A disappointing sequel to the great sci-fi classic and a great example of how great FX and action scenes don't always make a movie good...

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2003)

I saw The Matrix Reloaded on its opening day and it took me a while to th ink of something to write about it. Why? Because I had great expectations for this film and it disappointed me in MANY ways, but I loved some parts of it too. The first Matrix had everything a cyberpunk action film could have: It was original, thought-provoking, but at the same time had great action scenes, unique special effects and very original characters and atmosphere. I think before making this sequel Wachowki Bros sat down and thought "OK we made a thought-provoking action as the first movie, now how can we make more people see this movie and make more $$$??". I think they came to a solution like this: put much more action scenes and special effects, have more Kung-fu fighting scenes (cheers to Yuen Wo Ping), have more (and unnecessary) male-female relationship sub-plots, throw in more charismatic heros and anti-heros, throw in disgusting and completely pointless dancing scenes, to make MTV-watching dance music lovers happy, and in the mean time throw in some cheap pseudo-philosophical rants to satisfy the movie's philosophic side's fans and while doing all of these, try to fit a long story with lots of characters into a 135-minutes film. The result? Mediocre. Very sadly mediocre.
The film's biggest problem is that it tries to be many things at once but fails in most parts. It looks like a 3 hours movie cut into 135 minutes and it seems that most of the parts that are shortened are the parts where the story progresses and not the action or love etc... scenes. This makes the film unbalanced and uncontinuous. The acting is more mediocre than the first movie, except for Hugo Weaving. So film leans its back on the action scenes, new charismatic characters and killer visual effects, but these aren't enough.
!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
The film starts off quite goodly, giving us great visual effects and action scenes in the beggining, then the Zion parts begin. The story begins to use the cliche male-female relationship stuff, between Neo and Trinity as well as Link and his girlfriend, and in the mean time, we learn that Morpheus is also in a love-hate triangle. The dialogs are too artificial; the ones betwen good old Morph' and his past love Niobe reminded me of 3rd class Brazillian soap opera stuff. The first movie's charismatic Morpheus is gone, by the way, Mr. Fishburne doesn't seem enough interested in the film. And yeah, Zion City's citizens aren't interested in anything, too, even though their city will be attacked by Robots soon, they don't care, they begin to play techno music and make erotic dances, while Neo and Trinity screw. These scenes just come out of nowhere and you feel like you are watching a Britney Spears video! When these scenes started I got shocked and started thinking about leaving the cinema. It's good that Aaliyah didn't play in this movie, maybe then she would sing in it too!?... Matrix? Philosophy? Just the color and the stench of money, I say!
After they leave Zion, the film starts to get better, with the action parts and visual effects. Then Agent Smith comes out to play. Hugo Weaving is once again playing great. But does the fight scene between Neo and the 100 Smith's had to be that long? I mean if he has the power to get out of the matrix anytime he wants, why does he struggle for 10 minutes to fight all those clones to obtain nothing? Very illogical! In the end he gets out, but hey, as long as the audience gets their visual effects and action scenes, it is OK, isn't it? Hell no!!!
And by the way, our heros dress very goodly and look extremely charismatic on the matrix world, much more than the first film. But, then again, is it important how you look like in the matrix? I mean, as long as it isn't real and it is a simulation, why they care about how they look? I think I hear someone saying, it's because they looked so good on the first movie and people liked this, thus the film makers decided to exploit this interest, yeah? This makes the film a parody of itself, then...
Anyway. From this part to the Twin Ghosts' death, the film is great. Great visual effects, again killer action scenes. More illogical things, more artificial rants and stuff, but anyway, it gives pleasure to watch. After those parts, the film seems somewhat compressed. I think this is because of the time limitation thing: If Wachowski Bros did have 3 hours then it would be OK, but it seems they hadn't and they decided to cut the parts where the story progressed shorter, instead of shortening some action scenes or Zion scenes as they spent tons of money for those visual stuff, but they are unfortunately wrong because so many things happen in the last 30 minutes. So many breaking points in the film, and as your mind digests the present scene, something new happens, and this goes on and on and finally it gets very boring and you start praying for the film to end. Very bad way of editing, and should be given as a lesson to cinema students at universities!
And the trailer at the end seemed to me like a very cheap way of marketing. It's a good thing that they didn't put a trailer of The Matrix videogame after that too.
!!!NO MORE SPOILERS!!!
Martix Reloaded will surely satisfy average movie fans, but for me it's very disappointing. If Wachowski bros had concentrated on the depth of the story instead of making money, this film would be great. But sadly it isn't. This film is a great example of how killer FX and action scenes doesn't always make a good movie. Watch John Carpenter's "They Live" or Alex Proyas' "Dark City" instead of this...