I never wanted to see The Matrix.

Like Keanu Reeves’ Ted Logan from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure might say, the idea of watching two hours of Reeves “acting” made me want to hurl. But after great word of mouth, I broke down and saw the movie.

I was blown away. The story of computer hacker Neo (Reeves) recruited to become the saviour of humanity by rebels Trinity (fellow Canadian Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) came out of nowhere to become the blockbuster hit of 1999. Its appeal? An innovative storyline with an existentialist undertone delivered with jaw-dropping special effects. In short, a rock-’em, sock-’em futuristic shoot-’em-up with soul. And from its scores of imitators, it was clear that the gauntlet for a new breed of action film had been dropped.

But its success has come with a price. With a $300 million (US) price tag, a 209-day shoot and a cult-like following, The Matrix: Reloaded, written and directed by former comic book artists Andy and Larry Wachowski, faces massive expectations. And it’s because of these expectations that the movie inevitably suffers.

With a normal action movie franchise, the formula for a sequel is pretty simple: you just deliver more. More speed. More explosions. More action.

But with a smart original like The Matrix, admired as much for what it’s saying as how it’s saying it, the problem of a sequel is more complex. How do you make an interesting concept more clever? How do you make gravity-defying special effects more… special? The short answer is that it’s difficult. And in this case, the challenge isn’t completely met.

The Matrix: Reloaded finds the rebels in a 72-hour race against the clock to save Zion, the last bastion of humanity, from machines which threaten to take over the world. The action explodes out of the gate and the opening sequence culminates with a wild free-fall shootout. But in an unfortunate trend, the thrill of the sequence eventually gets lost to a rambling philosophical discussion. In an attempt to hide Neo’s role in the Matrix from him, the Wachowskis make its philosophical points too confusing. But it being a story of self-discovery, some confusion is excusable. But neither the dialogue nor the acting is interesting enough to surpass these problems and sustain momentum.

Keanu Reeves does a phenomenal job in Yuen Wo Ping’s highly choreographed fight scenes. And his acting is better than you might expect. Volumes have been written about his wooden style, but the role of Neo fits his range. Laurence Fishburne adds his patented bass-y gravitas to Morpheus, but his voice of doom comes across as excessively moralistic even for a character for whom faith is everything. But it’s the misuse of Hugo Weaving as the methodically creepy Agent Smith that is both the most frustrating and the most telling about the movie’s shortcomings.

Whereas the original movie’s tension was based on the conflict between Neo and the more powerful Smith, the sequel turns the tables. Now Smith needs to multiply to compete with Neo. His character’s strong venom becomes diluted in a CGI experiment gone out of control. Also, unlike the original, Smith isn’t the sole source of evil. Neo and the rebels are met by a veritable rogues’ gallery of resistance. As a result, one of the most deliciously evil characters in recent film history is lost in a sea of interesting-looking, but ultimately less satisfying villains.

Less focused than its sleek predecessor and a little too ambitious for its own good, The Matrix: Reloaded reminds me of the Icarus fable. It starts to fall apart just as it tries to reach too high.