The Matrix: Reloaded is a great big, dumb movie in the history of big, dumb movies. I know this because i was gripping my seat as i watched the intense freeway chase between Trinity, Morpheus and the Twins. I was transfixed, enraptured by the high-speed action taking place before my eyes.

And then the screen abruptly went blank. The film reel stopped, and the house lights came on. I felt dazed, like a someone rudely awakened from a hyperreal dream.

I had literally been unplugged from The Matrix.

That's the power of the movie, entrapping you in its own dream world of relentless superhuman action, with some of the most stylish and breathtaking scenes ever filmed — Trinity's freefall shoot-out, the "big brawl," the freeway chase. I was thrilled, and i thoroughly enjoyed myself. Still, it wasn't enough. This was one hell of a big, dumb movie... but when you think about how smart the first one was, you can't help but be a tad disappointed.

The original The Matrix was brilliant in its tapping of two core fantasies of the human psyche. The first part of the movie is the ultimate paranoid nightmare, drawn from the fear that (a) reality isn't what we think it is, and (b) there's a malevolent conspiracy to keep everyone under control. The second part plunges into an even more powerful fantasy: the narcissistic dream that "I am special, and the rules don't apply to me, even if they do to everyone else." That's not even going into the film's overt allusions to the bible and Greek mythology.

Reloaded, however, explores the overused fantasy of "Love conquers all" — and not in any original way, either. The movie is also about the idea of "choice," and this is hammered into our head so constantly we just want to put up our hands and say, "We get it, okay? It's all about choice! Now get on with it!" We came to see a movie, not a lecture in philosophy.

The movie's thrill ride is also lessened because we, the audience, have become jaded. I remember the first time i watched The Matrix, how i was awestruck at watching Trinity's 360-rotated flying kick, and Neo experiencing "bullet time." Those were cool effects, and revolutionary for their time. Since then they've been copied in everything from Charlie's Angels to Shrek. Reloaded gives us some fantastic action sequences, but nothing as revolutionary as bullet time. The "big brawl" is fun but too gimmicky, too videogame-ish. Watching all of the effects sequences, you get the distinct feeling that the Wachowskis had a strong need to top themselves. Well, they didn't, because they made the mistake of focusing on cool effects instead of telling us a better story. Hasn't Star Wars taught them anything?

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't watched The Matrix: Reloaded, you are advised not to read beyond this point.

And the acting in Reloaded is quite laughable. Laurence Fishburne especially is a big disappointment. In The Matrix, his Morpheus was compelling and full of intrigue. In Reloaded, he comes off like a crazed religious fanatic, and i for one cannot understand why the council has so much respect for such a nutcase. About the only person in the movie who can act is Gloria Foster, the Oracle. Her scene arrives like a breath of fresh air, a sublime moment in the midst of such mediocre performances. And, well, i guess The Merovingian wasn't half bad, either.