The Matrix Reloaded "Hmm, upgrades!"

OK so as I've been re-doing a few posts of late I thought I would go back to the vaults of this blog and dig up one of my earliest posts and give it an overhaul and the post in question is The Matrix Reloaded, the much anticipated sequel to the highly successful original.

So without much further waiting let's get on those shades, leather gear, get those kung-fu moves ready and give this one a relook....

And there will of course be SPOILERS AHEAD! 

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, Smith (Hugo Weaving) who explains he is now unplugged from the system and a rouge program and he attacks Neo with his multiple clones but Neo manages to fight them off and escape.

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.  And just before he dies 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 for Trinity. 

THOUGHTS 

It has to be said that even though The Matrix Reloaded it isn't as good as the original film, it does at least succeed in expanding on the Matrix universe and it introduces Zion properly and the rest of the human resistance and it is still quite entertaining as an action film.  And it does allow an audience to see how these characters fit into their real world as opposed to the computer generated virtual reality world of the Matrix itself.  The story also neatly brings in the concept of Smith no longer being an agent, or another way of putting it a computer program conforming to its function of the Matrix and instead he has become more a computer virus spreading his way throughout the system.  The film also works well when it comes to its action scenes which are excellent and its main highlights include the long freeway scene and the burly brawl between Neo and the multiple Smiths.        

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES 

Performance wise it has to be said though however The Matrix Reloaded is a bit of a mixed bag as there are clearly some fine actors here but they are somewhat underused or are somewhat underwhelming.  For starters there is of course Keanu Reeves who delivers a pretty wooden performance as Neo, a man who has as about as much emotion as Ivan Lendl does! (who was a former World No.1 tennis player and former coach to Andy Murray).  Reeves delivers all his lines in a hushed monotone and as a result he barely makes any kind of impact on the viewer with his performance.  Regardless of that though Reeves still has his good moments in the film and he is more than capable of handling the film's action scenes.

And as for some of Keanu's good scenes for starters there is the scene where he confronts the three new agents that barge in on the resistance meeting and as he effortlessly blocks one of the agent's moves he says "Huh!  Upgrades!" before he easily fends them off.  Then there is the scene where he is forced to fight Seraph, the program that protects the Oracle, in order to truly prove his identity to him.  And Seraph says "I needed to make sure that you are the One" and Neo simply says "You could have just asked!".  Then of course there is the aforementioned big fight scene between Neo and Smith and his clones where Smith unsuccessfully tries to copy Neo into one of himself.  And after Neo escapes and jacks out of the Matrix safely, Morpheous asks of Smith "What was he doing to you?" and Neo says "I don't know what he was doing.  But I remember what it felt like" and Trinity asks what and Neo says "It felt like I was back in that hallway...it felt like dying".  Then there is the fight scene where Neo takes on the Merovingian's men and dispatches them with fair ease before being tricked by the Merovingian by slamming the door in Neo's face he crashes through to reveal he is out in the middle of a mountain range and he exclaims simply "Shit!".  And last of all there is the scene where Neo meets with the Architect and at the end of their meeting, Neo is clearly fed up with the Architect's pompousness and says to him just before he leaves "If I were you, I'd hope we don't meet again!". 

Next up is Laurence Fishburne who does fair better as the great Morpheus but he too has to endure playing what is a pretty one dimensional character.  Nonetheless Fishburne has some good scenes in the film such as his opening scene where Neo says to his new sceptical operator, Link "Given your situation, I can't say I fully understand your reasons for volunteering to operate on my ship. However, if you wish to continue to do so, I must ask you to do one thing" and Link asks "What's that, sir?" and Morpheus simply says "To trust me".  Another good scene is after Morpheus, Neo and Trinity meet with the Merovingian and they leave empty handed without the keymaker and Neo says "Well that went well!" and Trinity says "Maybe we did something wrong?" and Morpheus says "No, what happened, happened and it couldn't have happened any other way".  And Neo asks "How do you know?" and Morpheus says "We are still alive!" before exiting the lift.
 
And then we have what is Fishburne's best scene in the film, the freeway scene and Fishburne get's one of his best lines where he tells Trinity to drive onto the freeway and she says "You always told me to stay off the freeway" and Morpheus says "That's true" and Trinity says "You said it was suicide" and Morpheus says "Then let us hope I was wrong!".  And this is followed by Morpheus's pretty cool fight scene with the agent in which Morpheus actually manages to hold his own against the superior agent before he and the keymaker get caught into a sticky situation as both remaining agents turns their trucks and drive right for each other on a collision course.  And in the scene Morpheus looks on worried and says to himself "Neo, if you're out there I could use some help!".  And last of all in what is a pretty pretentious moment but still an enjoyably cheesy one is the line where Morpheus looks on in shock as he sees the sentinels (SPOILER) have destroyed the  Nebuchadnezzar and he says "I have dreamed a dream, but now that dreamed has been taken from me!".

