90 dull minutes, 20 OK minutes, 18 good minutes.

Rating: Null/10 (21 May 2003)

Considering all of the possible directions the Matrix storyline could have gone in, it's really too bad they picked this one. The first 90 minutes are dull as dirt, including a couple of uninspired fight scenes and endless sequences of pretentious pontificating. The filmmakers seemed to have lost sight of the fact that the most interesting and fun parts of the first movie take place inside the Matrix with fake people, not in the "real world" with the real ones. I actually got bored as hell, something I never would have dreamed would be my reaction to this long-awaited sequel.
The action picks up a little in the 20 minute car chase, although it's not as dramatic or visually exciting as I had heard. It suffered from the same problem almost all the action sequences in Reloaded did - they were too slow-motion, too impressed with themselves, too video game like. You just never really get into it.
The final 18 or so minutes of the film are really the only ones worth watching. The plot finally gets moving and I got interested, the action finally got a little tense, and most importantly you start to feel a little humanity and warmth in the characters. This is something almost entirely missing from the rest of the film, where they glide along reciting robot-like dialogue that painfully reminded me of the most recent Star Wars film. I hope Revolutions is better, but after this the signs are ominous.