The Matrix Reloaded

Where The Matrix was one of the more intellectual Science Fiction movies in recent years, The Matrix Reloaded is more of an action sequence in the middle of a film. Kind of like the middle of one long movie that The Matrix trilogy seems to be destined to become.

Six months have passed in the world of The Matrix, and Neo (Keanu Reeves) has become the messianic savior that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) predicted. Not only can he fly, but he is essentially indestructible within The Matrix. But in the real world, the machines are close to reaching the city of Zion and destroying the human rebellion. In preparation for the machine attack on Zion, all ships are ordered to return to Zion. But Neo has received a message from the Oracle (Gloria Foster) and he defies orders to go and visit her immediately.

Neo learns from the Oracle that to reach the source (the center of The Matrix), he will need the help of The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who is held captive by a powerful exile program called The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson). So Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity decide to visit The Merovingian and see if they can steal The Keymaker away from him. They get The Keymaker, but have to escape with him while being pursued by The Merovingian's henchmen, The Twins, a couple of rogue exile programs that are probably ghosts. After escaping from The Twins, Neo begins his journey to The Source in hopes of stopping the destruction of Zion by the machines.

The Matrix Reloaded is the second entry in The Matrix Trilogy (the third entry is The Matrix Revolutions) and it definitely feels like this movie is the middle of something. Where the original Matrix was a complete entity within itself, this movie feels somewhat incomplete.

Granted, there are a lot of good points to this movie. The actors are perfectly cast in all of the main roles and their performances are exactly what you would expect based on the character development in the first film. Neo has developed his confidence and truly believes he is the one, Morpheus is his stubborn old self, and Trinity will do anything to save Neo (and consequently, she believes, the human race).

The special effects and action sequences are also perfect. After the success of The Matrix, the budget given to the Wachowski Brothers for this film was more than double what they had to work with on the first film ($150 million vs. $63 million) and it shows. Every action scene is exquisitely choreographed and shot and the special effects bring the ideal look, style and atmosphere to the film. From Neo's battle with the multiple Agent Smith's (masterfully portrayed by Hugo Weaving) to the amazing highway car chase, this is all out white knuckle action at its best.

But that's the problem with this film. Compared to the first film, this one seems to have lost it's soul. It doesn't have quite the intellectual depth, symbolism and meaning of the first movie. In the first movie, we had so many intellectual references -- philosophical, religious, Socratic, Platonic and even Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here so much of that is replaced with action and special effects that the series as a whole seems to have lost some of it's humanity.

On its own, The Matrix Reloaded is a very good Science Fiction Action movie. The action is very good, but it seems to be there at the expense of the depth that made the first Matrix one of the best movies of it's genre.

More The Matrix Reloaded Movie Reviews

Movie Review of The Matrix Reloaded from Corporate Mofo
The Matrix Reloaded Movie Review and Information Page at The Internet Movie Database