Pleasantly average

Rating: Null/10 (18 November 2003)

I'm glad the Wachowski brothers didn't completely lose their touch after making the first Matrix, thankfully they dispensed with the time-wasting fight scenes and overly long action sequences for this second sequel. The actors seemed a little tired in the delivery in some of their lines (the opposite for Hugo Weaving, he seemed madder than ever) and the Oracle's been replaced by another actor (just found out about Gloria Foster' untimely passing). The effects are as good as ever, important characters get injured or maimed, and the film is a decent enough length to tell the story properly (ends a bit too quickly after the climax though).
Spoilers ahead: I thought the man-machine war was resolved a little too easily for my liking, I always thought it would end with one side wiping out the other, instead of the machines basically giving the humans their freedom (who was behind that face? and why did he suddenly 'see the light'?). And what of the after-effects of this freedom? I would have liked to see a little more of the beginnings of this new world order. I'm satisfied with the ending but the Wachowski's could have mapped out a bit more of the post man-machine war timeline.