well i loved this after all the negative murmurs that'd reached me! an eight from me as it's obviously nothing on the original but as good as i could've hoped for a sequel 20 years later. things i liked and hated:
- the meta stuff and the central role of the love story
- keanu and carrie, their chemistry and their white hairs
- i really disliked jada pinkett smith (the aging job was dire) and priyanka chopra, as usual.
- no one will ever match weaving but i quite liked groff! harris i thought wasn't a great casting choice, he just looked out of place.
- i loved yahya and his fancy suits but morpheus was a bit of an afterthought.
- the special effects and the fights were not great - the matrix eyes were particularly poor, though i did like the kamikaze idea. as mentioned the first had some proper jaw-dropping effects and it looked like they didn't even try this time. was there something to the sparks in the garage scene? and the slow speed? it felt like there was a lot of emphasis on it but it was just there.
- some of the costuming was shit - naiobi and bugs in particular. is short blue hair on a woman still considered edgy? wow.
- on that note the merovingian, fun as it was to have him back, looked ridiculous! wish we got monica bellucci in derelicte by mugatu as well.
- i liked the use of the old scenes