Some rules were not meant to be broken.

Rating: 1/10 (19 May 2003)

"Shut the f*** up!" someone in the theater yelled.
No, they weren't yelling at someone in the audience. They were yelling at the screen.
And this outburst not an isolated event. It just was of the symptoms at the pre-screening of "The Matrix Reloaded" which confirmed my fears: although some things in the movie were right, some things were very, very wrong.

This is difficult for me to write. I am a die-hard Matrix fan, and have read or seen every movie, comic, or script the Wachowski brothers have worked on. I have been impressed over and over again with their mastery of narrative visual storytelling. Until now.
The film has its merits. The effects are of course amazing. There are a whole slew of new and fascinating parallels between life and computer programs, reality and the Matrix. A few of the new characters introduced are unforgettable. The movie has some memorable scenes, and the action sequences set the bar at a whole new level of potency.
Unfortunately, in my mind, these merits do not make up for the flaws. Without going into detail or using spoilers, there are two basic rules which, when broken, result in almost all the problems in the movie:
#1: Show, don't tell.
In the beginning of Reloaded, there is between 15 and 20 minutes of exposition (introduction of characters, settings, and motivations). This material is only dubiously necessary for the story to unfold, and is expressed more through dialogue than action.
Likewise, later in the movie we are handed several bundles of philosophical ideas (the Oracle's talk, the Marovingian, the Architect scene) and the ideas are presented primarily through dialogue, with little action to illustrate or help us digest them. Consequently, these scenes are slow and grinding (and no less so on the second viewing).
Although one must respect the Wachowski brothers for again attempting to inject deep philosophy into an action story, they seem to have disregarded the very techniques they used the first time around that made this marriage successful. If an idea comes up - illustrate it with pictures. If a character is confronted with an idea - show them take action for or against it. Show, don't tell.
And the absolute worst place you can 'tell and not show' is in the beginning of a story, when the audience desperately needs to be engaged. The first half hour should be a hooking and a launching into conflict - not a dry, boring crawl. And in 'Reloaded', this crawl is punctuated by a 3 minute long dance/sex scene, which contains no conflict whatsoever. Bringing us to.
#2: Conflict always.
Story is conflict. Without conflict, the story is stopped. I've heard an audience will tolerate upwards of thirty seconds of stoppage before boredom sets in and they start zoning out. Judging by the whispers and feet-shuffling I heard around me during the sex scene, it took the die-hard Matrix fans in the pre-screening about sixty seconds before their brains reacted to what was (or rather wasn't) going on. During the second screening, during the conflict-empty sex scene people got up and went to the bathroom or to get concessions. Not a good sign.
Also, scenes that pan slowly across ships, locations, buildings, and rooms full of people are not conflict and therefore not story. There are several of these scenes in 'Reloaded', almost all of them devoid of danger or conflict, except for the vague idea that Zion is about to be invaded.

But again, if it's about to be invaded, SHOW US. Six scenes where people talk about impending doom can be replaced with one where we actually SEE a ship getting blown up, or the enemy advancing. Yes, there is scene of robots drilling down to destroy the humans, but it comes about 45 minutes into the movie. (Imagine if 'Empire Strikes Back' started with someone saying 'The Empire is coming to Hoth' and 45 minutes later we see the probe droid. And to continue the analogy - at the end of the movie, the Empire still hasn't landed on Hoth.)
Show don't tell. Conflict always. The breaking of a few simple rules can really sabotage a story.
And although it may be apropos for a story about breaking rules to actually break some of the most primary rules in storytelling - it's also ironic that the breaking of these rules are what end up preventing the story from attaining the genius we all know the Wachowski's are capable of.
Some rules were just not meant to be broken.