The Matrix Reloaded

The 1999 action film phenomenon, The Matrix, was able to impress audiences and critics with its ideas, visuals and action set pieces, and even though people are now willing to acknowledge its soulless characters, overwritten dialogue and very pretentious vibe, most still hold a soft spot for it. While the film ended on a pretty clean note, Hollywood is never willing to let a brand die with dignity, so a second and third film were announced and filmed concurrently between 2001 and 2002. The first of these sequels released in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded, not surprisingly did very well at the box office (even becoming the highest grossing R rated film of all time until Deadpool in 2016), but wasn’t as beloved as the first film, meaning that whether intentional or not, these sequels forced people to notice the flaws in this series.

Six months after the events of the first film, Neo (played again by Keanu Reeves) continues to travel with Morpheus (played again by Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (played again by Carrie-Anne Moss) in and out of the matrix as a way of finding the solution to destroy the robot army in the real world and liberate the remaining humans from the machine’s control. While their home base of Zion prepares for an invasion that could wipe them all out, Neo and his crew journey to find the Oracle (played again by Gloria Foster) who informs them that they must find a man known as the Keymaker (played by Randall Duk Kim), who can help them reach the source of the Matrix which could give them answers on how to survive the war. While this is going on, Agent Smith (played again by Hugo Weaving) returns and starts hacking other people in the matrix in order to get revenge on Neo, causing more problems for the world’s messiah as he grapples with the potential destruction of the human race. With dreams of Trinity (whom he is now dating) dying also haunting his mind, all of this will lead up to a conclusive decision that will determine the future for this fractured world.

The Matrix Reloaded doubles down on the hyper philosophical edge, visual craziness and action spectacle of the first film, but in doing so dampens the few good qualities the series originally housed, leading to an unimpressive, dull and very overly complicated movie.

Whether by looking at the film’s production or just by watching it, it’s clear this sequel has no reason to exist outside of making money. Considering how popular the first film was, Warner Brothers would be insane not to capitalize on that hype, so forcing a continuation that definitely wasn’t planned is a foolish, but not unforeseeable decision. Considering the Wachowski’s have usually survived on their inventive ideas and dramatic presentation rather than quality, they could’ve constructed an idea for a sequel fairly quickly, but this film offers sloppy seconds that have gone rotten, and what was once at least digestible, will now result in food poisoning. The first film put more attention in its effects and philosophy than in its characters or personality, but at the very least, it kept focus on what was relevant to the story, whereas in this film, the plot is so minute and desperately attempting to find an excuse to stretch out something not intended to be lengthy, that it has no other choice than to prattle on about pointless philosophy to pad things out

At almost two hours long, a majority of that time is spent on monologues that overcomplicate sentences which could be explained in a second, or action scenes that are so frequent that they very quickly grow tiring and desperate. The narrative has become every standard ‘’resistance versus a corrupt overlord’’ story without anything new or fresh added, the characters were barely interesting to begin with and have somehow gotten even blander now that the story can’t support them, and even the philosophy isn’t that creatively explored anymore and is instead replaced with a very barren discussion about choice and the meaning behind it (all of which is not interesting and incredibly pretentious). Even though this feels like instant obvious junk, it is surprisingly a good deceiver, as while these problems are pretty blatant, they aren’t exposed in a way that regular audiences would pick up on. The film is similar enough in tone, voice and attitude to the original movie that it might slip by them, and the excessive action would definitely help distract them further but considering how many fans were not impressed with this sequel, it clearly didn’t do a good enough job of it.

One of the few things this franchise can be credited on is how diverse it is. While not as true for the first film, the remaining sequels have a cast that, outside of the leads and villain, mostly consists of other ethnicities, and they populate quite a few major roles. It doesn’t shake the fact that the writing is very poor but seeing so many black and Asian actors occupy the film in a major way is pretty great. In spite of this appreciated effort, the script and story continue to make these characters phenomenally boring and lacking in any sense of personality. The first film made these characters basic, but at least they acted out this generic storyline in a way that felt right to their one-note archetypes, whereas in a sequel where things are supposed to evolve and progress, they are somehow even more useless than before now that they have nothing to contribute. The two that suffer the most are Morpheus and Trinity, as despite constantly being in crucial scenes, they offer nothing to the overall plot outside of support. Trinity is equally as wooden and bland, except now she literally just fights without any purpose, and Morpheus’ firm belief in the prophecy and extremely convoluted and ‘’holier-than-thou’’ way of talking now just feels irritating and long-winded.

