Matrix Reloaded

Written 17 May 2003

Warning: This film review reveals most of the plot of the movie.

Matrix Reloaded was perhaps the most eagerly awaited movie of the year. The first Matrix was a fantastic film with a concept that was, to say the least, mind-blowing. I didn't believe for a second that this sequel would even come close to the original - after all, sequels never do. My doubts grew even greater after reading some of the movie reviews in the newspaper a few days before the movie was released to the general public. The reviewers, without exception, said the special effects were fantastic but the plot was skimpy, the acting wooden and the story nothing compared to the original.

This is a round-about way of saying that I didn't expect much from this film.

Not surprisingly, the reviewers were dead wrong. This movie is actually pretty good. Except for the first thirty minutes, that is. God, the opening scenes seem to drag on forever. More than thirty minutes of useless plot, meaningless love making scenes a whole lot of silly set up which is not at all necessary.

Buckle your seatbelts, though, because once you are through the slow parts the plot picks up and the movie actually becomes worth watching.

Agent Smith is back, and he steals the movie from Neo and his troop of do-gooders. You see, the agent was "set free" by Neo in the first film and somehow absorbed some of his powers. In addition, Smith has learned how to copy himself, and the fight scene between hundreds of copies of the agent and Neo is unique (to date) in film. It was incredible to watch, wonderful to behold and absolutely awesome.

In one of the movies more interesting side plots, Agent Smith succeeds in taking over one of the humans in Zion. It appears he actually creates a copy of himself and leaves Zion in the form of that human. I'm sure this little side plot will be far more important in the sequel.

Okay, the movie starts with some plot development. Zion City is under attack from over 250,000 sentinels, robot warriors digging their way down to the underground city. Only three days remain until the last refuge of mankind is destroyed forever and all human beings are killed.

One of the main purposes of the first thirty minutes or so of the film is to establish that Neo is plagued by nightmares where he sees Trinity die (almost). This vision corrupts his actions throughout the movie and has dire consequences at the end.

Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and a few others must re-enter the Matrix to find the oracle, determine what needs to be done and, of course, do it. In the meantime, in a rather pointless side-plot, Zion city must be defended by the remaining captains. There is a conflict between Morpheus and another captain which takes up a lot of time but really didn't mean very much in the scheme of things. The other captain felt Morpheus and his ship should remain to defend Zion city. The council disagreed, and two additional ships are dispatched to help Morhpeus in his mission.

Neo seems to have a much too easy time finding the Oracle and has a discussion with her about what to do. Unlike the first movie, this time the Oracle just comes right out and tells Neo what he needs to know - he is to find the Keymaker and then proceed through a portal. At that point, he will know what needs to be done. At the end of this conversation, Agent Smith shows up and he and Neo have their fantastic battle (actually, Neo and hundreds of copies of Agent Smith fight in one of the best fight scenes in film history). Neo escapes but the agent (and all of his copies) survive.

The good guys and gals now travel to find the Keymaker. They have some pointless conversation (and another agonizingly long scene) with several inane characters, including one who demands a kiss from Neo in return for the Keymaker, before freeing the Keymaker and making their escape. Thus follows a very long and hair-raising chase scene down the 101 freeway (in Los Angeles). Of course, Neo, the Keymaker and the rest escape.

Now Neo must get into a huge building, get through a door and enter the portal. At the end of all of this, he meets "the Architect" and has a polite conversation in which the way the world works is made clear.

This film is obviously the middle of a trilogy. It's purpose is really to set up for the third film, which promises to be much, much better. In fact, the next movie looks to be one hell of a good show.

Okay, so I really did like Matrix Reloaded. It starts slow, but the three or four fight scenes more than make up for the dull beginning.

Unfortunately, the human characters have no depth and their acting is, as has been pointed out by many reviewers, wooden and lifeless. The real stars of this movie are Agent Smith, the Keymaker, the Architect and the two ghost-like brothers who chase Neo and his band down the 101 freeway.