So what did I think? The effects were very slick, in a TV-commercial sort of way (the sheer amount of work that doing all that must have involved is mind-boggling), and the philosophy wasn't completely gutted (as some commentators said it was). In places it seemed to go randomly from one impressive set/stunt sequence/effect to another, using the fact that it's-all-in-a-computer as a massive deus ex machina to get away with it, and parts of it seemed unclear, but it will hopefully be tied up neatly in film 3 (due out in a mere few months, undoubtedly to suit the MTV Generation's attention spans). The story also knocked down Keanu Reeves' messianic status a bit, which was a good thing (though his acting still has that plastic-action-figure quality about it). The soundtrack was mostly incidental music and the odd Juno Reactor psy-trance bit. The surfeit of extreme-sports-metal/fucked-up shit on the soundtrack had me worried for a while that they'd mook things up, but thankfully all that was pushed back to the closing credits.
I don't think it was just the cinema, I got a 2 day migraine out of it :-\ I thought some of the effects were very obviously cgi (albeit, extremely well rendered) and it looked like a computer game. The best thought I have come across that I think described it really well "It's not as good as it thinks it is".
I'll reserve judgment on how good it is until I see the third film, and whether it all comes together nicely or falls apart in a tangle of loose ends as the X Files did.
The drawn-out fight scenes were a bummer. Especially the one where he fights six guys for ages,when he just defeated about 100 or more in the same time or less!
Oh, but I enjoyed those long action scenes! It was the jarring changes of pace that were most annoying about the film, but basically my impressions were the same as acb's: flawed but fun.
Oh, and I did get a headache out of it the first viewing too, but I barely noticed.
'The Architect' == Grand Architect
Freemasonry's term for God.
The "fight scene with the weapons" with the castrovalvan^H^H^HMerovignian's henchmen is fought in front of a giant mural featuring the letter 'M' ... which could mean a lot of things I suppose.
Merde ... la Mer (in keeping with the oceanic theme of the mural itself) ... Morte ... or
Masonry
Money
Marijuana
etc. ;)
Castrovalvan? I thought he may be a reference to Neil Gaiman's Corinthian (at least when I heard the name).
I wonder whether his Frenchness was there originally, or added on to sell to the freedom-fries crowd.
The Merovingians were a French ("Frankish") dynasty. According to the "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" conspiracy theory, they were descended from Jesus.
"The Matrix Reloaded" as Christian Gnosticism:
http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/051803matrix.htm
The Interpretive-Industrial Complex rides again...
I saw it last night as well, and was less than impressed. The filming gave me a headache (maybe it was just the cinema I was in), and the pointlessly long fight scenes / rave scenes / philospohical ramblings almost sent me to sleep. Yes, the effects were slick, but it was too obvious that the rest of the movie was just a showcase for them.