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It only takes about 45
seconds for The Matrix Reloaded to grab you by the throat
and slap you across the face, and I think that's the way most
fans of the original film would have it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, those fans will need to
come to terms with Reloaded suffering from the same
Middle Child Syndrome as The Empire Strikes Back and The
Two Towers. Unlike the first film, there isn't a beginning, a middle and
an end. It's all
just a set-up for the final film in the trilogy – The
Matrix Revolutions, due out this November – so be prepared
for an abrupt ending (like we haven't already had enough of that
thanks to the recent slew of cliffhanger television finales).
If you haven't seen The
Matrix, rent it before you bother with Reloaded.
You'll be completely lost otherwise, because there isn't any
kind of recap and, to be honest, there are probably a lot of
people who didn't really get what happened in the first
film, either. We
don't really even know how much time has passed between the end
of the original and the beginning of Reloaded, but those
darn sentinels are in the process of burrowing down into Zion,
the last remaining enclave for people who have been unplugged
from the eponymous faux-reality.
We also learn that not
everybody buys into the whole notion that Neo (Keanu Reeves, Hard
Ball) is the prophesized savior of the human race.
In fact, Neo's handler Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne, Biker
Boyz) butts heads with Zion's two leaders, one of whom
(Harry J. Lennix, Collateral Damage)
happens to be the new beau of Morpheus's former squeeze (Jada
Pinkett Smith, Ali). There's also a
bunch of governmental bickering over whether Zion should focus
on defending itself or backing Neo, and it all reminded me a lot
of the boring parts of the two most recent Star Wars
films.
As far as The
Matrix's version of The Scooby Gang goes, the only
survivors from the original are Neo, Morpheus and Trinity
(Carrie-Anne Moss, Memento).
They are joined by a new pilot named Kain (Harold
Perrineau Jr., Oz), who is married to the sister (Nona M.
Gaye replaced the late Aaliyah) of two of the grunts that bought
it in the first flick. Yeah,
I know – this is starting to sound like a soap opera plot, but
I'm going to cut it some slack because some of this stuff may
turn out to be more relevant than anyone thinks in the upcoming Revolutions.
There are a ton of new folks here (like Monica Bellucci, as well
as those freaky twins who look like the love children of Johnny
and Edgar Winter and the singer from The Offspring), and it
remains fairly unclear whether any of them will be back.
Then again, I'm not sure
how much anyone is supposed to focus on the story, because it's
definitely a few notches below that of The
Matrix. The
whole Alice In Wonderland meets Philip K. Dick thing
makes way for what amounts to a lot of dumb dialogue that just
thinks it's important. Neo, who can now fly and use The Force, is told by The Oracle
(the late Gloria Foster) that it isn't so much which path
he's supposed to take as why he's supposed to take it,
but all viewers will be able to remember is the flying and The
Force. The less you
pay attention to the pseudo-intellectual psychobabble, the
better. Actually,
the less you think, the better.
Neo is The One – we know it, and he knows it.
And that makes the film a lot less suspenseful, because
The One is supposed to lead his people to victory.
You've probably seen
clips of the film's two big scenes (Neo vs. dozens of Agent
Smiths, and the Big Freeway Chase), but what you've witnessed is
only the tip of an incredible iceberg. The Yuen Woo-Ping-choreographed Wire Fu is, of course, taken
to brand-new levels, and the Freeway thing (which lasts for 14
minutes and was filmed on a two-mile highway built just for the
film) left my jaw in my lap and my nails dug into the arms of my
seat. I was
flinching, which is something that doesn't happen outside an
IMAX theatre, or a Jennifer Lopez movie.
There are a few moments in which Neo looks painfully like
a CG videogame character, but thought of The Matrix
concluding within a month of Lord of the Rings is still
enough to make any authentic geek-boy foam at the mouth.
Incidentally, how the hell did Hugo Weaving manage to
land in all six films of these two trilogies?
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