more people..." The first third of the movie (set mostly in Zion) wants to be intriguing plot set-up, but just isn't. The extended rave sequence has even less plot relevance than the overlong fights. Also during this point the warning bells of "this is like Star Wars!" go off the loudest. My only other complaint would be the music. With the exception of one techno Latin chorus fight song (itself a poorer version than other examples), the music seemed limp and unequal to the visuals. The soundtrack lacked the driving force of the first one. (The psuedo-patriotic music that cues up during Morpheus' pep talk was particularly annoying.)
All in all this is a fun movie. But the fun is at a far more superficial level. Yes, there are unanswered questions, but they just don't seem as important in the first one, where the driving force was the need to know the truth. The Matrix inspired both thought and energy, ironically Reloaded will leave you feeling drained and dazzled by mindless spectacle.
5/10