Reloaded with Blanks

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2004)

The initial Matrix is one of the most innovative science fiction movies I've seen. When I first saw it, it took me by complete surprise (c'mon, it's a Keanu Reeves movie), and it provided one of my more enjoyable movie-going experiences in 1999. Like all great science fiction, it brought a new, terrifying, and wildly believable world to life. All I could say was "wow". When I heard that this was only the first of a trilogy of Matrix movies, I had more than a little trepidation. How could the Wachowskis jump-start the second while improving upon the original?
Well, the answer is, they couldn't. The second installment, The Matrix Reloaded, doesn't hold a candle to the original. But all of the principals from the first are present; what went wrong?
Well it's the Star Wars Syndrome. But at least George Lucas gave us three great movies before stumbling, the Wachowski's mustered only one. But the mistakes committed by Lucas and the Wachowskis are very similar; infusions of moralizing, diminuation and sanitizing of the drama and tragedy, dumbing down the characters, etc, etc.
The Matrix Reloaded is not a bad movie, just a disappointing one.