logomancer | Operator, load me up. Again. (Reply)

OK, so obligatory commentary on Reloaded:

The movie dragged in a couple of bits. Can't say where without giving anything away.
Much, much more fighting, particularly hand-to-hand. Few guns at all.
Ending was somewhat abrupt.
Trailer for Revolutions at the end of the credits. Very sparse, but probably all we'll get for a few months.

To continue:

First, I think the Wachowskis win the Oskar for Longest Sex Scene Outside of a Porno. It dragged, and detracted from the plot. The whole temple scene, in fact, seemed more filler than anything else. Those ten minutes could have been reduced to two minutes or so easily, with the rest on the DVD. It makes me wonder if this was the studio's idea.
There was a bit too much gratuitous religious symbolism for my taste. First, we have the temple scene, with all of the special costumes that make one feel like they were in ancient Egypt or something. Then we have this "cult of Neo", where the citizens of Zion ask him to watch over their children, etc. There was an incredible over-effort to make Neo into this Jesus-like figure. It seemed contrived to me.
As someone else pointed out, Neo acted less like Sam (from Zelazny's Lord of Light) and more like Hiro Protagonist (from Stephenson's Snow Crash). In other words, less like a demigod and more like a mage. It clashed with the first movie.
The fight scene with the (2^n + 1) Smiths was long, but I'll forgive them for it. It rocked. One press release said you couldn't tell the CGI from the real thing. You could, but it was still a good scene.
The bit with the Architect was a damn good mindfuck.
A funny thing happening with all the non-gratuitous religious symbolism. We have Smith, who's the fallen angel in this story. So, that implies that the Agents are angels, and the Architect is God. So with Neo being this Jesus figure, does this imply that Neo -- or, rather, Neo's abilities -- were given to him by the Architect? That the Architect intentionally gave Neo these powers (instead of the implication that the choice of Neo the be The One this time was random)? That the Architect wants the Matrix to die, either to end it all or to be rebuilt? Is the Architect a suicidal machine program, or is he human? Or...is he simply looking for perfection, but the inherent flaws in the human species get in the way?

Of course, all this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Overall, I would have to say it was good, but not as good as the first one. Part of this can be attributed to the novelty wearing off. The other part was just the writing. It was apparent to me that the Wachowskis didn't put enough time/effort/heart into this one as they did the first one. I would attribute this to 1) the knowledge that they'd be successful no matter what they did just because the first one was so good and 2) because they wrote (and fleshed out) the beginning and the end better than the middle, and this is a case of Middle Movie Syndrome. That said, I'd give it 8 out of 10.

I can't wait to see Revolutions.