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The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The problem with sequels is that they rarely match the quality of the original. Sure, there are exceptions like The Empire Strikes Back and X2 (most people include The Godfather, Part II but I've always liked the first one better), but the great majority of sequels fail to match or improve on the original. William Goldman put it best in his book Which Lie Did I Tell? when he called sequels whore's movies. Mostly they are made for the money instead of artistic reasons. The Wachowski brothers, who wrote and directed the Matrix films, insist that they envisioned the movies as a trilogy from the start. So we should expect this film to be better based on artistic merits, right? I don't know about that. Hollywood is an industry that rarely lets the truth get in the way of doing business. We shouldn't expect a sequel to be better than the original but damn well better expect to be delighted when it happens. So let's just get right to the central question. Is The Matrix Reloaded better than The Matrix? Yes and no.
The obvious improvement is in special effects. While effects permeate the film, two major sequences stand out. One is a brawl in which Neo (Keanu Reeves) battles dozens of Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving). Yes I said dozens but we'll get to that later. The other sequence is a highway chase scene that lasts fourteen minutes and is easily the film's most exhilarating section. Visually, the film is pretty damn spectacular. That said, some of the effects, particularly in the brawl, are obvious computer animation. The animation of cloth is rather stiff and unconvincing. Despite the proclamations of special effects supervisor John Gaeta in interviews, the effects are not indistinguishable from reality. Perfectly impersonating humans with computer animation still has a ways to go. That said, the action sequences are great fun to watch and show immense imagination.
The story picks up months after the first film. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is desperately waiting for word from The Oracle. His ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, has been called back to the last human city of Zion. There we get to see what has become of human society. The city hides in caverns deep in the earth. It is dark and depressing and except for the politicians, everyone dresses in the same crummy clothes we saw on the crew in the first film. Military commanders like Morpheus or his superior, Commander Lock (Harry Lennix), are distinguished by mildly more colorful rags. At Zion we get a better feeling for the human resistance. Not everyone believes in Morpheus' prophecy of The One and that leads to internal division. He wins out though, apparently through inspiring a big party/dance scene, which is easily the film's weakest moment. From there it's back to the Matrix for a meeting with The Oracle (the late Gloria Foster). She shares a rather cryptic conversation with Neo that illuminates little but sends him in search of someone known as The Keymaker. This starts him on a long search with stops on the way to meet a host of people with the first name The. But before that happens he must again battle Agent Smith. Neo supposedly destroyed him in the first film but Smith is back and now apparently a free agent. With his new found, although never defined, role come some new tricks, namely the ability to convert other people or programs into dublicates of Smith. Thus the hundred Smiths to battle Neo.
Now when I say things are cryptic, I mean it. The Matrix was a breath of fresh air because it was so unexpected. Nothing was as we believed it should be, leading to a whole new world that made perfect sense once it had been properly digested. Believe it or not, The Matrix Reloaded is the same way. Only this time, we learn that the world of the Matrix is considerably deeper and stranger than previously thought. Morpheus calmly explained it all to Neo, and thus us, in the first film. Turns out though, that he didn't have the whole story. He just barely scratched the surface. I came away from the first film with the impression of the machines as a sort of hive mentality. They all seemed to have the same thoughts for the most part, all worked toward the same goal. Reloaded changes that, giving us a broader view of machine society, one far more diverse disjointed than previously thought.
The movie isn't perfect but even its flaws have purpose. There are numerous lulls in the film that will undoubtedly have some whining that the film is too talky. But pay close attention because the Wachowski's bring everything to a dead stop occasionally so that you can give your full attention to what is being said. If you feel your attention waning, buck up, another great action sequence is coming along shortly. But while you're waiting, focus on what is being said because it's playing around with everything you thought you knew about the Matrix. The movie is loaded with puzzles and maddeningly, not all of them are cleared up. Some things we need to wait until November and The Matrix Revolutions to get answers to. But for clues I would suggest doing some research. Most of the character names have some relevance in mythology, religion or history. Morpheus, Niobe, Persephone, The Oracle, Seraph and The Merovingian are all have some meaning in our world that very likely ties into the movie.
There likely aren't any universal truths to be found in this movie but the joy of it is unlocking the truths of the movie. Watching it is like being handed a particularly devilish puzzle, one that looks fairly simple at first glance but becomes more complex and challenging the longer you look at it. Many will undoubtedly say the film improves on a second viewing. The film is so dense that it could easily take several viewing to appreciate its many facets. So, again, is it better than the original? The answer depends on you. If you want a movie that challenges you, demands you pay attention and actually think about it, the answer is yes. If you want a roller coaster film that expects nothing more of you than to stay awake and react to the flashy stuff, the answer is no. The Wachowski brothers have accomplished the seemingly impossible task in Hollywood. They made a movie with more than three ideas in it. Even more amazingly, they snuck it into a summer blockbuster.
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