Cinematic Release Date: 21/05/2003
Rated: 15
Directors: Larry and Andy Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Monica Bellucci, Lambert Wilson
Overview
The Matrix Reloaded is the half-sequel to The Matrix, the philoso-shoot-em-up thriller that crashed down to earth and shook up pretty much every aspect of the film industry. It will be followed by it's second half, Matrix Revolutions, in November. The story continues on from where the Matrix left us, with Neo acruing super-human powers allowing him to manipulate the Matrix (the pseudo-existence that humans treat as reality) in more powerful ways than any other. Ultimately the story revolves around this power and how to use it to prevent destruction. As many reviews have noted though, in plot terms, we'll have to wait until the finale to see how deep the rabbit hole really goes...
Cinematography
As before, this is ground-breaking stuff. Literally. The action sequences are as breath-taking as they are incomprehensible - one finds you easily lapse and forget that movies still need to be created by people, even with the aid of machines, and you have to snap back into realising what an accomplishment this visual feast is. The Wachowski's have a Style, perhaps just one, but it's a good 'un and provides a common link between the films. Very little to fault here - apart from perhaps certain scenes where camerawork obscures the top of folk's heads
Effects/Action/Sound
The much-talked about Multiple-Agent-Smith scenes are incredibly dense: however, it isn't so much the illusion of having so many clones that provides the thrills here, but the choreography and the constantly ramping-it-up-a-gear speed of conflict. You may find one scene seems to drag on a little bit, until Neo picks up something...Zion is beautifully created and lit, and naturally the bullet-time / flo-mo sequences are awesome; you will need your rewind button for the DVD.
And the freeway scene? Fabulous. I don't know if it compares to Bullitt
but in terms of photography and sheer joyride thrill, ye cannae come much closer.Thankfully we witnessed the film in a THX cinema, which although loud, gave an excellent display of the effect that good surround-sound can have on a film on this nature. Bullets whiz by (on the rare occasion where Neo doesn't just stop 'em) close to the ear, and the rumble of distant explosions provides an intense atmosphere to keep you attached to the screen.
Is that enough, though?
Characters/Story
For the most part, acting is well-suited and ignorable - it doesn't bug you and you don't notice that these aren't just overpaid geeks. Apart from Laurence Fisburne. In the latter half of the film, he resumes his role of power and authority in the cool, subtle way we expect having seen the Matrix, but the first hour felt very stiff and contrived, despite the position the plot places him in. Whether this was a bad performance by Laurence or a misjudgement by the Wachowskis, I'm not sure.
Or maybe I am. The first hour does feel very contrived. Character development seems strained and exists merely to serve a purpose - we encounter this a little later in the film. At times it becomes a little boring - the slow-mo scenes in Zion seemed a little redundant, considering we have had no previous experience of the place and that this particular instance is an extraordinary one - i.e. this isn't an accurate portrayal of the typical environment, so why bother? It continues into the fleshing out of the new characters - one review has commented that the introduction of Niobe and her sole is purely to provide fuel and linkage fo
r the Enter The Matrix game. I agree. Too much of the early stages of the film seems to have been kludgingly introduced for no reason other than to bring in the second half of the film, and Revolutions; and whether it's worth the rush remains to be seen. At times it just felt a little tiring, a little AOTC-ian, a little "but you've got so much else you could be saying, doing!"
Conclusion
However, this is a masterful conglomerate of talent. The action choreography and effects are spot on, and will probably merit another making-of DVD; apart from the early stages, the film does run at a good pace and rarely drops your attention. As in the first, the philosophical undertones (and overtures) are perplexingly introduced, and add that sparkling element to the whole nature of the Matrix, even though this is 17th century stuff
But in the end, The Matrix Reloaded simply lacks the mystery and charm that the first film impacted on us so strongly. That may not be a flaw of the film - we may now just understand the idea of the Matrix and the expanded possibilities better now, rather than the hello-wake-up factor of the red and blue pills; we may also be 'used' to bullet-time - but nonetheless it is notable that this is just a film; it won't spawn thousands of Reloaded fan-sites, because they already exist within the Matrix fan sites. The problem is, and it's from no fault of the creators, that the Matrix is not just a film, nor a trilogy, nor a phenomenon, but a mode of thinking. Once you've planted the seed, you begin to grow it yourself - you don't really need all the extra bits to fill in the gaps, or to try and expand their conceptualisation of what's going on, because you're already doing a little of it yourself. Essentially, The Matrix can exist without Reloaded (and Revolutions?), but Reloaded can't exist (or at least can't be a box office smash) without The Matrix. That's inevitable and unmovable: just recognise that this film is an evolution rather than a revolution.
7/10
(subject to extensive revision and a complete U-turn in November
)
