Excellent movie that enhances the original!

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2003)

I must confess: I never much understood all the fuss over the original Matrix from 1999, and I still do not. I left the theater after seeing that film having enjoyed myself, but by no means would I have classified the film as being worthy of having its name mentioned in the same breath as epic classics like the Star Wars trilogy. Further, it rather annoyed me when people made such a big deal over the film's shallow and unoriginal pseudo-philosophical ideas or its thinly drawn characters. In fact, although I did enjoy the first Matrix, the ridiculous mantle of greatness that people heaped upon its shoulders left a bad taste in my mouth that pushed me away from further viewings or even from looking forward to its sequels which, in my opinion, seemed unwarranted as I thought the original resolved quite nicely and left little room for sequels.
The Matrix Reloaded has changed all of that for me.
While The Matrix pieced together several unoriginal ideas in flashy and self-consciously hip ways with apparently little exciting thought beneath the surface or little effort to make them cohesive within the logic of its own framework, The Matrix Reloaded turns this analysis upon its head and reveals that the apparent inconsistencies within the first film were actually setups for a major twisting of what we thought we knew was happening. I will not spoil anything for those who have not seen the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed the genius of how the filmmakers redefine the events of the first film with this one and leave the viewer with a whole slew of possible scenarios and thought provoking questions at the film's end. What I find most impressive of all, is that I detected the hint of what might actually be a truly insightful and meaningful commentary on naturalism and miracles and the error of confusing an explanation of the facts with a proof of the relationship of said facts. If I correctly surmised the presence of this theme, then it is one upon which I hope the third film expands. For those who have seen the film, the key story points that resulted in the one hundred and eighty degree turn in my evaluation of this film series occur during the Oracle scene, the Agent Smith(s) scenes, the Architect scene, and the finale.
I left the theater feeling extremely entertained and filled with both thought and that certain child-like sense of wonder that woefully few films ever manage to capture for me. Yes, with The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix trilogy has catapulted itself into the realm of true film greatness in my estimation right beside the Star War trilogy and The Lord of the Rings.
Now I would not want any reader of this review going away thinking that I am unaware of the film's shortcomings. Indeed, it has many blemishes including: a few beautifully imagined and choreographed fight sequences that, while artful, were a bit too lengthy and too obvious in outcome to be fully satisfying; a dance sequence and sex scene that, while again done artfully and with nice cinematography, seem rather unnecessary and a tad too much like a music video sequence; some over-acting on the part of Lawrence Fishburne; a lack of chemistry between Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss; and a slight tendency for some of the fight sequences to become cartoon-like in a film that wants to take itself seriously. In fact, these flaws led me to conclude half-way through watching The Matrix Reloaded that I would leave the theater disappointed because the film would not have even measured up to The Matrix Â– a film that I viewed as only being decent. Thankfully, however, the last twenty to thirty minutes of the film when combined with some details revealed in earlier scenes completely reversed my opinion of the film and even made a better movie out of the original in my eyes.
In summary, I loved The Matrix Reloaded - beauty, warts, and all. Thanks to the greatness of this film, I also have a better opinion of the first film, and I am counting the days until I can see what I hope will prove to be a very satisfying and epic conclusion in The Matrix Revolutions. In the meantime, I think I will go see this one again!