The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

After 1999’s enormously successful The Matrix captivated audiences, reinvigorated deep-thinking science fiction, and introduced the world to new levels of computer and special effects and filmmaking techniques, talk of a sequel was inevitable. Many wondered if or how the Wachowski brothers could pull off such a feat. Four years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, we got a chance to find out.

Instead of just one sequel, the Wachowski brothers promised us two sequels- to be filmed at the same time- creating a Matrix trilogy. The Matrix Reloaded was released in May of 2003 and was followed by the third and final installment that November. This, the first of the sequels turned out to be an interesting mix of too little and too much too late.

The overarching story of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions is that the Machines have formed a vast army and are drilling their way deep into the earth to launch an attack on Zion, the last free human settlement on earth. After Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar meet up with the captains and crews of other ships in Zion’s fleet, they learn that, at the rate the machines are digging, Zion will be reached in no more than 72 hours.

The crews all return to Zion, where Morpheus discusses strategy with Zion’s security minister and a council of elders. The council allows Morpheus to take his ship outside the safety of Zion so Neo may contact the Oracle. Before they depart, the people of Zion decide to have one final party before the machines bear down upon them. It’s a very awkward scene with a lot of slow motion and a lot of sweaty bodies heaving back and forth. All the while, Neo and Trinity make love, which is equally awkward because their bodies are covered with the plugs and sockets that once connected them to the Matrix.

Neo and company head out and he meets with the Oracle. They have a deep discussion that delves into some weighty philosophical matters and it is learned that instead of a renegade person hooked up to the Matrix, the Oracle is in fact a program created by the Matrix. It sort of helps to explain why the Matrix doesn’t just kill her off, but it also complicates things and is a splash of foreshadowing. The Oracle tells Neo that he must return to The Source by finding the Keymaker and she leaves him.

At this point, The Matrix Reloaded becomes little more than a chase caper. Neo and his friends find themselves in the middle of action sequence after action sequence designed to show off the camera tricks, special effects and wire work that wowed us all in the original film. There’s Neo fighting about 100 Smith’s; Neo, Morpheus and Trinity taking on the Merovingian and his lackeys in an ornate palace, which leads into an insufferably long highway chase; and finally an assault upon a power plant and Neo’s attempt to break into The Source with the Keymaker.

These scenes include all sorts of high-flying action, guns blazing, stuff blowing up and people getting shot up, impaled or blown to bits that the fanboy and young male audiences were craving. The problem is that there isn’t a lot to these action sequences that are new. There’s no new technology or innovative camera techniques being deployed. All we end up with is even more of the same super slow-mo “bullet time” that the original introduced us to. Another chief problem is that these sequences really on a tremendous amount of computer generated effects, many of which simply look fake. In the years between production of the first Matrix film and its sequels, CGI improved a lot, but not nearly enough to the point that this film needed it to.

Interspersed between, throughout, and bookending these high octane sequences are the Wachowski brothers attempts to inject a little substance into their chase caper. Unfortunately, these attempts surface as short bursts of heavy duty philosophical banter that is likely to either go way over the viewer’s head, frustrating them by making them feel dumb, or bore them to death before the next action scene. Sometimes both. These exchanges are often times amusing and frustrating at the same time because they come either before or during exchanges of violence, making the whole fight seem absurd. Why delay kicking the crap out each other to talk Jung and Freud? It’s illogical, but the actions and exchanges go by so fast that most people probably won’t notice. If you can wrap your head around the weighty material though, it’s good stuff, but a few blasts of intellectualism can’t make up for a bloated half-film that’s candy-coated in excess.

There were several things I liked about The Matrix Reloaded. Obviously, the fight scenes and martial arts displays were well choreographed and incredibly intricate. The philosophical content was appreciable, but as I said before, it actually comes off as a bit insulting that the filmmakers thought what little substance and advancement of story there was would be enough. I was amused by Neo’s confrontation with the Architect at The Source. The Architect claims to have built the Matrix and monitors it from a massive bank of TV screens. It was actually a unique 21st Century and beyond depiction of God- the omniscient, bearded, white-haired old man who is the creator of all reality. It was also interesting how Neo defies him much in the same way that Man defies God in real life. Too bad the Architect came across as a pretentious intellectual blowhard. Finally, The Matrix Reloaded never stopped projecting a message of hope. Even in the darkest of times, people still had hope that the evils confronting them could be overcome. Sometimes it was a false sense of hope, but when your protagonists are trying to prevent their annihilation, can you really complain about false hope?

I think the biggest fault of the film, however, is the ending. Created as the first half of a two-part follow-up, The Matrix Reloaded does very little to make itself stand alone as a film. It leaves too much dangling and dependent upon the third film to create a whopping resolution. The Nebuchadnezzar is attacked by the Machines but Neo miraculously defends himself and his friends from the assault in the real world. Neo is left in a coma, Smith has managed to transfer himself into the real world by assimilating himself into the body of another crew member, and the Machines are swiftly approaching Zion. While I understand the concept of contiguous sequels, you still need make each one its own living and breathing entity. The Matrix Reloaded left me feeling like I had just watched one half of a very unbalanced equation.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5