Right well onto part 2 of my critique on the Matrix trilogy, which funnily covers the second film in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, which was released four years after the original film in 2003. While it was not exactly as well received as the original was, Reloaded nevertheless had plenty more action in it to keep the audiences entertained. So in usual tradition, I'll start with a look at the plot.
So the film begins roughly 6 months after the events of the first Matrix film, with Neo (Keanu Reeves) now firmly having established his full powers in the Matrix and his function as "the one" who is still a crew member on Morpheus's ship, and he is now in love with Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and they are a couple. Neo however is troubled with nightmares of Trinity falling to her death after engaging in battle with an agent. Meanwhile however Morpheus receives a message from one of the human resistance group's spaceships, lead by Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett) who organises a full meeting of the other ships to meet in the Matrix. At the meeting it is revealed that one of the ship's last messages before it was destroyed was there will be an army of sentinels (the machines from the first film that attacked Morpheus's ship at the end) that will breach Zion within 72 hours, intent on destroying the city and its people. After the meeting Neo encounters a few agents, defeating them, he flies to find the Oracle, who is nowhere to be seen in her apartment. Later on Morpheus and his crew arrive back in Zion, and at a large meeting later on Morpheus tells the people that the machines are coming to the city, but they should not fear as they will stand their ground and fight, after this a party (or rave if you like!) ensues. After the party is over, Neo receives a message from the Oracle asking that he meet with her, as he goes to, he first has to fight her bodyguard Seraph (Collin Chou) to prove he is "the one" to him. The oracle at their meeting explains that she is part of the Matrix, and in order for the one to save Zion, he must reach the source, but in order to do that, Neo will need to find another program called the Keymaker, who can open the hidden portals to the source, but he is held by another program called the Merovingian. After their meeting is over, Neo is confronted by a familiar figure, agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who explains he is now unplugged from the system and a rouge program, who was supposed to return to the source but refused to. Smith also reveals that he is capable of cloning himself in the Matrix and all of a sudden Neo is surrouned by many clones of Smith, who attack him as Smith tries to assimilate Neo into another clone, but Neo manages to fight him and his many clones off, before escaping.
Soon after Neo, Morpheus and Trinity meet with the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), a powerful program, who refuses to give up the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim). However after their meeting, Merv's wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci) betrays him by leading Neo to the Keymaker, which lead the Merovingian to send his men to attack Neo and others. Neo manages to fight off Merv's men, who escapes before Neo can get to him, meanwhile Morpheus and Trinity flee into the city as they are chased by the Merovingian's bodyguards, the Twins, who are shape shifting programs that walk through solid matter. Morpheus eventually manages to defeat the twins, but soon after is confronted by agents who are out to eliminate the Keymaker. Just before Morpheus and the Keymaker are about to be killed by two agents who crash two big trucks into each other, Neo flies in and rescues them both (as one of his superhuman abilities is the power of flight).
As the clock is ticking down in the real world for Zion, Morpheus and Neo go into the Matrix with the Keymaker to reach the source. The Keymaker leads them to a portal, but they are ambushed by a group of Smiths, who Neo and Morpheus fight off, but as the Keymaker opens the door that leads to the source, the Smiths open fire at the Keymaker, who closes the door just after Neo and Morpheus get into the room, riddling him with bullets. With his dying words the Keymaker tells Neo which door leads to the source, and gives him the key to open the door, and other door will take Morpheus home. Neo uses the key to open the door to the source, which is then flooded with bright shining light, in the room he meets with an old bearded man, wearing a white suit, who calls himself the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), who reveals some rather shocking truths to Neo about the Matrix, which will have a devastating effect for Zion and the love of his life Trinity.
The Matrix Reloaded while it isn't as good as the original film, does at least succeed in expanding on the Matrix universe and it introduces Zion properly and the rest of the human resistance. However you could say that most of the new characters aren't that interesting as they are mostly just as serious and one dimensional as the main trio in the film. But then again they are living in desparate times, as the film reveals of course Zion is in danger of being destroyed by the sentinel machines, so there won't be much in the way of levity among the locals!
