Not very clever but fun.

Rating: 7/10 (18 October 2003)

This movie splits people into two groups; the first think it´s absolute crap, the acting is horrible, the philosophical questions are stupid etc. The other group doesn´t mind any of this, but rather concentrates on the excellent action sequences. They think the movie is great. I´m a part of the latter group.
The movie starts kind of dull. The scenes with the senate of Zion made me fear this could turn out to be as bad sequel as the two latest Star Wars-movies. My fears became bigger with the cave scene which is easily the worst part of the film. Annoying Blade-like trance and people jumping around, while Neo has a dull sex scene with Trinity. Blah! Luckily, the scene is soon over and the film starts getting better. The Seraph and the oracle got me interested of this movie again. And then the words: "Mr Anderson! Surprised to see me?" begin this this great rollercoaster of incredibly great action sequence. The Burly Brawl, the fight with the Merovingian´s henchmen (and woman) and the freeway chase. It can be seen, that this movie´s staff has seen A LOT of trouble seeing these films. And as the freeway sequence itself took 3 months to finish, that must be true.
In the philosophical departement, the movie tries too hard to be as clever as the first part. The oracle´s words are interesting but the Merovingian and especially the Architect are like the end or the video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. No one understand anything and therefore think it wasn´t much of a plot. By the way, the plot itself also resembles a videogame: "Let´s go to meet the Architect, so the war will be over! Uh-oh! We can´t go there without the key. Let´s go get the key-maker! Uh-oh! He´s been imprisoned by a fake frenchman and his goons! Let´s fight them!" Kind of dull, comparing what the plot of the first Matrix was.
Finally, the actors. Many times I´ve heard someone complaining the actors were as if they were made of wood. Well, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss do not act as good as their characters should. Laurence Fishburne is a little better, but not much. However, there is also some good acting in this movie. Gloria Foster as the Oracle is as great as in the first movie. My favorite is still Hugo Weaving´s agent Smith. He´s like as he is full of evil and his phrases ("Smith will suffice", "Me, me, me." "Me too" and the already once mentioned "Mr. Anderson! Surprised to see me?") are the only smilable parts of this movie. Weaving´s got a strange way of speaking. I guess that is because he is actually british, but talks in the movie as an american.
All in all, this may not be as great as the first film, but I will still reccommend this to anyone who likes good action and doesn´t like to complain about every little detail. Oh, and if you haven´t seen "the Matrix" watch that first. You can´t understand anything in the movie if you haven´t see that one. 8/10
The Best part:(SPOILER)
Neo has a Burly Brawl with a lot of agent Smiths. At one point one fallen agent shouts furiously "More" and from the nearby door comes A LOT more of the clones. They pile in top of Neo, but he manages to escape. Finally, Neo throws one Smith at the others, which makes a sound like bowling a strike. Then Neo flies off leaving the agents looking calmly up to the sky and then slowly walking away.