Matrix Reloaded, The  (2003)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett-Smith

Directors: The Wachowski Brothers

Rating: R

Distributor: Warner Home Video

Release Date: October 14, 2003
Review posted: October 22, 2003

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

Neo (Reeves) and the rebel leaders estimate that they have 72 hours until 250,000 sentinels discover Zion and destroy it. Morpheus (Fishburne) and Trinity (Moss) accompany Neo on a mission from the Oracle to find the Keymaker who will lead the team to the source of their problems. Meanwhile, Agent Smith Weaving) acts as a virus inside the Matrix and can multiply to infinity.

CRITIQUE

The Matrix Reloaded is not as good as the first film, but holds up well on its own. Most notably it lacks the originality and intensity of the first film, yet sequels rarely live up to the potential of the original. I don't need to draw any comparisons, because in a way these two films are different from each other. The Matrix serves as a terrific introduction and prologue to the events in the second and upcoming third film. Subsequently, it seems like The Matrix Reloaded acts as a transition or bridge between the first and third film, and because of that the film might not reach the exact potential of the first film. It would probably be easier to place The Matrix Reloaded in the right context after seeing The Matrix Revolutions. I think a film that ends with "to be concluded" feels a bit more empty because there is no definite conclusion. But whatever void left by that emptiness, the pulse-pounding and incredible action scenes fill most of the void.

The Matrix Reloaded continues the adventures of Neo, Trinity and Morpheus who must save their city and people from annihilation. With that comes a whole new crew and a set of bad guys. Two important new characters to the resistance are Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Link (Harold Perrineau). The script integrates them smoothly into the story. Returning is the Oracle (Gloria Foster) and Agent Smith (Weaving), who is now a multiplying virus inside the Matrix. There are two more important characters, Seraph (Collin Chou), who travels with the Oracle, and The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who will lead Neo to the source of the Matrix.

However, the Wachowski's know that with every new good guy there needs to be a bad guy, and they create some pretty interesting ones. There is Persephone (Monica Bellucci), who looks stunningly beautiful but might be dangerous, The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), her cold-hearted husband with a strong French accent, The Twins (Adrian Rayment, Neil Rayment), who have the incredible ability to become invisible, Agent Johnson (Daniel Bernhardt), who takes over the job from Agent Smith so to speak, and finally The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), the creator of the Matrix who for some odd reason uses incredibly complex words when he opens his mouth, perhaps as to sound more educated. Whatever.

The first 30-40 minutes of The Matrix Reloaded are slower than a dog's ass. Really, that whole Morpheus speech and techno party is too long. There are more expository scenes that take place in Zion, most of which are slow, but they serve a purpose after all. The film also contains one too many philosophical references, although what follows is a lot of cool, adrenaline-pumped action. The chateau fight, jumping up and down the stairs, is incredibly choreographed. The freeway chase is the best chase sequence I've ever seen, although the parameters of reality don't apply since it all takes place inside the Matrix. But nevertheless, the car chase and other action scenes are fantastic.

Oh, and yeah, Neo goes to work on a hundred Agent Smith clones in the hotly-debated, yet terrific Burly Brawl sequence. A lot of people question Neo's motive by fighting them for five minutes when he just flies away at the end. I believe there is nothing wrong with this scene. First of all, Neo doesn't know what he's up against. He's not going to just run away from a fight if the prophecy is true, that he is the One. So after he fights them he realizes he has no chance and gets out of there. There you have my viewpoint. I don't understand why so many people pick on this scene.

As I said earlier, The Matrix Reloaded stands well on its own. The action is incredible, although some of it feels dated because of the many copycats and spoofs since the introduction of bullet time in The Matrix. The Wachowski's know how to tell a story and despite a script with many slow scenes and weak lines, The Matrix Reloaded is a terrific piece of filmmaking. The film looks great and sounds great. The CGI effects are aplenty; they look epic and realistic, except for a few instances when Neo and other sequences are obviously all computer generated. Also, the acting here is very good. Keanu Reeves assumes much bigger responsibilities (he can fly, too, like Superman) as does Morpheus. Sadly, Trinity is somewhat left in the shadows, although she plays a very important part in the final 30 minutes.

All in all, I enjoyed The Matrix Reloaded even after my second viewing and the film does have very good repeat value, especially with modern technology allowing you to "skip ahead".

THE VIDEO

Warner Bros. presents The Matrix Reloaded in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. I don't think I've ever seen so much green in a film, but within the confines of the Matrix anything is possible. In many scenes the color green is transposed in the background of images, while at other times green fits sets and designs quite nicely.  Color detail is very sharp. Not everything is green, however, as there are plenty of other colors.

Black, white and blue stand out the most, other than green, of course. The Matrix Reloaded is kind of like a color playground, which is a cool trip. Print flaws are minor and don't impact the viewing experience. Grain shows up occasionally, but doesn't intrude. Dark tones and black levels are usually quite sharp and in-depth. The overall presentation here is quite marvelous.