But where Reloaded scores big once again is the action scenes, which are every inch as good here as they were in the original. With Neo now at the height of his powers as the One in the Matrix, he can now fight may foes simultaneously with great ease, and stop the path of bullets just with the wave of his hand. And there are several highlights in terms of the action in the film, the one that stands out the most is of course the "burly brawl" where Neo is attacked by hundreds of Smiths, as he fends them off. Its a very impressive visual sequence as we see hundreds of Hugo Weavings, dressed in black suits and wearing dark shakes, attacking Neo over and over, although I wonder what Hugo made of it all, seeing so many of himself on screen! Another highlight in the film is the big sequence that takes place on the freeway, where the Twins chase Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker, and Morpheus finally get's his own cool fight sequence as he takes on an agent.
As for the new characters, well as I said they are mostly not that interesting, but there are one or two that do stand out well, the main one being the Merovingian, the powerful and corrupt program, that holds the Keymaker captive, who is played very well by Lambert Wilson. The Merovingian also get's one of the film's funniest lines where he talks about his love of the French language, as he speaks with a French accent, he says "its like wiping your arse with silk!". The Architect is also another interesting and somewhat confounding character, who is the creator of the Matrix, and talks in endless riddles to Neo, overusing words such as concordantly, vis-a-vis and apropos. And the Architect has clearly pissed off Neo in their scene, who as he walks out the room says "If I were you, I would hope we don't meet again", to which the Architect replies "we won't!". And of the human characters, the new operator of the Nebuchadnezzer, Link (Harrold Perrineau) provides some welcome moments of humour, and his best line is where Morpheus at one point asks where Neo is in the Matrix, and he says "He's doin his Superman thing again!" after which we see Neo flying through the clouds. And finally Jada Pinkett as Captain Niobe is pretty good, as she plays the captain of the ship, the Logos, and she was once romantically attached with Morpheus, which pre-empts a good line from Neo, after Trinity reveals that "Niobe was once with Morpehus, then she met the Oracle and everything changed" he replies "yeah, she can do that".
However the star of the film is of course really Hugo Weaving as Smith, who by now has developed further in his megalomaniacal personality and is hellbent on cloning himself over and over within the Matrix. Smith also is no longer an agent of the system in the film at this point, and is in fact a rouge program, that refuses to return to the source as a program is supposed when it is destroyed (as Neo destroyed Smith as an agent at the end of the first Matrix film). Instead Smith reveals that a part of Neo was copied over onto him, which in a way reveals his own special abilities, which probably allows him to clone himself in the Matrix. But Smith also exhibits more personality in the film, and one of my favourite lines in the film is where Smith assimilates one of the agents, who says "You!", as Smith clones him he replies "Yes, me! Me, me, me!".
The film of course is not without its flaws, and yes one of them is the ridiculous rave sequence in Zion where we see the people of Zion celebrate, with some techno music as part of the film soundtrack playing in the background! Its definitely a scene the film could have done without. The first 30 or 40 minutes is also definitely a bit too slow, as it reveals Zion and the people of the city, and bogs the pace down. There is also of course a new annoying character the Kid (Clayton Wilson) who is some young eager wannabe, who was freed from the Matrix, who desperately wants to be a part of Morpheus's crew, although I'm sure Neo probably wished they had re-inserted him back into the Matrix! And as I said there are probably too many characters to introduce to the film, with so many human resistance crewmembers, you can't devote too much time to them and basically why bother, as you only have two hours to tell the story. Also I have to say the opening title sequence with the burst of bright light and the matrix coding is pretty cheesey as well!
However despite all that, the Wachoswki brothers, Andy and Larry done a fine job with Reloaded overall, as its good to see the return of the Matrix world, and they know how to shoot action scenes for sure! The bullet time effects are again impressively done, especially during the burly brawl sequence, and the scenes where Trinity fights off the agents in the building near the end, and where Morpheus and the Keymaker are stuck between a rock and hard place, or more realistically two trucks on a collision being driven by two agents, which collide and cause a massive slow-mo explosion. The soundtrack of the film again is hugely impressive, as the action scenes pulsate relentlessly, and they will give your surround system a great workout for sure! Don Davis's score for Reloaded also keeps nicely in the same tone as the original one, and there a few well used tracks from some rock bands, one being Rage against the machine's "Calm like a bomb" used at the closing credits.
Soooooo that's it for the Matrix Reloaded, which is a very entertaining sequel, its that difficult second part, but as far as they go its still quite enjoyable, despite its flaws.
And so I will leave it there. Part three to follow next!
No comments:
Post a Comment