| Product: |
The Matrix Reloaded (DVD) |
| Date: |
23/07/06 (108 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Some inspired moments
Disadvantages: Shoddy film making, dull characters, nonsensical dialogue
Such was the feverish anticipation of its cinema release that the Matrix Reloaded could never really fail. It could have been 200 minutes of blank screen, and everyone would still have flocked to see it. So as the Wachowski brothers sit back and count their millions, the world is left pondering a simple question.
“Is the Matrix Reloaded actually any good?”
Stick around, and I’ll let you know.
The last surviving human city, Zion, is in grave danger. Hundreds of thousands of sentinels have started to bore their way through the planet’s surface, in order to reach the city many miles beneath the surface. The inhabitants of Zion are only too aware of the danger that they now face, and plans are in place to form a last defence against the robotic monsters that are intent on annihilating mankind. Morpheus and his crew return to the city, where Morpheus faces disciplinary action for ignoring his orders to remain in Zion, but he remains resolute in his belief that Neo is “The One” and maintains that he alone will save the city from destruction. Despite doubts from senior military figures, the commander of Zion accepts Morpheus’s faith in the ancient prophecy and authorises him to take his crew outside of the city, from where they can once again download themselves into the Matrix.
Acting upon a message received from another crew, Neo seeks another visit with The Oracle, who continues to ask as many questions as she provides answers. It would seem that it is part of Neo’s destiny that he should make his way to the system mainframe, from where he may be able to save the inhabitants of Zion. The only problem is, Neo has been encountering prophetic visions, which foretell the death of his lover Trinity. The Oracle confirms that he will have to choose between Trinity and his duty to mankind but cannot provide any further guidance on what he should or should not do. In order to fulfil his quest, he must first seek out another enigmatic figure, known only as The Keymaker, who holds the key to the door that protects the mainframe. But this will be no easy matter. Not only is The Keymaker heavily guarded, and not only are there many Agents continuing to patrol The Matrix, but a familiar face lurks in the programmed world around him. It took all of Neo’s strength and skill to defeat Agent Smith once before. How on earth could he possibly hope to defeat hundreds of them?
To make any sense of The Matrix Reloaded, you really have to have seen the first film. The Matrix was a very convoluted piece of storytelling and in the sequel, the film’s makers have obviously made the decision to assume that the audience will know what they’re on about. This in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, especially as there probably isn’t a living person in the world who hasn’t seen the first movie, but worth bearing in mind if you think that this film will work as a stand alone piece of cinema.
Of course, that doesn’t really matter anyway, because if you think that this film will work AT ALL then you’ll probably be very disappointed. The fact of the matter is that The Matrix Reloaded is a shoddy, pompous and thoroughly uninteresting example of modern cinema that serves only to prove that money does not a good movie make.
The Matrix was an inspiring and groundbreaking piece of cinema. Everything about it was fresh, innovative and impressive, from the state of the art special effects through to the choreography, the concept and the cast. Although any sequel would fail to live up to such a predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded is shockingly unimpressive. Fight sequences that would have been jaw dropping four years ago now fail to even raise an eyebrow. Characters that were once inspirational have now become tired and overblown, and the absence of a tangible, progressive story line finally brings down the roof on an already unstable film shack.
The film opens interestingly enough, with our heroine Trinity blowing up an unknown building before being pursued through the window of an enormous skyscraper by a gun-toting Agent. We quickly realise that this is in fact Neo’s dream and from there things just grind to a halt for what feels like an eternity. We get to see Zion, we witness Morpheus giving a rousing (or should that be groan inducing) speech, before a crowd of gyrating, hedonistic city dwellers. Neo and Trinity get it on, despite the fact that Trinity actually looks like a bloke, and as the cinema audience starts to lose the will to live, the denizens of Zion continue to dance and cavort for reasons otherwise unknown. There is lots of uninteresting dialogue with the city’s leaders and then even when Morpheus and his crew are out on their travels, the slow pace continues with a drawn out chat between Neo and The Oracle. At this point, you might find yourself genuinely questioning whether The Matrix Reloaded is actually an action film, because there ain’t much in it. Sadly, this entire section of the movie was so dull (and largely pointless) that the battle was lost and my interest in the film had formally ended.
