Not as good as the first, but then how can it be?

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2003)

Originally I didn't want to review this movie until I saw Revolutions, the third part of the trilogy. The reason: Depending on how they resolve this cliffhanger I could either love or hate this movie. The way they left it though, it looks like a bit of cop out, but I'll tell you no more. Instead, I will review on its own merits, ignoring the cliffhanger.
This movie had better action scenes, and better special effects, but other than that, the first one was better. Don't get me wrong, this is still a great action movie, but as an SF movie it is rather average. But then again, once the premise is laid out with such perfection, how can this one be better than the first? In other words, the whole premise is told, and the conclusion will be told in the next movie, this one is all middle. So what we have in this one is great action scenes. There is a lot of philosophical talk in this one too, some of it is thought provoking, but it is not on the level of excellent Science Fiction. We also get to see the city of Zion, an impressive piece of work I might add. We learn more about human society, and about some of the rogue programs that never got deleted. We also get quite possibly the best car chase in cinematic history. This movie is like a great a ride that seems to keep going a little too far past its welcome. Everything's good until the last 15 minutes. The cliffhanger ruined it a bit for me. 7/10