Wachowskis, go home, do some homework. :-(

Rating: 6/10 (28 May 2003)

It takes incredible talent to throughly destroy a craft of genius. There is no doubt the Wachowski brothers are talented. There is no doubt their first film of the Matrix series was a craft of genius. Something strange happened in between the first and the second Matrix movies. Apparently, the Wachowski brothers lost their writing talent. And the result, as expected, is a disaster. People say - the larger the expectations, the worse the disappointment. The expectations couldn't be much higher. The disappointment couldn't be worse. ***SPOILERS from now on.***
CONCEPT AND THE STORY. Since the plot is not half as exciting as was the original, the audience starts paying attention to the concept errors. A major mistake by the Wachowski brothers. 1) Neo flying Superman-style, fist up? Christopher Reeve would probably kick Keanu Reeves' butt if only he could walk. 2) Let me get this straight. They upload themselves into the matrix, right? What stops them from uploading themselves in some other shape? 3) Let me get something else straight. Why the scene where Trinity gets shot is shown in bullet time? Not the first time, when Neo dreams of it, but the second time, when it is actually happening? Not slow motion, but bullet-time. Is it because Trinity can use the bullet time concept? Why doesn't she dodge the bullets, then, but continues to fall, shooting in the direction of the agent? Probably, because they had to show us the bullet-time effect, since we liked it so much the first time. 4) To disable a security system they blow up a power station. A virtual power station. Let's try to understand it. There is a file, the programme's core, which is protected. There is a power plant, a fake one, a virtual power plant, which is supposed to provide electricity to the block. We blow the power plant, and enter the file? If you still don't get it, let me rephrase. Imagine, that you are playing a computer game. Quake, Enter the Matrix, Max Payne, whatever. You blow up a power plant. In the game. This enables you to edit the programme code. The programme code of the game you are playing. In one word - NO. 5) All of Zion's population is young and mostly - dark skinned. I am not talking about black people, but where did the white people get the tan? Underground, sunlight blocked hundreds of years ago, anyone? And what do they do with the older people? Oh yeas, we are later told that Zion is rebuilt every time, that would explain the age, but hey - doesn't it bother anyone? "Hey, where did all the old dudes go?"
VISUAL EFFECTS. 1) Yes, the chase scene. Morpheus standing on the roof of a speeding truck, doesn't seem to bother with the truck's movements, or the wind (actually, his clothes are still, as he was in a studio... :-) ). He is afraid to fall off the truck, but doesn't mind falling on the speeding car behind the truck. Naturally. 2) Trinity falling down. Yes, it's a studio shot. We all saw how it was done in that hour long "Behind the Matrix Reloaded", but we also could see it in the movie. A disgrace. 3) The famous multiple Agent Smiths fight scene. Can anyone tell me why Neo fought them at all? I mean, when he got tired, he simply flew away. Why exactly didn't he do it in the first place? 4) The fight scene after the Keymaker was released. Probably the only worthy episode of the whole film.
ACTORS. Now, that the story was not half as strong as the original, we also discovered the horrible truth. "What truth?"(C)Neo Well, the truth is, that the only actor in this bunch is Hugo Weaving. The rest are simply stunts. Laurence Fishburne giving the speech to Zion... Oh, what a shame. Passion, anyone? Charisma? Who taught him to deliver a speech, the Pope? Fishburne claimed, that since he had a real audience of thousands of stunts, he felt as if he was performing on a theater stage. I wouldn't by a ticket to his performance. The rest had no need to act, so the disappointment was not as bad.
Need I go on? Why did I give a 6 out of 10? I don't know. Probably, because of Hugo Weaving. Without Agent Smith it would be a 1 out of 10.