The Matrix Reloaded Review

 

        After the success of The Matrix, every bit of media copied what made the movie great. For a while, black leather was in. As seen in either X-Men or Blade for starters with the suits having a leather look to it. Even the action was parodied in any sort of action movie or comedy. To say that The Matrix was an influence is an understatement. It only seemed inevitable that Warner Bros. gave the Wachowskis the go ahead to make the obligatory sequel. 2003 was considered the Matrix year, two sequels were released back-to-back. A video game was made to capitalize on the success. Even an animated anthology film was made to expand more of the world. With all that, here’s what I think of The Matrix Reloaded. 

1. The Action Isn’t Special

        I got to say that after seeing the sequel, I didn’t really have high expectations. From what I saw that it was a somewhat successful movie that made money and had a good audience response. With all that, the action in the movie was just okay. We get a neat sequence in the beginning involving Trinity. Although, it’s a premonition that Neo sees since he witnesses that she dies from the Agents. 

        After that, we see that Neo and Trinity are in love. It’s odd, since there wasn’t much to her in the first movie. Like we don’t really know who she is as a person and she’s just a badass in leather. The romance just felt force since it wasn’t evolved naturally. Albeit, can you blame Neo for having the hots for Trinity?

        Anyways what was I going on about? The action is amped to eleven. It only seemed fitting that it tried to top the first movie. Since we see Neo really holding his own and being the One. Not only does he have action sequences, but the rest of the Nebuchadnezzar crew. Between Neo’s fight with Agent Smith and the Car Chase, I might as well talk about each one since they’re the highlights in the film. 

        Neo’s fight with Agent Smith is now ratcheted up. After a hard to follow conversation with the Oracle on Neo’s dream, Smith appears. This time he manages to take over other people’s bodies and make copies of himself. It’s never really explored how exactly it happened and I feel that Agent Smith doesn’t have much depth as he did in the prior film. Anyways, the fight between the Smiths and Neo is good, until it isn’t. 

        The CG between Neo and the Smiths doesn’t hold up nowadays. When Smith orders more copies, the whole scene looks like a video game since it starts to lean towards silly. Even the moment where Neo grabs a Smith and toss him to a group of copies comes with a bowling pin sound. Like, I had to rewind that part just to be sure I heard that right. 

        But the car chase is the best action scene in the movie. In fact, the directors actually built a highway just to film this scene. Since I can only imagine that filming in a California highway would be a massive pain for logistical reasons. It’s really cool to see a mix of a car chase, gun battles and martial arts. Just the idea of it would be convoluted but somehow it naturally involves with each combat style. 

2. Philosophical Overload 

        Obviously, the biggest complaint and the main failing point with the entire series is the philosophical moments. Now the whole point of the moments of basic philosophy is that it’s to comment on this idea of control and faith. For context, the humans are plugged into a VR world that is run by the machines. The ones that we follow manage to free themselves and see that everything that they know is a lie. 

        Naturally, talks about whether Neo is the savior does come up, as well as if the humans are slaves to the machines or do they really control what they can control. It sounds convoluted when I’m typing it right now, but I feel that it’s just talk. Nothing to really spur a discussion since it’s just a movie. A movie is supposed to entertain, not educate, or ponder an existential question to ask if we live in a simulation or what have you. 

        I feel that the studio really wanted the directors to explore more of the philosophical talking points or the Wachowskis really want to delve more into the ideas of The Matrix. But what gets lost in the shuffle is character development. We see moments where Neo starts to question himself. Honestly second guessing if he is a chosen one to stop the machines. Which mostly goes nowhere since there’s a scene that just ruins the franchise. But before I talk about that scene, the characters that we followed in the last movie are mostly in the backburner. 

        Morpheus and Trinity are basically there. And Zion, the city that was mentioned was kind of underwhelming. We don’t really see the main characters grow since it’s Neo who basically the focus. As I mentioned before, Agent Smith doesn’t have that much depth since there was a moment in the last movie where we see what he really wants. Smith wants to get out of The Matrix, to be alive when he tells Morpheus. But does that idea get brought up in this movie? Nope. 

3. How to Ruin a Franchise in One Scene

        This one scene is what killed the franchise. It’s after the trio manage to rescue a keymaker, who’s literal name is Keymaker. Creating a key to unlock a special door for Neo to find a way to stop the machines. Neo then meets The Architect in a white room that is covered with TV screens. He begins to tell Neo that he is sixth version of the program. And that he has two options, either enter a door to save Zion from the machines. Or save Trinity from certain Death. 

        So let me break down how this one scene ruins everything. Up to this point we understand that Neo was just an ordinary guy that manages to unlock his hidden potential within The Matrix. Besting the Agents and becoming a hero among the resistance. All that is thrown aside since we know that he’s just a glitch in the program. Like it was supposed to happen. This basically is a retcon of the first movie. Because what made Neo interesting was that he was an everyman that got into a situation that was bigger than him. 

        Having him be just another version of a glitch strips every single interesting thing about him. For as far as we know, Neo could’ve been the same person five times prior in The Matrix. Or it was different people imbued with special abilities that frighten the machines. It would’ve been better had he just been one person who was chosen to be the leader. Having to elaborate on something that didn’t need to just be ruined what was an interesting concept into a what I could only describe as a wet fart.

4. Overall

        With all that, I don’t hate this movie. It’s fine as a sequel that tries to expand more on the world for which the characters live in. The only failing is what the movie wanted to be. It couldn’t be one or the other, and that’s why it set itself up for failure in it’s sequel.