BETTER THAN THE FIRST, BUT STILL NO CLASSIC!

"The Matrix Reloaded," the sequel to 1999's sleeper hit, is a better film than the original. Like the original, though, it is boring for the most part, and features a lot more of quasi-religious babble that seriously detracted from the original. On the plus-side though, there is a lot more action in this one, including a spectacular car-chase-crash sequence.
The acting hasn't improved either. Laurence Fishburne does the best job as Morpheus. The rest of the cast does just alright, although Monica Bellucci ("The Passion of the Christ") does good in her interesting little scene as Persephone.
Overall, this is a decent film that will only appeal to fans of the original film.
Movie/DVD Grade: B+

The Matrix Regurgitated

I just don't get it. Is good movie Sci-fi defined by too many computer generated special effects and Kung-Fu fightin'? This is just an awful movie, with an awful story line, based on an awful premise. You have the directors recreation of some kind of Dante's Inferno. Keanu Reaves delivering his lines like some bad robot in the Hall of Presidents or some dime wax museum. Add to that his wearing that cassock. And the cheap Superman pose as he flys throught the air is hilarious. Laurence Fishburne delivers his lines in speech mode. Did I tell you there is Kung-Gu fightin? And more Kung-Fu fightin' and so on and so on, well you get it. Add to this the pseudo Wastern philosophy peppered with Christian terminology and the dialogue is just too taxing. Even worse is that you can see that many of the fight scenes are just computer animation. I can't go on, this movie is just too awful. I say take away all their computers until the write a good story and real Science Fiction.

The Matrix Downloads...

After seeing THE MATRIX RELOADED, I am still enamored with Carrie-Anne Moss' "Trinity". More good news, many of the films set pieces are cool 'upgrades' from what was seen in the first film in the trilogy. From there, unfortunately, the good news begins to pale. Now, when the first MATRIX hit theatres, I missed the excitement, only catching it later on DVD. And with that first viewing I was hooked. After a few years, the first of 2 sequels is released. We are again reminded that we moviegoers live in the 'Matrix' and there are people out in the real world attempting to save us. (If you see one of our saviors on the street they will be wearing either form-fitting latex or floor length overcoats.)

That original film not only gave us great eye candy and technical advancements worth shouting about, but also left us intellectually stimulated as the story was 'revealed' rather than just told. What appeared to be a pot pourri of illogic and plot inconsistencies fell together into a cleverly cohesive event. But it appears the intellectual satisfaction ended with the first films credits. That's not to say there isn't a lot to think about, now you are forced to think about 'plot' contrivances rather then conceptual ideas. And those ideas are sorely missed, especially as RELOADED goes overboard in setting up the conflict that doesn't actually occur in the film. A large percentage involves the hidden city of "Zion" as it prepares for a big attack from the 'Sentinels.' And yet, the film ends before that attack begins. On a certain level, that is acceptable since we have the knowledge the filmmakers want to make the 2 sequels appear to be one long movie, it's just the many 'preparations' and 'discussions' about the battle are redundant, clichéd, boring and unnecessary to follow this particular film. Then again, the same people who hide behind the "it's one half of a longer movie" maligned the PHANTOM MENACE for pulling the same thing.

Zion itself starts out extremely promising as we see inside a stark white control room with extremely futuristic cognitive controls. But, we quickly learn that Zion is yet another Mad-Max world of decay and destruction seen in hundreds of Science Fiction Films from WATERWORLD back to PLANET OF THE APES. Reloaded's Zion society even seems to be in contrast with the crew we met in the first film. Instead of a rag-tag air force pooling their resources to protect the world, Zion resembles groupies at a love-fest.

Keanu Reeves is back as Neo and is thankfully limited to less acting. He works best as a man of actions, and that is where the film delivers. Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss are also back. She carries much larger stakes in this film while he has to deliver some of the hokiest dialogue this side of the Rabbit Hole. Beautiful Monica Bellucci is also in the film wearing a tight white dress. Bad Guy Smith (Hugo Weaving) is back but this time he is a rogue... no longer an Agent. This fact also seems irrelevant to this particular story, so the rogue references don't lead to a payoff. Hopefully, his status will have a bigger effect on the third film. The filmmakers successfully raise the stakes by duplicating Smith, which leads to some of the best moments in the film as Neo takes on the creepy army. There are a couple of scenes that are terrific including the pipe fight between Neo and the Smith army as well as portions of a car chase that takes place on a crowded highway where the camera takes you where no camera could possible be. But, when the fists are done flying, it feels like its unfortunately time to get back to the story.

I had a conversation with a friend two weeks before this movie came out when he said he thinks THE MATRIX trilogy is the most important, most influential film series ever. My initial reaction was thinking he suffered from fan-boy-it is. Now, I am sure of it.

THE MATRIX RELOADED is sure a big, fun film - the volume goes to eleven - but it is by no means an important or even very effective film. Fortunately, we are only a few months before we find out if any of the hype was worth it. I give the film three stars because I really want to like it, but it's the low end of three stars.