An enjoyable film that you may or may not find annoying and unnecessary

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2010)

I'm not going to bother recounting the plot direction of The Matrix Reloaded. There are two reasons for this: first, it's up there in the 'plot' section, and second, it's actually not relevant to whether or not you like (or will like) this film. Allow me to explain.
Watched on its own merit, Reloaded isn't terrible; I dare say it's quite good. It even has little glimmers of genuine brilliance. The extraordinary backlash against it was less because of its actual content and more because of its existence at all: The Matrix was such a standalone unit in everybody's mind that any sequel could only have felt like a clunky shift from single film to serialisation. I tested my own intuitions on this by asking myself what would have constituted a good, non-disappointing sequel to The Matrix and realised that nothing would have met the mark. We were always going to feel that one of our modern classics had been violated to some degree.
There's much that's good about Reloaded, not least the exposition and development of the inner workings of the Matrix and AI. Smith's character gets a working over and becomes, if possible, even more interesting: the unsettling discrepancy between him and the other agents and his relentless, unfathomable-even-to-him desire for freedom from his own system and nature, are picked up from the first film and fleshed out, so to speak. There's a much broader cast and much of the supporting acting is excellent: Anthony Zerbe as the head Councillor in Zion stood out for me. His small, quiet scenes escaped my notice entirely at first, because first time round I was impatient to see more relevant things happening, but on repeat viewings they're welcome changes of pace.
However, there are teething problems. Tank (Marcus Chong), everybody's favourite operator in The Matrix and a generally fantastic character, has no appearance; his replacement is Link, played by Harold Perinneau, who I'd previously encountered playing Michael in Lost. He annoyed me more in this film than in that series, because whereas Lost shoehorned him into the Angry Black Man stereotype for a long time before giving him some real characterisation Reloaded seems content to ignore his abilities as an actor entirely and use him primarily for comic relief during tenser moments. Someone narrowly escapes death: back in his control room, Link squeals with relief; that sort of thing. It's a matter of personal taste, but I could have handled him being a more serious character.
I can only talk about acting for so long before mentioning Keanu Reeves, and it's that time again. Keanu is all over this film. He ramps it up here with love scenes, meditative dialogues (in which the aforementioned Anthony Zerbe, among others, sort of draws attention to Keanu by out-acting him considerably) and a small handful of one-liners. If you have a serious Keanu allergy, you simply won't be able to enjoy this film. Whereas in The Matrix his stiff, quiet style was in-character for the stiff, confused pre-enlightenment Neo, Reloaded has him take centre place as the hero of the film and if you can't stand watching him act then it's probably not worth your time. Personally, he's starting to grow on me.
I mentioned love scenes. Romance plays a bigger part in this film, which for my money is a bad thing because it's never really been the Wachowski brothers' forté. The first film had kind of a weird relationship with...relationships, with Neo and Trinity ostensibly falling in love after a few weeks of tense, brief exchanges in cars and between gunfights. Reloaded continues their bizarre, silent courtship. The subplot of their relationship is central to the story, so it pops up again and again, but it never seems to bring the film's better moments: wherever love is concerned, the script seems to take a break, and most of the romantic dialogue feels clunky and forced. You may experience it differently. But just so you're forewarned, you will hear Keanu Reeves utter the phrase, "I love you too damn much".
On a happier note, there are a ton of new antagonists, all of whom are extremely fun to watch; Morpheus takes a close-to-centre role again, getting a lot of the screen time and doing awesome things with it; and though it probably doesn't need mentioning, the action sequences are a joy to watch. Cars are crashed, lorries explode, bullets fly, doors melt in slow motion, and it's generally action fodder of the highest calibre. The sound effects team went a little overboard, with every slightest movement of a sword being punctuated by a 'shhiinng!' and that bassy bullet-time noise filling roughly half the film - the rest being filled by over-the-top orchestral climaxes - but it's not experience-breaking.
Ultimately, though, these are secondary concerns. Your ability to enjoy this film will hinge on whether or not you feel The Matrix *needed* a sequel. The comment I hear most often about Reloaded is that it just didn't need to happen; if that's how you feel about it, you'll probably find Reloaded annoying and disappointing, at least at first, despite the fact that it's really quite good. If that was your experience at the cinema and you haven't watched it since, though, give it another chance.