Good, very good, but not as good as the original.

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2003)

It seems to me like there are some fairly inarticulate and unconsidered comments here on this film, so I'll do my best to give a balanced opinion where others just fawn or moan.
Blimey, it's difficult to know where to start though with this film. My first thoughts upon leaving the cinema were "**** me that was cool, but what actually happened?"
With a bit of talking to others who saw it and after looking on the discussion boards here, I have a better idea of what the Wachowski brothers were trying to do with Reloaded, but anyway you look at it, it is certainly not as accessible as the first film, nor does it have as much as a story.
That's not to say it doesn't have a story, it has about 12 - but that's part of the problem. It all just seems a bit of a mess, where you were in no doubt about the first film being an almost flawless exercise of story telling and action film-making. If you were to see Reloaded without having seen the original, I'm not sure you'd understand anything at all.
I suspect this might well be one of those films you really get to like second time around - there's a whole heap of clues, hidden meanings and levels of understanding to get to grips with, which are really all too much to take in the first time.

I can't help that feel that in terms of sequels, this felt like a bit of a cross between the epic expansion of The Empire Strikes Back, and the confusion of
Highlander 2. Don't get me wrong, it's more like TESB than H2, but certainly some of the mystery and sense of discovery from the first film has been lost.