Then we have Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity who does well enough in her role as Trinity but despite being a very good actress (and hot!) her character is also very one dimensional and dull.  Regardless of that though Carrie-Anne has some good moments also such as the scene they go to meet with the Merovingian and as their meeting finishes one of Merv's guards is about to put their hand on her and she says "Touch me and that hand will never touch anything again!".  Then there is the scene where Trinity and Neo arrive back on Zion and when they finally get a chance to themselves in the lift they drop their things and kiss each other.  And Neo between kisses says to her "How long to recharge the Neb?" and Trinity says "24, maybe 30 hours" and Neo says "Some people go their entire lives without hearing news that good!".  And lastly there is the scene where Trinity infiltrates the building where Neo, Morpheus and the Keymaker are to turn the power off to let them into the room to access the source.  And as Link says there is a problem as the power is still on, Trinity sets herself to go into the Matrix and she says "I will not stand here and do nothing and watch them die" and Link says "Trinity we've got five minutes" and Trinity says "In five minutes I'll tear that whole goddamn building down!".  And after that there is of course Trinity's fight scene with the agent which leads into the opening scene of the film where Trinity dives out the window of the building in bullet time slow-mo.

After that there is Hugo Weaving who is easily provides the film's most entertaining performance as Smith, who is now no longer an agent but instead a rogue program that is roaming the Matrix cloning himself.  Weaving has his fair share of good moments which include his first main scene where he meets with Neo and they engage in their "burly brawl".  And Weaving also get's the best lines in the film as well such as in the same scene where he tells Neo "We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist!".  And as Smith surrounds Neo with his clones he says to neo "We are here, Mr Anderson to take back what you tried to take from us..." and thrusts his hand into Neo's stomach and he says "Purpose!" as he tries to copy Neo but ultimately fails.  And in the same scene as one of the agents arrives on the scene, Smith stops him and the agent looks at him and says with surprise "You!" and Smith says "Yes me!" and he clones him saying "Me, me, me!" and after he clones the agent, the cloned Smith says "Me too!".

And later on there is the scene where Smith stops Neo from entering the room leading to the source and he says to him "Sorry but this is a dead end!".  And Neo asks him what he wants and Smith teases him by saying "Still using all the muscles except the one that matters?" and he says "I want what you want.  I want everything!" and as Morpheus produces his gun and says "Would that include a bullet from this gun?" Smith smiles saying "Go ahead!  Shoot!  The good thing about me is there are so many "me's!" just before his clones surge out and attack Neo and Morpheus.

And the last few cast members I will mention include Gloria Foster who makes her last appearance as the Oracle before she passed away and her character succeeds in adding a little extra colour to the proceedings.  Foster's main scene is a good one where the Oracle meets with Neo and she has a good line at the end of their meeting where she tells him "It seems that every time we meet, I have nothing but bad news. I'm sorry about that, I surely am. But for what it's worth, you've made a believer out of me. Good luck, kiddo!".

Lambert Wilson is also pretty good in his role as the Merovingian, the French crimelord (or whatever he is) who holds the keymaker and likes to cheat on his wife Persephone (Monica Bellucci).  Wilson also has some good moments especially in his first scene where he talks about how much he loves the French language and he speaks a little in French and says after "Its like wiping your arse with silk!".  And later as he finishes his meeting with Neo, Trin and Morph (for short to save me typing a few more keys!) he says to them "The Keymaker is mine and I see no reason to give him up... No reason at all..".  And as he is about to leave Persephone asks him where he is going "Cause and effect, my love.  I drink too much wine I need to take a piss!" (but he tends to follows an attractive women into the toilets!).  And later on Persephone betrays her husband by handing over the Keymaker to the Neo, Trin and Morph and as three of them have to face off Merv's men, Neo says "I'll handle them".  And the Merovingian says "Handle us!  He'll handle us!  You know your predecessors had much more respect!!" before his men open fire on Neo who simply freezes the bullets in the air and they drop and Merv says "OK so you have some skill!  Kill him!".

And the last two I will mention are Monica Bellucci as Persephone who is good in her role as Merv's sexy wife who ends up betraying him as she is "so tired of his bullshit!".  And in the scene where Persephone releases the Keymarker, Merv then barges in with his men and he protests to her in French and asks her after "How could you do this?  You betrayed me!" and Persephone says "Cause and effect my love!".  And Merv is outraged "Cause?!!  There is no cause for this!  What cause?!" and Persephone says "What cause?  What about the lipstick you are still weaing?" and Merv aghast says "What lipstick?!  There is no lipstick!" and she says "She wasn't kissing your face, my love!" and he looks rather sheepish after that! 

