After waiting 4 long years, The Matrix: Reloaded, the second film in the Matrix trilogy, has finally arrived.

Amid all the hype, publicity and the announcement that 2003 was the year of The Matrix with the earlier release of The Matrix Revisited, Animatrix and then the release of the final film, The Matrix: Revolutions in November 2003, I was wondering more if the wait was worth it.

Anyway, forget all that for now, let?s talk about this film. I honestly didn?t know what to expect and I was starting to think that before going to the cinema I should really have watched The Matrix to refresh my memory. However I soon realised there wasn?t any need as Reloaded starts in a similar way to how The Matrix started, and it wasn?t long before I was up to speed.

Reloaded is obviously set some time ahead of The Matrix and Neo (Keanu Reeves) has now begun to fulfil his role as The One and has refined some of his special skills as well as attaining 1 or 2 new ones.

In Reloaded there is no rest for Neo, Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburn) as they discover that they have just 72 hours to save Zion, and themselves, from obliteration by the Machines.

After supposedly being destroyed in The Matrix, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) returns but he is not a Matrix program any longer and has become a bit of a rogue if you will and somewhat of an egocentric which he displays by continually cloning himself. Just another problem our intrepid heroes have to deal with along the way.

The plot itself is quite straightforward - in the 72 hours before Zion is obliterated our heroes have to find The Keymaker who in turn will lead them to The Source where hopefully Zio
n can be saved. However like all things, in theory it sounds easy but in practice it is a little different and a way bit more difficult.

Generally I enjoyed the film but there were a few annoying or irrelevant bits. For instance after watching The Matrix I?m pretty sure we all got the message that Neo loves Trinity and vice versa, and of course this continues in Reloaded but to an annoying degree and really overstating the obvious by wasting a few minutes of film time with a quite irrelevant love/sex scene between the pair, and no you don?t see anything you shouldn?t. Another seemingly pointless part of the film are the scenes where the people of Zion dance after a spiritually rousing speech by Morpheus. Totally unnecessary in my view and reminded me a little of the infamous bar scene in Star Wars.

The only other annoying pieces in the film are the overlong fight sequence between Neo and Agent Smith, Agent Smith, Agent Smith, Agent Smith and on and on and?
Finally there is the ending. Now, as The Matrix was always meant as a trilogy and Reloaded is the second film in the series I don?t think I?m spoiling it if I say this film ends a little too abruptly for my liking with those immortal words, in green of course, flashing up on the screen that say ?to be continued??

With that out of the way let?s move on to the good bits, and there are plenty of them to outweigh the annoyances I mentioned above. Although relying mainly on martial arts the fight sequences are, as in The Matrix, excellent.

However, the outstanding feature of Reloaded has got to be the chase scene on the freeway. Although not completely original it is still breathtaking nonetheless and it is worth seeing the film just for this sequence alone!

The acting is a little more polished in R
;eloaded and Reeves, Moss and Fishburn look more suited and comfortable in their roles, especially Reeves who was a little wooden in The Matrix.

Overall Reloaded is quite fast paced and there is plenty of action although there are a couple of places, other than where I have mentioned above, where you really have to have your wits about you and really listen and understand what is being said, especially later on in the film. I have to admit I didn?t fully understand on first hearing what I did and it wasn?t until after the film and on my way home did it filter through and I finally realised how it all fitted together. A basic understanding of Computers and associated language/terminology is definitely a plus to following some parts of this film!

So, worth the wait? Of course, and now after waiting 4 years for Reloaded we only had to wait a few more months for Matrix: Revolutions. Well the Wachowski Brothers couldn?t risk the wrath of Matrix fans by making them wait any longer could they?

If you?re fed up of watching the Matrix films you could always play the game and later this year (2004) you will be able to play The Matrix Online!

http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/

Finally, a bit of trivia about those twins played by real life twins Neil and Adrian Rayment, they come from Margate in Kent, just down the road from me in fact! After seeing what they get up to in Reloaded I now understand why the M2, the M20 and the M25 are in such a state!