I must confess that the night before I went to see this movie, I watched the first Matrix movie for the first time. I found the first one to be rather basic, somewhat overhyped. Maybe it's because I saw it long after the camera effects and fighting style had been adapted, but my biggest complaint was that Neo didn't actually realize his powers until the end. The fact that he stopped all the bullets with his hand in one scene was probably the best part of the movie, though it happened within the last five minutes. I was hoping, based on the logic that Neo now realized his powers, that the Matrix Reloaded would be much more enjoyable to watch.
It wasn't.
The Matrix Reloaded started off with all these outfits and scenery that looked like something straight out of Star Wars, but not the old, classic George Lucas movies, no, they looked like they had picked up some wardrobe misfits from the Phantom Menace. There becomes all this talk of "Neo is the one, he will save us all", which was too much like Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker for me.
Once we get past all of the Star Wars looking stuff, you get into this huge party in Zion. This becomes a big rave like scene of thousands of people dancing to bad techno music and a Keanu Reeves-Carrie Anne Moss love scene. Ok. When you're movie is over two hours long, and you're wondering what to do to cut it down, why not take out this ridiculous love scene and techno dance party? It lasted for at least ten minutes (though it seemed like an hour) and was a nice way of showing the love Neo had for Trinity, yes, but people come to see the Matrix for action, not romance.
From here, the plot gets pretty thin. Up until they find the Key Maker, I'm not too big on the plot. The Key Maker isn't really a good character in himself, it's just that once they get him, Morpheus has this huge fight scene with Mr. Smith on the roof of a moving tractor trailer truck. I kid you not. It was the single best part of the movie and the only thing that gave this otherwise cliche` piece of work any sort of value.
A lot of this movie was just someone saying something and then saying the exact opposite in reverse, trying to sound real intelligent but just boring me. They would say something like, "If it is meant to be, then meant to be it is". Look, I could say, "I am reviewing this movie, reviewing this movie I am" and it sounds pretty cool to say outloud, but it's still just stating the opposite.
The fight scenes (other than the moving truck one) were pretty overdone. Some of them even had bad techno music in the background, so it was like watching a Jackie Chan movie in Germany. (For the record, the sex scene between Neo and Trinity did also have the bad techno music of the dance party going. How much more low budget porn could you possibly get?)
As the movie came to an end, Neo had to make a choice to either save all of mankind or save Trinity who was in danger of dying. At this point I realized one of the reasons why I dislike the Matrix movies so much-- Trinity. No, it's not her character specifically, it's the actress (Carrie Anne Moss) who is playing her. She looks so cold, so mean. Her hair is so short, dark and greased back. She has this look on her face- constantly- that just makes you think she is evil and, as the old saying goes, "one only a mother could love". Give me Famke Jansen. Give me Jennifer Garner. Give me a real woman I could care about whether she lives or dies. Not some lady who looks too old for Keanu and mean on top of it.
Though the star of this movie is really Laurence Fishburne (he made this movie watchable at times, though not completely), this movie left us with a cliffhanger ending that says "to be concluded". As much as I'd really like to know how it ends, I really just don't care.
And strictly off the record, how come the trenchcoat Neo wears looks so much like a dress? How's that for a male lead super hero type? This movie was too cornball for me.