Matrix fails to inspire

Ok, so it starts with a pretty cool backflip off a motorbike, but there is something curiously un-revved up about this sequel.

It is as if the directors, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, did not know what to do with all the extra cash flung their way following the phenomenal success of The Matrix, so they just put in everything that crossed their minds.

Unfortunately, piling the bathwater in with the baby leads to everdiminishing returns.

And, in an action movie so lacking in anything approximating tension, the cop-out ending is more a lazy shrug than a cliffhanger.

Plot-wise, it is as confusing as it is banal. Nero (played by Keanu Reeves) must find a way to save Zion, the only place where humans can still breathe and, it appears, get hot and sweaty at rave parties, before it is destroyed by the all-powerful machines.

The cast put in very pretty, nicely attired, performances with Laurence Fishburne rising above his lacklustre material and playing Morpheus as Shakespeare might have written him (I swear he delivers his lines in iambic pentameter).

Reeves is perfect as the supersonic flying part-human, part-machine (though that's not necessarily a compliment) and Monica Bellucci is briefly terrific, despite being squeezed into the most jaw-droppingly misogynist outfit this side of Barbarella.

Yes, the fights are balletic, but not as exciting as in the original, and resorting to a 20-minute car chase is the sign of desperation in any movie - even if there is a PVC-clad girlie on a Ducati in the middle of it all. The set design is generally too cool for its own good; the shades of black and grey quickly prove wearing.

If you are the sort of person who would shell out for the The Animatrix, an accompanying DVD of short films explaining the background to the movie, then you may find The Matrix Reloaded a worthwhile experience.

Otherwise you could leave the cinema feeling very short-changed.

The Matrix Reloaded
Cert: cert15