Not since Rocky fought Mr. T has a sequel so failed to live up to the quality of the original. The original Matrix was dedicated to keeping the action, surprises, and humor coming, no matter how contradictory, illogical, or downright stupid. Matrix Reloaded is dedicated to the opposite task: establishing that the Matrix "universe" is a complete and consistent foundation on which to build an endless franchise of movies, video games, television series, and comic books. As if that weren't enough of an anchor, the Wachowski brothers are philosophizing like stoned sophomores picking on stoned freshmen: instead of riffing on the worthy theme at hand ("What if everything you knew to be real turned out to be a lie?"), they pretend that they've got an answer, but it lies somewhere beyond pretentious follow-on questions ("What is free will?").[ ]{style="mso-spacerun: yes"}Whoa, dudes. Complete rant here.