Take the blue pill, this movie is crap.

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2003)

Matrix Reloaded starts out bad, moves towards worse, and ends on crap. For a movie with such an intelligent prequel, this film entered "cater to the masses" with aplomb. You'll waste around a third of your movie-going experience with gratuitous see-thru rave-inspired orgy-type freak dancing and a nice double helping of unnecessary sex crowned with a very inspiring shot of Keanu's bare derriere. If you've been missing out on the cultish feel, you'll get a nice treatment of that as well. Once we've passed this less-than-glorious phase, we move on to the action. The overly-CG'd cheezed up action. Borrowing a page from the once-brilliant George Lucas, the Matrix wizards have thrown more computerized crap in here than you can shake a stick at. The action scenes feel like a high-end video game less than a movie. The multiple Agent Smiths was a nice idea, but the requisite CG made it cartoony at best. Smith's character was uninspiring this time around as well. Apparently there's only enough personality for one, so they just spread it amongst the flock. The depth and feeling of the original Smith is just not here. Failure not from Hugo Weaving but from The Wachowski Brothers' poor writing. Tie it all up with a plot twist at the end that leaves you screaming "Thirteenth Floor! ExistenZ! Unoriginal HACKS!" and you've got the biggest disappointment so far this year. Go see it. Just don't expect much.