Matrix Reloaded Meta-Review

This article has no spoilers beyond what is shown in the previews for the movie. Besides, does it really matter now that the movie has made more than $135 million? Short review: I liked Reloaded, a lot. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would say that my favorite scene was the Burly Brawl (the fight between Neo and the many Agent Smiths). I also thought that the movie did a good job of continuing forward movement of the story and bringing some new depth to the world of The Matrix. We get to learn several more bits of “just how deep the rabbit hole goes”.

The meta part of this review: I read the Entertainment Weekly review of Reloaded this weekend. The short form of that review was that Reloaded is a mediocre movie that was raised up because of its stunning visuals (grade: B). They found the plot pretentious and didn’t particularly care for the acting of Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburn. They also didn’t seem to care too much for the script. Now, I’ll grant that movie and music reviews are very subjective, which is why sites like Rotten Tomatoes are helpful. But, I wanted to specifically comment on the plot of Reloaded. The Matrix was great because they had to do all of that exposition and they were introducing us to a new and interesting world. Reloaded couldn’t have that same sort of magical quality, because we’ve already been introduced to the world. But, I was happy with how many more ideas we were exposed to and where they let us off before making us wait for Revolutions. The Wachowski brothers have a lot to live up to for that third movie, but I’ve got faith that they know what they’re doing (much more so than for certain other filmmakers).