Been there, seen that

Rating: 6/10 (7 November 2003)

"The Matrix" is a movie that works perfectly fine on its own, but there was also the option of making one or two sequels without telling the same story twice and actually developping a great saga. Well, after having seen "Matrix: Reloaded" I have to say, the story should have ended after part 1.
It's not like part 2 was a complete rehash of the first one, but it introduces stupid new aspects and storylines that go nowhere. Questions are raised without being answered and the whole thing makes no sense at all (I'm sure this can be debated over for hours but at the end of the day I think the Wachowskis were trying to be weird, rather than presenting something that can be explained reasonably).
I'm surely not the first to state that this movie is way too long. The dancing sequence.... God, I almost fell asleep. The fight scenes... yeah, I'm a guy and I'm usually of the opinion that action's cool but this went too far. Besides, I'm so fed up with martial arts these days.
Another flaw for me were the props. How the hell could they put all of the budget into special effects and then shoot the goddamn thing in a studio that makes the movie look like an episode of "Star Trek"? The "cool" coats, leather suits and glasses of Neo, Trinity, Morpheus & co. are so overdone that "The Matrix" becomes a parody of itself. In ten years from now people are gonna laugh about this. Come on folks, didn't we learn anything from "Saturday Night Fever" or "Miami Vice"?
"Matrix: Reloaded" is watchable, but I don't think I'm gonna watch it again soon. "Matrix" (no. 1) is the only part of the trilogy, that will be remembered as a movie classic.