My good friend Marc gave his opinion on the Matrix today. I met Marc at ASPRE, he is a damn fine hacker and one of the best security guys I know, so if you want to hire a top notch CISSP, just send me an email an I can put you in touch. Anyway his comments follow:
The first Matrix was done in such a way that it could be a stand alone film or left open for sequels, just like the original Star Wars. Now that it's a trilogy, people need to take Reloaded in that context. The great thing about the original was the deep thought behind it, the incredible action and effects where just the icing on the cake. If everyone is expecting some great new philosophy mind fuck to emerge from this one, or even the third, then they'll be disappointed. Reloaded is building on a story already told, not writing a new one.
Keep in mind I haven't seen it yet and it might really suck.