The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) continue to fight the machines.  Now, with the machines staging a final assault on Zion, the last human city, Neo visits The Oracle (Gloria Foster) and learns he must return to “the source” to end the war.  To do so, he will have to deal with rogue programs in The Matrix, and fight off a growing army of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) clones.

I suppose I should be kinder to The Matrix Reloaded.  How many sequels—much less episodes in an ongoing series of films—are watchable?  Think for a moment on Highlander II: The Quickening, or Hellraiser 5 and 6.  If The Matrix didn’t exist, I’d probably be able to take Reloaded, dump the double-speak, and enjoy it as a wham-bam thank you ma’am extravaganza of bullets, cars, and martial arts, all done with Vogue style.  But The Matrix does exist, and this is a poor shadow.  Sure, Reloaded has style, but it’s all style from The Matrix (and no style stays fresh for four years).  What’s good in this movie is just more of the same from the first.  There’s nothing original.  But as a sequel, I shouldn’t expect originality.  However, sense would have been nice.

The Matrix was a breathtaking science fiction action film that changed the genre (changed several genres actually).  A nearly perfect blend of concepts, drama, flash, and action, The Matrix left two questions unanswered: What allows The Oracle to know things outside of The Matrix, and what in the real world makes Neo a messiah in The Matrix?   All a sequel needed to do was answer those metaphysical questions.  Another layer of reality would have done the trick nicely.  But Reloaded answers nothing.  It is an empty bridge between the first and third installments in the franchise, empty except for the noise.  Some of that noise is pretty good, with a nice beat you can dance to.  Some is tedious.  Most of it goes on too long, and in the end, it is just noise.

The film is essentially two long fight sequences with some religious babbling in between.  I can’t deny that they are spectacular sequences.  In the first, Neo fights an army of Agent Smiths, and while the CGI effects are occasionally too noticeable, it’s a top notch action scene, taking Hong Kong martial arts and raising the bar out of reach for everyone else.  But for all the coolness of the fight, this is professional wrestling.  There’s no drama.  In The Matrix, the fights had tension and moved the story along.  Here, it’s all about the cool movements.  (If the concern had been for the story, than Agent Smith would never have been brought back.  But I admit that I’m glad he’s around again, even if it strips the original film of one of its finest moments.  Smith is a cool villain, and if he’s now a cartoon of his previous self, at least he’s a cool cartoon.)  The second is a twenty minute plus orgy of combat that starts as two hand-to-hand fights, and ends in a fifteen minute freeway chase.  Again, it looks great.  But it goes on too long.  I can only see so many cars crash before it all starts looking the same.

Between the fights, there is talking.  Lots and lots of talking, and little of it makes sense or is of any interest.  Morpheus, a mysterious wise man with a religious obsession in the first film, has become a full blown fanatic, gibbering about The One when almost any other topic would be preferable.  He gives long-winded, and completely vacuous speeches on what he believes (Steve Martin had a routine where he stated what he believed, and it included, in the middle of the ethical and metaphysical statements, the line “I believe that robots are stealing my luggage”; Morpheus’s speeches have less content).  Several times, he could argue his position by pointing out that Zion has no way of holding off the machines, so a radical approach is necessary, but instead, he goes on and on about The One.

We’re saved from a bit of empty chatter by the Zion rave.  Those nutty dancing kids (who are almost all the same age) meet up in a big cave to get their groove on, while Neo and Trinity go at it in a more intimate way.  While difficult to believe this is where they have dances, I like the Zionite hipsters getting down.  It is somewhere between a music video and a rum advertisement, but it looks good.  (Don’t knock the party as it is now the theme of the series; in The Matrix, the objective was to free the human race, but now, it is to make sure these people retain their rave space.)  Others have complained that Reeves and Moss appear less like a couple in the throes of ecstasy, and more like they just want a nap, but I have to wonder what these people wanted to see.  Backward cowgirl with Moss yelling giddyup?

I could detail all the drab dialog and meaningless or ridiculous moments (there’s a scene with a kiss that made me wonder if the writing/directing/producing Wachowski brothers had lost contact with the human race), but it would just make me tired.  But I can’t dismiss The Matrix Reloaded because the effects are so good.  It’s fun the way an amusement park is fun.  I’m not looking for meaning or a coherent explanation when I ride a rollercoaster.  It’s not art, but it has a “wow” factor.

Followed by The Matrix Revolutions.