Keanu Reeves is still a bland lead and even though the film tries to make the audience believe he and Trinity are deeply in love, their chemistry is extremely lacking and feels inauthentic. Hugo Weaving feels just as hammy and over-the-top as Smith, except now the character feels so redundant and is so sloppily forced back into the narrative that it just screams of desperately trying to resurrect their villain now that they’re making sequels. Ironically, it feels like the acting isn’t as bothersome as the first film with the main problem stemming from the direction, as a lot of the supporting actors (while still playing bland characters) aren’t that bad. Gloria Foster still feels like the most alive person in this universe, Jada Pinkett Smith is decent as a fellow commanding officer, Lambert Wilson, Helmut Bakaitis, and Harry Lenix play annoying characters stuck with pretty poor dialogue, but play them to the best of their abilities, and Harold Perrineau, Randal Duk Kim, and Collin Chou feel like they could be solid characters, but their brief screentime and limited use in the plot makes them feel very secondary.

The film still houses an ugly visual style that’s both dated and bland due to the green tint enveloping almost every scene and showing more of the real world doesn’t fix this problem. Zion is pretty boring to be around, with interior design that looks like any techno futuristic location and a color palette on par with a damp cave, it makes what should be the safe haven for humanity feel like a very unappealing rest stop to keep coming back to. Since the first film was considered an action gamechanger for its iconic visual effects and its stance as a philosophy-heavy feature which combined thought and brawn into one package, it’s no surprise this sequel wanted to double down. You can feel the filmmakers doing everything they can to up themselves, with combat scenes that feel more ambitious and feature a lot more crazy situations and elaborate visuals and camerawork, which is at least somewhat applaudable given how they could’ve decided to coast given the popularity of the first.

The trade-off is that while the fights can on occasion be so ridiculously over-the-top that they’re entertaining (mainly the fight involving multiple versions of Agent Smith), the large amount in such close proximity means they grow boring after the first 3 or 4. They’re still well-choreographed and every once and a while, some of the cinematography by Bill Pope is interestingly laid out, but it has an uphill battle to climb because the effects are terrible. Some of the effects in the first film may have become dated, but the ambition was felt, and a lot stand the test of time, whereas these effects look bad even for the time period, being stretchy, rubbery, and very plastic-looking, ruining any sense of engagement. The only fight that really feels elevated is the car chase in the middle of the film; it feels the most distinct from the other fights, the variety featured including hand-to-hand, superhero feats and even vehicle action is very well handled, it’s a lengthy scene yet never gets dull, the editing by Zach Staenberg is tight and never choppy, the shots are pretty great, and even though the effects are still shaky, they aren’t featured as heavily. The musical score by Don Davis mixes a disco rave sound that is typical of a movie from the early 2000s, with a bombastic and even comedically hyperactive orchestral backing that, on occasion can make for an interesting blend, but other times feels too goofy for its own good

The Matrix Reloaded is more like a hinderance to its franchise than a benefit, as while it might retain an image of what previously worked, it fails to capture what people liked about those elements and forces them to address the complaints they didn’t comprehend until a second viewing. With a structure that consist of 90% action/philosophy and 10% narrative (albeit a confused and sloppily delivered one), a sequel with no reason is a film that lacks meaning (or purpose as this film would pompously refer to), and even though the saga would be completed with a third entry, this never should’ve gotten pass one. The plot barely exists, the characters are still planks of wood even if the acting is slightly better, the visuals don’t hold up, and the action (even when good) is overdone. When even diehard fans felt it went too far, it’s safe to assume this was a bug that should’ve quickly been deleted.