Shots Across The Bow

The Matrix is Reloaded

Unfortunately with blanks.

Because some things never change. And some things do.

This is what the Wachowski brothers attempt to pass off as meaningful dialogue. We know it's suppoesed to be meaningful, because like most of the other drivel spouted endlessly in this movie, it's with all the affected gravity of adolescents minds trying to impress themselves with their own brilliance.

Yeah, it's got "bullet-time", and slow motion wire-fu, and really cool sunglasses, and all the stuff we'd never seen before the first movie.

It's also got an interminable car chase scene that makes up for it's lack of originality with an utter lack of excitement, a mish-mash of sub plots and characters that are never explored, much less developed, and a story that tties to do too much, while attempting to do very little. (This ambiguity stuff is contagious...)

The first movie was very cool eye candy. The Wachowskis created a visual style that had not been seen before, but has since been ripped off by movies from Charlies Angels to Shrek. In Matrix Reloaded, the Wachowskis give us more of the same, without anything new. This is a common problem for franchises that rely heavily on special effects. Some choose to go with bigger effects, sometimes sacrificing the story to do so. Others stay with the same level of effects, and concentrate on telling a story to keep interest high. The Wachowskis chose to go the plot route, with limited success.

Let's face it; if you want to make a movie to explore deep philosophical and intellectual topics, Keanu Reeves is probably not the best choice for your lead actor. On the other hand, Lawrence Fishburne is magnificently annoying as the portentious Morpheus, leading the field as this year's candidate for the James Earl Jones Excellence in Diction Award. It's actually a relief to find that most of the films other characters find him to be just as annoying as we do. As for Trinity, as a love interest, she makes a great hacker.

Character quibbles aside, the plot rips off better movies at every turn. Neo surrounded by Zionists begging him to save their loved ones is a dark echo of a similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but where Harrison Ford manages to convey compassion and concern, Reeves can only muster his habitual confusion and depression. The Wise Elder counselling the Young Savior is a staple of every action film ever made, and here feels like a formality, rather than an homage.

The action sequences are ruined because there is no drama. When Neo fights a thousand Agent Smiths, he gets hit a few times, but never hurt, and eventually just flies away. I was left wondering why he didn't just dive in and blow up the Smiths like in the first movie, instead of engaging in hand to hand combat. Nobody ever gets gets hurt, nor do they ever really appear to be in danger of getting hurt; well, except for a few thousand of the humans Neo is supposed to be saving, but they really don't count, which is a problem that lies at the heart of the movie.

At heart, The Matrix is an elitist vision of the future. The only players that matter are the machines and the people of Zion. All the masses of humanity, trapped in their cocoons, are treated as worthless or as enemies. Machines and humans alike kill hundreds indiscriminately. From the machines point of view, this would be a terrible squandering of a valuable resource, and should be even more repugnant to the humans. But apparently, only those specially chosen to have their minds freed are worthy of any consideration.

The above makes the movie sound horrible, and it wasn't. It's a decent movie, but I was disappointed because it utterly failed to recreate the magic of the original. The second movie in a trilogy is the most difficult to make, simply because it has to function as a bridge between the first and the last, while functioning on its own. The Empire Strikes Back
is a movie which successfully fulfilled both roles, resulting in what I believe to be the best of the Star Wars movies so far. The Two Towers also succeeds, setting up the events of The Return of the King, while telling its own story. In Matrix Reloaded, the two functions work against each other. The expositional material needed to set up Revolutions kills any momentum Reloaded tries to build. With the exposition dealt with, there is a good chance that Revolutions will close the franchise on a strong note.

Grade: 6 of 10

Posted by Rich at May 27, 2003 4:09 PM | TrackBack