For a movie that I've been looking forward to since the closing credits of the original, it was pretty disappointing. If the original had never come out, or if it hadn't been obvious that there would be a sequel, or even if the sequel had come with a lot less hype it would have been a great movie. As it is, with expectations counted in, it was merely good.
First, the bad. It was way too long. Morpheus's speech to the masses of Zion could have been about half as long, and all the other pontificating towards the beginning would have been better with some judicious cuts. Same with the conversation with The Architect. Some of the action scenes (all but the freeway and the one hundred Smith's, in fact) could have been cut slightly, too (I know, sacrilege). None of the scenes had the same punch as any of the fight scenes in the original (except the freeway scene), but that could be chalked up to an overexposure to wire-work kung fu since then (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Charlie's Angels, Bulletproof Monk). And none of the new characters resonated like the ones introduced in the first movie, and the old characters were lacking a lot of their charm. They just seemed too sure of themselves all of the sudden. It was refreshing when they were scared most of the time, especially when Neo was unsure of his Oneness but those around him weren't.
Now, the good. Thank Jebus that Agent Smith was back, sans earpiece. The visual effects were better than the original by about an order of magnitude. We were left hanging from a much higher cliff this time than last. That's really about it.
I really wish I'd liked this movie more, but I still have high hopes for the next one. It doesn't make me very confident, though, when the second X-Men movie was better than the second Matrix movie (the ratio of betterness was almost exactly reversed this time). But I can still dream for an awesome Revolutions.
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