As good as it possibly could be - which means great.

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2003)

Reloaded shows one thing for certain : the talent of the Wachowski brothers. Although nobody doubted their ability to create the most amazing action scenes, with guns, kung-fu or cars, the " serious " part of the movie ( explanations, dilemmas, or even love scenes ) are quite smoothly done -in my opinion better than in The Matrix .
This means the Wachowski bros. have just created the new definite reference trilogy; a modern mix of all the ingredients the audience ( 10-30 years old as a target ) loves: sci-fi ( and they're very good at it ) kung-fu , car chases , swordfight , all of which done with unprecedented talent and efficiency, but also drama. One of my fears before seeing the movie was that it would be too much turned towards the " Prophet Neo " side, in a ridiculous sort of way. Well, this aspect is of course important, but it is not overdone, and Neo, even though he looks like some kind of Year Zero fighting priest, is a very good chararacter. Morpheus still takes himself a bit seriously, but that's part of the deal. After all, Star Wars took itself seriously too.
In the end, I decided that the "classic" parts of the scenario, which is basically what happens in Zion ( the young and eager rookie, the old and wise counselor ) weren't too important, that the "deja-vu" from other movies ( the movie is much closer to Ghost in the Shell then the first one, and there is a Total Recall kind of twist ) were very well adapted and again, part of the deal : mixing genre movies with a great talent.
As for what remains the main attract of the movie : the action, it is of course amazing, unseen before, and you get lots of it ( some scenes last over 20-25 minutes ) with extraordinary visuals and eye-candy.

9/10