THE AUDIO

Warner Bros. presents The Matrix Reloaded in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Compared to the video quality, the audio presentation ranks higher. The soundtrack is very nicely reproduced across the soundfield. While dialog scenes are mostly located in the front center they are nonetheless clear and always easy to understand. The sound effects jump up and down, right and left, back and forth, and so on. You get the idea. The rear speakers are very active and loud.

The music by Don Davis and some of the remixes come together from all sides in the soundfield to create a circular and terrific surround atmosphere. Some examples of the best surround usage are: the Burly Brawl (Agent Smith's words coming from all sides), the chateau, and the freeway chase, among others. Again, the overall presentation here is quite excellent. Another audio option is a Dolby Surround French dub.

THE EXTRAS

It makes a lot of sense for The Matrix Reloaded to hit DVD shelves some four weeks before the final chapter in the trilogy. And it also makes sense for the DVD to be less than spectacular. Why? For a double-dip edition or a Matrix trilogy boxed set with many more extras is sure to see the light of day sometime next year or so. As it stands the DVD features a decent collection of extras despite most of it being filler material.

All bonus material is found on Disc 2. It starts off with a pretty decent featurette called Preload - Get Behind the Scenes (22:10). You get the usual stuff like interviews, story explanations, on-set footage, film clips, and video of the actors getting in shape for a film that is going to test all their strength and muscles. Directed by Josh Orek, the featurette also covers conceptual art, storyboards, costumes, building the sets, fight scene choreography, visual effects, blue screen work and the building of the sets. Time is also spent on the Burly Brawl incident (hehe) and how they managed to multiply Agent Smith as many times as they did. I wouldn't call this an in-depth look at the making of the film, but what is presented is very enjoyable eye candy.

Next is Matrix Unfolds - A Look at The Matrix Phenomenon (5:20), a brief examination of how the film plays in various entertainment mediums. The featurette is more like a trailer showing some new footage and interviews, as well as mentioning the Animatrix stuff and how the "Enter the Matrix" game relates to the film. It's okay stuff and feels like it was produced for something else.

The best featurette is yet to come. It is called The Freeway Chase - How They Did It (30:48), a very satisfying and in-depth look at the making of the incredible 15-minute sequence. It covers pre-production and storyboarding quite well. Next, the camera crew captures the incredible building of the freeway in Alameda, CA, during the month of March 2001. In fact, the freeway is made up of at least 1,000 walls. Viewers also get to see cool stunts, computer pre-visualization, and some of the special camera rigs ("Jesus" cam and "Motor cam") designed for the sequence. Carrie-Anne Moss attends driving school and gets pretty darn good at it. She also reveals how tough it was to stay in character as she was right in the middle of the intense and dangerous filming during this sequence. This documentary is edited quite nicely and very well produced; very good stuff.

Then there's a lame featurette called Get Me An Exit- Inspired Design and Advertising (9:44), which is exactly what it reads. Who really wants to watch the commercials for the Powerade drink or the Samsung phone? I don't. I've seen them before. They're boring already. The point of this featurette is beyond me. How exactly does it relate to the making of the film? It obviously doesn't; it's just more filler material.

However, Enter the Matrix - Making the Game (28:10) is pretty exciting and quite relevant to the film itself. The game includes an hour of exclusive footage as well cool interactive animation. But really it's all about the game play, which looks like a lot of fun. In fact, I purchased the game after the film came out but the settings on my computer weren't enough, so I returned it. Sucks for me. This documentary gives some cool insight into the making of the game, showing game footage, explaining the story, and exploring the effects, as well as letting animators, designers and other crew talk about the game. It's an overall pretty cool thing to watch. I just wish I could play the game right now.

Now get ready to laugh as the DVD presents The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded, a funny and clever spoof of the film where Justin Timberlake and Seann William Scott get sucked into the Matrix. First they try to understand what's happening and then start interacting with characters from the film; the effects work just great. Wanda Sykes cameos as the Oracle and talks nonsense to Neo. Meanwhile, Timberlake is surprised to find out Neo can't do the robot dance and Scott turns into "a shitload of Stifler's" for a funny Burly Brawl spoof. For good measure, Will Ferrell cameos as Larry the "Architect". It becomes apparent from the start that this Joel Gallen-directed spoof is presented in its uncensored form. This is some damn funny stuff.

Also on hand is a trailer for The Animatrix or as it is dubbed, What is the Animatrix? For some odd reason there is no trailer for The Matrix Reloaded. There's no director's commentary here because everyone knows the Wachowski's have a clause in their contract that excuses them from doing any sort of press. Get off your lazy asses, what's the big deal? Then again, I don't really care for a commentary here. But at least it would be a nice gesture for the two directors to comment on the trilogy in some kind of form. But I guess not. Again, most of the stuff on this DVD is filler material except for the "Preload" and "The Freeway Chase" documentaries.

You can select to view the film with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. The 138-minute feature is organized into thirty-six chapters.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Matrix Reloaded is not as good as the first film, but holds up well on its own. The first 30-40 minutes are slower than a dog's ass, but what follows is a lot of cool, adrenaline-pumped action. Video/audio quality is very good. The extras are less than spectacular, but two documentaries are worth your time. The Matrix Reloaded is worth buying even though a double-dip will show up at some point in the future.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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