The Matrix Reloaded

The first Matrix film was revolutionary in many ways, and in being so different and so stylized it created something of a cult following. Not satisfied with one hit, however, the studio (WB) went back to the well for second and third installments, the first of which hit theaters this past Thursday. The Matrix Reloaded is going to make all kinds of money, that you can be sure of. But the question is, is it any good? The answer is: sort of. It would be hard to top some of the mind-bending twists of the first one (even if some of those concepts were borrowed from another film), but Reloaded takes an honest stab at it, sometimes succeeding and sometimes going way, way too far. Like Mummy Returns or X2, the Wachowski brothers decided if they were going to do a sequel, it had to be bigger, better, and faster. Which Reloaded mostly is. There are fight scenes galore, abundant special effects, and all kinds of eye-popping visuals to thrill even the most severely jaded summer movie-goer. Underneath all the flying and kicking and all of that, though, what is there? Its no surprise that the visuals are incredible. But what made the first Matrix film so neat was that mind-boggling graphics overlaid a tight, suspenseful plot; there was some meat behind the flash. In Reloaded, frankly, theres less meat, and some of what we are given feels contrived to set up massive visual pieces. The story is loosely this: semi-visionary Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne, packing about forty extra pounds since the first film) believes that the prophecy about the One, as personified by Neo (Keanu Reaves) will bear fruit soon, and the war against the machines will be over. Fair enough. But it seems some of the divided ruling council of the last human underground city, Zion, dont agree, and are worried about the impending signs of a machine attack. So Morpheus and his crew are recalled to Zion so everyone can discuss what the best course of action is. From there we follow Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) back out into the world (and the Matrix) to more or less run around hitting things while being directed from one barely explained oddball anomaly in the Matrix to another. Finally we get to the heart of the matter, that you can only blow up the Death Star by dropping a torpedo in an unguarded cooling shaft, and that (of course) only Neo can push the button. Morpheus is confident this will end the war for good; I was less so because I know the third installation will be coming in six months. The plots okay. Theres a lot (and I mean a lot) of talk about free will vs. predestination, with the writers never really coming down on either side of the fence (and occasionally on both sides), but in essence what you have is one long chase scene punctuated by needs to pause for exposition. The movie takes a while to get going, and I found it more or less irksome for about the first forty-five minutes to an hour. While the original Matrix hinted at a world beyond the portals of Morpheus ship, Reloaded makes the enormous mistake of not only showing it to

us but dwelling there. Zion is about as unappealing a place as it could possibly be, and I found myself hoping the machines took it out quickly. One poorly developed character after another is thrown quickly at us, with the result that the first hour feels not only rushed but crammed, as if they really had a three and a half hour film and had to cut it to two. The only new rebel even remotely interesting is Link (Harold Perrineau Jr.) who is the new pilot for Morpheus ship. Everyone else is instantly forgettable and has no charisma whatsoever (which means that Jada Pinkett Smith is actually better than expected). After wasting far too much time in Zion, we finally get back on the road and back into the crazy hi-tech world of the Matrix. After some set fight scenes that felt very rote (Neo must battle his way past Seraph another unexplained anomaly in the Matrix to get to the Oracle), we finally make it to the real object of the chase: the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who holds the plans to the Death Star. Opposing Neo & co. are not only the sinister agents from the Matrix, but a new and improved Agent Smith, and the oddball henchmen of yet another anomaly in the Matrix known as the Merovingian. These anomalies who serve that anomaly actually have some pretty neat powers, and once they inevitably try to open up a can of whoop ass on Neo, we get rolling. Where this movie fails is in a complicated and contradictory attempt to create some kind of thoughtful philosophy (which is odd, because that was an area where the first one thrived). We get the whole free will/cause and effect/choice or no choice thing done to death, again, with no real resolution, and we get everyones powers explained away by a simple the Matrix wanted it that way excuse, which wears thin by the eighteenth recital. And we sort of get a monster cheat in the end, but I wont give that away. Where the movie excels is in the visuals. You literally have never seen anything like this. Neos fight against the Merovingians henchman has some spark (sadly, nothing before that not a one of the early action sequences has any life at all), and there is a long, complicated, and completely edge-of-your-seat chase sequence on an LA freeway that is not only the most exciting car chase scene ever devised, its insanely clever and is proof that computer graphics have advanced enough so that you cannot actually tell what is real and what isnt any more. You see people doing things that you know they cannot do, and yet it is shown in such a way that you can believe them doing it. Once the chase for the Keymaker begins, we get less philosophy nonsense and more action, which improves the movie greatly. Reloaded does go overboard in a few places, most notably in the silliest fight scene (between Neo and several dozen copies of Agent Smith) since cartoon Yoda dropped an anvil on Christopher Lees head. In fact, the first half of this movie reminded me a lot of Attack of the Clones, because it espoused the same if you can do it with special effects, you should kind of thinking. But somehow in the second half of the film it tightens up considerably and becomes a very enjoyable movie. Im still kind of baffled by this, because the exposition was one of the best parts of the Matrix, and it was just awful here. And yet the payoff is extraordinary, and except for the last three minutes which are more a set-up for the next film than a part of this one, the second half of the film is superb. The tiny end piece is jarring (and clunky) and is an anticlimax after a terrific sequence with Neo and Trinity.

Like it or not, the Matrix films are part of our modern mythology. A partially flawed part, but a part nonetheless. I wish some of the backstory was a little more original (they borrow some from the Terminator mythos here) but there can be no denying that the Wachowskis have tapped into something. Theres certainly enough about this film to recommend seeing it, and Ill be there for the third one as well. Just dont be expecting installments as well-crafted as the original, because youre not going to get them. Reloaded is bigger and faster, but what it really wants to be is smarter, and it just isnt. May 16, 2003