The Matrix Reloaded Reviews
Top CriticIf you're 14 or younger in age or sensibility, you may giggle at some of the bons mots.
Worryingly, the longer this movie goes on, the harder it is to care.
I liked this movie and can recommend it with a clear critical conscience, but it never moved me even half as much as Steven Spielberg's A.I.
A sadder, wiser, more grown-up movie than its predecessor.
In the face of almost unbearable expectations, the Wachowski brothers deliver a sequel that soars to places only hinted at in the original.
You don't have to buy into the geeky mythmaking in The Matrix Reloaded in order to enjoy its kinetic pleasures.
Early in the movie, Morpheus warns a new character that he's got to have faith. All things considered, The Matrix Reloaded justifies that faith.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
In this first Matrix sequel, you'll see things you've never seen before on a movie screen, and that's all that matters.
| Original Score: 4/5
Delivers, in spades, exactly what you should expect from a popcorn flick.
The world created so vividly by the Wachowskis is still brand new but not nearly so intimidating or alienating.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Judged strictly by the story line, this one plays like what it is, a rather meandering second act that advances the plot only slightly and doesn't pretend to be a complete or self-sufficient film.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Yes, Matrix is reloaded. Let's hope that in November it really fires.
| Original Score: B-
An ugly, bloated, repetitive movie that builds to a punch line that should have come an hour earlier.
This picture never accumulates the sense of shared adventure that the first one did, and though the special effects are even better than before, they cannot be new twice.
| Original Score: 3/4
While it is both naive and unfair to expect lightning to strike terrain this fertile twice, the most distressing thing about the reloading of The Matrix is just how much it feels like The Phantom Menace.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Reloaded piles on much more fighting and firepower but lacks the impact of the original.
| Original Score: 3/4
Eyes will pop, nerves will jangle, thoughts will be provoked and other summer blockbusters will shrink in comparison. But to quote from one of the few cultural touchstones not referenced in this film: 'Houston, we've got a problem.'
| Original Score: 3/4
While I enjoyed it immensely, Reloaded didn't upgrade my system like the first one did.
| Original Score: 3/4
Dark, with jaw-dropping effects, stunning action beats and a chase to end all chases, The Matrix Reloaded is a movie-going dare.
| Original Score: 3/5
Much-anticipated sequel to The Matrix is both phenomenally talky and loaded with action and effects. How can this be? It's long.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The film has the same problems as The Empire Strikes Back, offering neither the novelty of an initial episode nor the satisfaction of a climactic one.
The martial arts sequences are breathtakingly staged.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
While it's exhilarating fun, as an overall piece of storytelling, this reboot never really hits the heights of the ultra-cool The Matrix, which re-invented the rules for sci-fi epics in 1999.
| Original Score: 3/4
For sheer exhilarating spectacle, The Matrix Reloaded is the film to beat this year.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
As a piece of razzle-dazzle, shut-your-mouth -and-slap -you-silly eye candy, Reloaded more than delivers. But where's the head candy? Where's the complexity? Where are the goods?
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
On balance, The Matrix Reloaded does an admirable job of filling the niche it's supposed to -- that of an action-oriented science fiction adventure.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Perhaps because this story is slacker, it's more obvious the way the Wachowskis strain to keep us wowed -- not only in special effects and action scenes but also with dialogue and fashion, too.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Few nonbelievers will be persuaded by the film, even fewer of those within the fold will be discouraged by it, but despite its faults, The Matrix has indeed been reloaded.
| Original Score: B
Reloaded might not have the power to change the way you see the world, but it just may change the way you look at movies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Ultimately, all the razzle-dazzle becomes mind-numbingly repetitive and drains the film of any tension involving the main players.
For such a rich visual movie, Reloaded tells far more than it shows.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The thrill isn't gone from the sequel, but the surprise is, and it hurts more than you'd think.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Plug in. Again. But be prepared for some glitches in the software.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
The refreshing draft of effervescent movie magic leaves a sludgy sediment of metaphysics. The latter may be less than brain-buzzing; the former is something else, thanks largely to genius fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping.
Matrix Reloaded is, unlike the first film, a conventional comic-book movie, in places a campy conventional comic-book movie, and in places a ludicrously campy conventional comic-book movie.
Reloaded is more of a straight-ahead action movie than the original, and it's filled with spectacular mayhem.
While upping the ante considerably in the action and effects department, storytelling stumbles frequently this outing as the movie stops cold for philosophical digressions about fate and destiny and reality.
Delivers enough thrills, kicks and cool moments to satiate geeks, fans and mere general viewers worldwide.
