What a mess!

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2003)

I was a great fan of the first Matrix, and I am really disappointed at this poor mess of a sequel.
First of all, where's the plot? I was bored listening to Morpheus' mystical babble, and I wish I was watching the movie on a DVD to skip that boring scenes.
** SPOILERS **
There are plenty of pointless and irritating sequences. Take the "rave" in Zion, for example. It looks like a second-rate Snoop Doggy Dog video, with horny men and scantily clad women. What is the use of that scene? Who knows.
Take the scene in the restaurant, where the woman is eating a cake. No comment. I think the Wachowski brothers took their inspiration from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) -- and if you've seen both movies you know what I am talking about.
When I think about the above sequences, it looks like the directors choose to put some sex (the first movie had none) to add some thrills to an otherwise boring movie.
** END SPOILERS **
Now, let's talk about the action scenes. State of the art of the filmmaking technology, no doubt about it. But in the first movie the action sequences where short strokes of genius scattered all over the movie, while in "Reloaded" they are few, too long (plenty of slow motion) and repetitive. They add nothing new to the excitement of the first Matrix. Oh, look at Neo stopping bullets just raising his hands. Been there, seen that. Yawn.

My advice is: don't waste your money on Matrix Reloaded, it's nothing special, like your average Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. If you are really a fan of the genre, wait until it is released on DVD and rent it.
4 out of 10