I have mixed feelings about this sequel. I have too always been The Matrix fan, and never really complained about the sequels to the original Matrix movie because I guess there is always more than one road to take with a sequel, and the original franchise, in my opinion, was made with clear understanding of where The Matrix phenomenon was at the time - it was current, it spent tons of money on production, and what's the most important thing, it always had taste and substance to justify the amounts of investment. I loved it. But this new one... Well, I agree about especially liking the first part of the movie - the experience of Neo is captured with the wit and not giving much s.it about trends - something I would expect from Wachowski, and definitely approve of. I definitely liked the idea about coding pros being able to hack into Matrix code from elsewhere, or even different time, and observe everything that's going on. (Even if this is not a 100% reiteration of what happens in the film, it still gives one the idea about how The Matrix creators haven't lost their mojo after all these years.) But when it gets overcrowded, and basically over itemised with everything, that's where, in my opinion, it lost much of the oomph it had built during the first part of the film. This was also the case with Matrix sequels before where Neo was fighting effloads of opponents, for instance, but I could still get past that without much complaining because, for one, it didn't feel like a dull Matrix deja vu at the time. And then there are highway scenes in Matrix Reloaded that definitely didn't feel like an excess, rather fun and exciting to watch. Yet I think where I share the opinion with a lot of other folks is that Matrix is always really good when it manages to avoid not only unrealistic, but just dull and stupid excess. Think of the iconic scenes that it's most famous for - none of those include excess. In fact, they are rather minimalistic, yet visually still compelling, with a witty context. Like that "dodge this" scene with agent, Neo and Trinity on the rooftop.