I really enjoyed the 2nd film and thought the 3rd was weaker than the first two but still a decent movie. Of course no sequel could ever have the impact of seeing the original after we had been familiarized with the concept, but I still feel like Reloaded (2) is just as good as the first. Revolutions had interesting scenes and ideas, but it felt very unbalanced. Too much "real world" and not enough Matrix. Stuff like the sentinel battle and Smith fight went on for waaaaay too long and it felt like they were just padding the film to get a decent run time.
But 2... I don't get the hate for 2 at all. It was well balanced as far as real world vs matrix scenes, we got to see Zion and how Neo had become a messiah-like figure to them, and we got a deeper understanding of the politics of the matrix itself with characters like Merovingian. The dialogue was as interesting and well written as anything in the first. My favorites being the Merovingian restaurant scene, the Architect scene at the end, and the conversations between Morpheus, Lock, and Hammond. "I do not believe it to be a matter of hope... it is simply a matter of time." Then the whole reveal with the Architect at the end, and the reaction of everyone, especially Morpheus, when they hear the news. And then there are the cool set-piece moments that stick in my mind like the fight with Oracle (...i must apologize...), the Twins, Chateau fight, the highway scene, etc. Sorry for gushing, but 2 is my favorite of the trilogy. 3 felt like they cut the final act from 2 and made an entire movie out of it. If they had made a tighter, stand-alone sequel combining 2 and 3, I think that would have been best.
". It reminded us that dinosaurs were still bad business, it built tension. Showed us that in this movie, nothing will be sacred.