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Poster (c) Warner Brothers
Stop the presses! Keanu Reeves has set a new record for himself-he actually goes through an entire movie without saying the word “whoa”. That is what you’ll be saying throughout the movie, although the non-extreme scenes will leave you confused and bored.
Neo, our hero from The Matrix, is back again, along with Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar floating through the real world (to understand what I’m saying, check out my Matrix review). This time, he somehow has to save the last human city of Zion before the machines destroy it. Also, he’s in love with Trinity. Follow that?
Put simply, The Matrix Reloaded is X2 for an older crowd. They’re both sequels made just for money from a movie that may have been original and grossed in between $100 and $200 million. They both offer more action, often ridiculous, have more convoluted plots, and include more and unnecessary characters. But it isn’t all bad.
This is a special FX movie, and you can’t expect anything more. There are some great fight scenes, with awesome moves. As filmcritic.com’s Christopher Null states, “This is a movie about kicking ass.” And there is a lot of that going on. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) clones himself, causing Neo to fight thousands of the same person. The opening credits were neat, but were worthless since the only thing it said was “The Matrix Reloaded”.
On the flip side, there isn’t really any meaning to it all. Characters come and go, like the albino twins who can transport, or that guy who cuts his own hands. Also, many points seemed to be like “Rocky and Bullwinkle”, when luck-of-the-draw things happen. Although this movie played out “fate”, it just seemed like everything “just happened”. I didn’t really like the whole destiny, cause-and-effect thing, it just didn’t work.
Reeves, as Neo, does his usual one-note “tough-action guy” persona which he’s had ever since the Bill and Ted movies. Face it, Keanu, you aren’t that good of an actor. Laurence Fishburn, as Morpheus, is good at these types of roles. Carrie-Anne Moss, as Trinity, is one of my favorite actresses, and I’ve been waiting for her to be nude in a movie since 2000’s Memento, and I heard that she was in this movie, but I was misled. Weaving is definitely typecast as Agent Smith.
The Wachowski Brothers, the directors and writers, decide to change the many action scenes. Martial arts can be enjoyable and funny (hey, even “I know kung-fu” was funny in the first one), as evidenced in Jackie Chan movies, but here they overdo it. Most of the fight scenes didn’t impress me; it was just the same OVER and OVER again. They also looked obvious. It was shot individually-Keanu with one, Hugo in others, and just spliced together. $100+ million budget? Didn’t look like it. It’s basically a cliché or parody of what the first one was.
It all boils down to this: if you loved the first one, you’ll love this one. If you liked the first one, you’ll think this one is OK.
Rated R for sci-fi violence and some sexuality.
Review Date: May 17, 2003