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This Sequel Is EPIC Favorite Movie Quote: "You see, there is only one constant, one universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect." After seeing The Matrix for the first time in its opening weekend, my likewise nerdy friends and I, without much better to do, had endless conversations about the symbolism and nuances. Amongst these conversations were two thoughts that I still remember. The first was from one of my friends that was annoyed that the film's success was going to lead to sequels that would lessen the impact of The Matrix (which we all staunchly rejected; why make a sequel?). The other, from myself after being blown away by not only the nuances but by some of the best action sequences that I'd ever seen, was the following statement, "I'll say this for the Wachowski brothers, if all they want is to make cheesy action flicks, they could do that really well." Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. The Matrix Reloaded doesn't quite pick up where it left off in the first film, seemingly taking a bit of a step backwards; nothing seems to have come of Neo's (Keanu Reeves) olive branch to the machines at the end of The Matrix, and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), thought irrevocably deleted by Neo, is back, better, badder, and madder than a hatter. Still serving with Neo, pulling people from the matrix we assume one by one, is Moses-figure Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). We also have foisted upon us greenhorn Link (Harold Perrineau), since Tank's agent apparently couldn't work out a deal with the producers. As we find out early in the movie (or in The Final Flight of the Osiris for some), the machines have had it with the human infestation of Zion and have begun drilling to get to it with the intent of killing every last man, woman, and child. Zion, whose people's faith in Neo is torn between the haves and the have-nots, must prepare its defenses, but the believers think that the best defense is a good offense in the form of Neo. What follows is the trail of breadcrumbs Neo must find and asses he must kick to get to the Source, where apparently he will find his answers. There's no doubt that the sequels to the trailblazing Matrix created a tidal wave of anticipation for what we all expected would be an epic trilogy when it was all said and done. If you have any question that Matrix Reloaded is an epic sequel, just listen to the actors talk with their intense, epic voices, saying words from big, epic dialog, with long, epic pauses, to a booming, epic score. There are even several monumentally epic fights. The two sequel films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, are themselves one gigantic epic film with a six month – epic – intermission. Reloaded is without a doubt an entertaining movie; the special effects were ground-breaking at the time, the fight sequences are first-class, and the cast of sideline players is superb. No fewer than three conversations – with the Oracle (Gloria Foster), the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), and the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) – are so imbedded with clues, foreshadowing, and philosophy and are so well written that they beg to be watched again. So what's the problem? One problem is that it takes about thirty minutes for Reloaded to get over itself. As stated above, this is an epic movie – and everyone seems to know it. The dialog is at times forced and delivered like Yule Brenner in The Ten Commandments, and gone are the super-cool, noir-inspired shots. If the audience was given a dollar every time a character intentionally left an incomplete statement hanging in silence so that another character could say, "what?", or "what's that?", or "and that would be?" all tickets could've been refunded. Also, since the fights in the original were as good as martial arts are going to get, it occurred to the Wachowski brothers that to make them better they needed to be longer. In the fight with multiple Smiths it's like, "okay, we get it, there are a lot of Smiths", and the fight with the Merovingian's lackeys also goes on longer than necessary, especially since it dovetails into a 15-minute chase sequence. Other fights are seemingly added just so Neo can loosen up. In addition to that, the only sequels that I can think of that were released with as much anticipation as The Matrix Reloaded and its cousin, were The Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace. Empire survived for two reasons I think (and consider that it's the lowest-grossing of all six Star Wars flicks). One is that it's one of the best films in the history of cinema, and two is that there was no internet to fuel the fire to an intensity at which no one could possibly look. The Phantom Menace, a lesser film with the distinction of being the second most anticipated world event behind the coming of Jesus, has fared worse critically than even it deserves. In the end, I decided to rate both Matrix sequels as one movie since, more than any other sequel that I can recall, they really are one film in two parts and are really dependent on each other to be regarded as a complete story. email this review to a friend
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