And quickly Jada Pinkett-Smith (Will Smith's Mrs's) does OK in her role as Niobe who it is reveal was once the love interest of Morpheus (and its later hinted that she might be again in the Matrix Revolutions) but despite her character being one of the slightly more interesting ones, she is underused in the film.  Niobe would however feature more prominently in The Matrix Revolutions as well as the video game that was released at the time, Enter the Matrix, which also featured various cut scenes and characters that were a whole lot more interesting than Neo, Morpheus or Trinity!      

And the last two I will mention are Harold Perrineau as Link, the Neb's operator who is somewhat sceptical of Morpheus and Neo's power at first but soon comes to believe in them both.  And Harold's most notable scene comes near the start of the film after Neo fights off the agents and takes to the skies and Morpheus asks him "Where is he Neo" and Link says "He's doing his Superman thing again!".  And lastly there is the scene where Neo saves Morpheus and the Keymaker just in time from being burned alive after the agents collide their two trucks together which burst into flames and Link then shouts "Yes!!" and collapses with relief into his console.

And last last of all is Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, who designed the Matrix.  And Helmut delivers his dialogue in a very pretentious manner and also in a way which is pretty confusing as he keeps using words such as "Apropos" and Vis-a-vis" not to mention "concordantly" which also tends to be quite annoying!  Nevertheless Helmut has a good line at the end of his scene where the Architect warns Neo of Trinity "She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it!" and Neo says "If I were you, I would hope we won't meet again" and the Architect says "We won't!".     

DIRECTION AND MUSIC

Finally getting onto the directors (and writers) of the film, The Wachowski brothers (who are now of course brother and sister after Larry Wachowski underwent a sex change operation and is now called Lana!) who do a pretty good job here.  And despite some lapses in pacing and filling the film up with pretentious dialogue they know how to stage action scenes and there are plenty of awesome ones at that here.  And music wise the Wachowski's reuse their composer from the first film, Don Davis who provides another decent score, which fits the tone of the film very well even if it is at times a bit overbearing in its intensity and volume.  The film also makes good use of another Rage against the machine track "Calm like a bomb" as it plays over the film's end credits and the film's soundtrack must rank as must listen for any home cinema enthusiast as its an amazing mixture of surround sound explosions and gunfire as well as some awesome deep bass for the bullet time moments.  

FLAWS   

As for The Matrix Reloaded's flaws.....yeah ok the film of course is not without its flaws and to start off the pacing of the film is a bit inconsistent especially as the first 30 or 40 minutes are definitely a bit too slow, as it reveals Zion and the people of the city, which while its important it also makes for a rather tedious sequence.  And film's opening sequence is also pretty cheesy and ridiculous with its various camera zooms and pans of the Matrix code along with Don Davis's overblown music.   

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 judging by his expression!  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. 

Then we have that cringeworthy rave sequence in Zion not to mention Morpheus's rather pretentious speech in which he goes on and on and finally finishes by shouting "Tonight, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tonight, let us make them remember, THIS IS ZION AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID!".  Uggghh!  Not to mention the film also features that very awkward looking sex scene between Neo and Trinity during the rave sequence as well and I have to say their love story has never been a convincing given that neither of them show a great deal of emotion!   

And this brings me onto the characters in general as the Matrix trilogy really does suffer from a lack of colourful three dimensional characters with the three leads being incredibly dull although they have the odd moment of humour they are way too serious.  There are exceptions of course with Smith, the Merovingian and the Oracle but apart from them its a pretty dull universe of bland characters who are pretty forgettable for the most part.

And nowww we get to the Architect who has to be the trilogy's most pretentious and confounding character as surely left many a viewer infuriated by his vagueness and obscurity and he simply cannot saying ANYTHING in a straight forward way.  Such examples of this include when he talks to Neo and derides for having hope and he says "Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness!".  And another is this one "It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication: a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-à-vis: love".  Acchhh just get to the point already!!

In fact that remains a problem with the trilogy in general in that none of these characters can communicate in a concise manner they ALL have to deliver pretentious long drawn out speeches when they could just say what they mean to say in or two lines!  But instead we get the Merovingian spouting about human desires in such a long winded way, the Architect blabbing on in such an incoherent manner.  And lastly not to mention even Morphues yakking on about how they can end the war by reaching the source as he sermons " I see purpose. I believe it our fate to be here. It is our destiny. I believe this night holds for each and every one of us, the very meaning of our lives!".  Aghhhhhh shaddupp!!  

Anywayys that's me finished looking at the flaws (these sections are getting bigger and bigger!).
 
SUM UP

Soooooo that's it for the Matrix Reloaded which is at times sluggishly paced, full of pretentious characters and dialogue but at the same time its also very entertaining and has some of the trilogy's best action scenes too.  So it remains a bit of a curate's egg as there is definitely some good stuff somewhere in here but at the same time you need to take the film's shortcomings as well.  But if you can forgive that its still an enjoyable film and I personally think its not quite as bad as people give it stick for.

And that is it for this relook of the Matrix Reloaded and I will be back with something else soon.

Till then next un, bye fer now.