The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded
7.274%72%
Freedom fighters Neo, Trinity and Morpheus continue to lead the revolt against the Machine Army, unleashing their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation.
grantss reviewedMay 25, 2025
Good but a bit disappointing.
The first Matrix film was brilliant: daringly original and left-field yet quite plausible and intelligent and highly entertaining. A great mix of concept, plot and action.
The Matrix Reloaded picks up where the original left off but the mix is now shifted over to the action side. The Matrix concept is still there but it’s not new anymore. One of the great things about the original film was discovering and unravelling the Matrix and then seeing how it could be manipulated. Here, we know the background and generally don’t need to know anything new (though there is a backstory drop towards the end that is quite interesting).
The plot here is much weaker than before, quite thin to start off with though it gets some degree of focus towards the end. Much of the plot development just seems to exist to get us to the next action scene. The substance of the first movie has been replaced with style.
On that note, the physics-defying action scenes are still there and they’re even more over-the-top and more plentiful. Some are quite epic – the extended car chase is phenomenal. However, the frequency and gratuitousness of them gets quite tedious after a while – oh, look, another fight scene with perfectly choreographed, gravity-defying martial arts moves. This said, despite the repetition it’s hard to not be drawn in.
This over-reliance on action and the thinness of the plot does make this film a bit disappointing as I was hoping for something similar to the first film in terms of cleverness of plot. Overall it’s still quite good but not anywhere near as good as the original (though that is a very high benchmark).