Not as bad as some would have you believe

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2003)

After reading the way that some critics have been tearing into this film the last week or so I wasn't really expecting much when I went to see it. But after sitting through it I have to say that I really don't understand the criticism. Okay so it wasn't as ground breaking as the original and did copy a lot from its predecessor but it was a continuation of the first film so what were people expecting? It does exactly what you'd expect from a Matrix film and is as visually stunning as anything you'll see until the next Matrix movie comes out towards the end of the year so whats all the fuss. The trouble is that when you create something as totally original and visual as the first movie you're never going to be able to recreate that level of originality with the same project again. So all the Wachowski brothers could do was take what they created in the first movie and crank it up a notch or two, which is exactly what they have done.
The fight sequences and car chases are as good as anything you could ever hope to see and the film races along at a pace that makes a 2 hour film feel much shorter (unlike X2 which seemed to go on forever despite being a good film). Okay so Morpheus was starting to gat a bit annoying with his crazy preacher bit for much of the movie, going on about his 'prophecies', but when all his illusions are shattered at the end of the movie when the truth about Neo's exhistense is revealed it justifies its inclusion in the movie. Besides Lawrence Fishburne makes up for it with a truly great fight sequence on top of the moving lorry so we'll forgive him. It will be extremely interesting to see how the events of the end of this movie effect the moral of our team of heroes and how Morpheus' belief and faith holds together after all his illusions have been shattered.
In all honesty this is just a chapter in a three part story and won't be fully appreciated until the final installment hits us later this year. But nevertheless if you want to be entertained and see some serious Kick a**e action then you won't see a better example than this all summer.
Go see and make up your own mind.