Awesome, eye and brain candy

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2003)

(Not much spoilers and those that are mentionned mostly don't make sense without watching the movie anyway)
Saw it last night and the movie definitely lived up the hype. Watching Reloaded is like watching a 2 hours visual and philosophical eye candy. The action scenes definitely were like nothing that has ever been done in movies and will probably not be copied for a good 5 years.
On the story side though, I still don't understand the importance between Neo and Trinity's relationship, to which a good part of the events in the movie are based. Many questions were left unanswered after the movie so it will most probably be among those that are answered in Revolutions.
Neo's visit with the Matrix's architect (not explaining, you gotta see it) was very enlightning in terms of what lies behind the Matrix and revealed that there is much more to Zion than the listener, and myself, might originally think.
Zion is just marvelous to see. It embodies the beauty of a cursed jewel, so beautiful and yet a somber vision of the apocalyptic prison that it really is.
While few people might enjoy the philosophical and theological (the visit with the Architect especially) implications of the story, the visual effects cannot leave anyone less than speechless. The 14 minutes car chase was THE car chase in movie history and will unlikely be matched before a couple years.
Most interesting though were the combats. Having the hability to bend the rules of the Matrix left possibilities unthinkable in traditionnaly martial arts movies and Yuen Wo Ping created many master pieces, especially the Burly Brawl scene. Unfortunately to the trained eye, it's obvious that parts of the scene are computer generated but considering that such a scene is totally impossible in real filming, it's just a better solution to accept that and enjoy one of the most incredibly choregraphed combats ever filmed.
You have to let a lot of details loose because seeing the whole movie in a purely rationnal fashion reveals too much weaknesses to make it believable. It is a fantasy story, with many elements in which you have to let loose and enter the story as just pure high-quality story-telling with visuals that most minds cannot even imagine.
But in all it's definitely a step forward in all aspects from the first movie.