Suddenly, everything just seemed so dull. Characters who were completely new to the audience were shown kissing and lamenting their separation in a vain attempt to make us care about them. The leader of Zion talked in riddles about the purpose of machines, in some laboured attempt to make the whole thing seem intellectually meaningful. What the directors seemed to miss was the fact that the audience just didn’t care – they wanted to see some butts kicked. But then, when they did, everything STILL seemed extremely dull. All the ass-slapping, face punching, gravity defying, limb breaking fight scenes suddenly seemed very old hat.
The plot for the first movie was generally quite hard to pick up. When I first went to see it at the cinema I remember struggling to keep up with what was going on, but this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the picture, as I was just happy to get carried along with the whole spectacle of the thing. But in Reloaded, this just isn’t enough, and I soon found myself criticising and picking holes in every aspect of the film’s threadbare story line. I was interested to read in the press at the time of release that the film had become “fondly” known on the Internet as “The Matrix Retarded” as a direct result of the number of gaffs and goofs contained within in it. There are scenes where you can see cameramen and lighting technicians in the characters’ sunglasses. Cars and lorries used in the infamous highway sequence are clearly not real – the cars don’t have things like fuel tanks and exhaust systems, whereas the lorries don’t have axles. In such an expensive film, it’s quite shocking to find such a disregard for detail. In a better film, these things would be forgivable. As it is, they become laughable. There are inspired moments – an Agent landing on a car bonnet springs to mind – but they aren’t enough to lift the film out of the mire.
If ever a film were in need of a consultation with the Plain English Society, then The Matrix Reloaded would be it. Everyone does their best to talk in riddles all of the time, to such an extent where things start to sound ridiculous. In this film, it is not enough to question why something has happened. First, you must question how you knew you wanted to ask why it had happened and whether the answer is the result of what you had previously asked someone else. If that sentence makes absolutely no sense to you, then you’ll soon understand what you can expect. Morpheus seems to have been injected with 200ml of “Waffle Serum” and spends the larger part of the film postulating and lecturing everyone else about his beliefs. It’s all very well and good, but when you sit down and analyse the story, you find that it’s actually very simple. The dialogue seems intended therefore simply to puff up the film’s ego and it becomes tiresome in the extreme.
Such was the dismal extent of this film that I even started to dislike the characters that had previously been my heroes. Keanu Reeves seems to have defied time and managed to age very little since the first movie, but he seems more wooden than ever this time around. His facial expression ranges from mildly disinterested to completely disinterested and he shows as much interest in what’s going on as I did. He’s more powerful than ever in this film, and has picked up a new ability to zoom around everywhere like Superman – and he looks just as silly doing it. I think he must have found religion somewhere between the two movies, as he now sports a fetching vicar’s outfit, minus the dog collar. Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) looks as slinky as hell in her PVC cat suit, but there’s no escaping the fact that the woman is terminally ugly and certainly not worthy of the adoration sent her way by Neo. The icing on the cake is the presence of two new evil henchmen, who transform themselves into nasty spectres at will. They sound good until you remember that they are in actual fact the DIY twins from Carol Vorderman’s Better Homes.
The oasis in an otherwise very bleak acting desert is the delightfully nasty Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who reprises his former role with sinister glee. Weaving always was very unconventional in the looks department, but his sneering, venomous attitude contrasts perfectly with Neo’s perpetually blank stare. He also gets the best lines. A single word uttered here and there seems infinitely more memorable than Morpheus and his perpetual tirades.
It is rumoured that the freeway scene in this movie cost $40 million alone, and whilst there are some glaring howlers, it is very exciting. The climax of the sequence involves a crash between two articulated lorries, which in slow motion looks very impressive. (That aside, I personally thought the pile-up in Final Destination 2 was better.) Also, the return of Agent Smith prompts a huge fight between Neo and multiple agents and at times, this almost captures the spirit of the first movie.
But these things simply aren’t enough to lift The Matrix Reloaded from base mediocrity. Many readers will simply fail to comprehend how I could rate a film like this so poorly. The fact of the matter is that audience expectations of this film were justifiably high. With a four-year production time, an enormous budget and the same creative team behind the first film, Reloaded should have been mouth watering. What we got was something that was largely very bland, with a few juicy bits scattered within it. I have yet to decide whether Reloaded should have won the award for Worst Film of 2003 or Most Disappointing Film of 2003. Actually, it was probably both.
Not recommended
Summary: Such a disappointing sequel... although you might want to stick around......
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