Reloaded does not Reload the awe of The Matrix

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2003)

Release Date-May 15th, 2003
The Matrix: Reloaded
Anticipation Rating- MEDIUM
Rating- 6.5 OUT OF 10
Producer Joel Silver began hyping up this movie, months in advance. He began saying stuff like. "What the Brothers have done, nobody will be able to duplicate for years to come...". Then the lame ads came, the less than amazing previews, and the bad pre-buzz of the movie. By the time I actually saw the movie, my push to see it, had gone down to basically zero.
I went into the the movie with 3 friends of mine, all of whom enjoyed the first movie. Most of them wanted to see the film more than I did. We ALL came out with the same views...the movie is not that great. It is a HUGE dissapointment. There is nothing really spectacular at all in the movie. Most of the time, it drags, and lags, spitting out corny as hell dialogue, that comes to the point of laughable. Morpheus's speech at Zion, is one of the funiest moments in the whole film. Everyone in the theater was laughing at this scene. The acting is a major low point in the movie. In the original Matrix, we had all of that shady metaphorical dialogue, but for some reason, we bought it in that one. In Reloaded, something has gone horribly wrong with the actors. They lost the touch from the first movie. It just doesn't work here. The plot of the movie, is easier to follow than the first, until a certain point. I actually got the first half. This did not happen in the first. I had to watch the original a couple of times before I fully understood what was going on. The whole Agent Smith plot, the Keyaster or whatever, and the whole Creator of the Matrix thing is just too complicated. I had a huge problem with the Creator scene. You know the actor is telling us something major. But he talks ridiculously fast, and uses massive words, it gets hard to follow. And the "shock" ending I heard about, isn't really a shock.
The movie isn't a total loss though, the effects are pretty cool, and the action is enough to keep you into the movie. The Hyped 14 minute car chase scene is good, but it's not nearly as revolutionary or massive as people are saying it is. And I have one question: where is the Bullet Time? It's not here that much. They opted to use more slow motion shots. The Bullet Time shot at the end of the car chase scene is incredible. It's my favorite moment in the movie. But why take out something that basically defined the original movie? Why use the slow motion instead? They claim that the effects cost 100 million alone. I;m sure they had plenty of money to do it. Seeing Neo fly in the movie is awsome. Warner Bros. is going to put out the next Superman movie soon. This just makes me want that movie more. And they really abuse the use of CG people. Bottom line, I'm not quite sure they have made a film, that's going to make people want to see the next installment as much as this one. There were BOOS all over the theater when the movie ended. People were calling the film retarded. I think it left a sour taste in the majority of the audiences that saw it. The only thing they have going for it, is the ending is a cliffhanger. People are probably going to want to see how it ends, but Reloaded is nothing spectacular. X2, is still the movie to beat this summer.
6.5 OUT OF 10