Corporate Line: Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of their crew continue to battle the machines that have enslaved the human race in the Matrix. Now, more humans are waking up out of the matrix and attempting to live in the real world. As their numbers grow, the battle moves to Zion, the last real-world city and center of human resistance.
The Good: The Matrix set a standard for science fiction films as well as anything that has to do with fighting. Where would the X-Men be without the Matrix or many films today for that matter? The Matrix pushed the envelope of film making when it first came out just as Star Wars did in the 70’s. Reloaded takes that envelope and opens it to show us the extended version. The fight scenes are longer and more involved – this could be good or bad depending on which side of the fence you are on.
The greatest scenes are in fact the fight sequences, well and anything that has to do with concrete. There is an absolutely mind-blowing scene on the highway. It’s the sort of scene that when you own this at home you have to watch over and over again. I mean how in the world did they cause such mass destruction, not to mention making it look so cool?
Neo is back and bad as hell. Neo seems to have taken on the roll of a well known superhero, but believe me no other superhero in cinematic history has anything on him. Sure we get Trinity and Morpheus back but they now pale in comparison with Neo.
Reloaded focuses more on the cause and those who are like the crew. We move to Zion and get a first hand look at what it would be like to live in the center of the Earth. It’s a stellar piece of imagery. But it’s still all out shadowed by the eye candy of the insane fighting sequences.
The Bad: The fight sequences are the saving force and also the downfall. In the first Matrix the scenes didn’t entirely steal the show. There was wonderful, intelligent dialogue that really made you think. The lines weren’t just there to make you move forward with the film instead they triggered your mind to think about things long after the movie ended. Reloaded doesn’t have anything like that going for it. Your mind won’t do any bending and you won’t question your own existence, instead you may want to take up martial arts or learn how to fly. What I’m getting at is the fight scenes are overly extended to make up for a lack of depth in dialogue and scenes. At the heart of it something seems to be missing.
Also I have one complaint. There is a scene that has to do with dancing and love making. It was quite boring and after so much stimulation of fighting on both ends, this almost caused a complete standstill. I only hope it all comes out in the wash in the next film as I have a feeling there was a rhyme to its reason but please next time edit that down.
Frankly: Reloaded is loaded. Aside from the love making, this film moves so fast I just started getting completely enthralled and begging for more and then… boom! It was over. It’s hard to believe even now that it lasted over two hours. Never has two hours disappeared so quickly. I only wish it had lasted twice as long. Can someone hook one of those things into my brain and pump me with nothing but the Matrix 24/7? Reloaded isn’t better than the original. What has been? Star Wars was unequaled. The original Godfather the same. But in the end if the third installment lives up to Reloaded or exceeds it then the Matrix and its predecessors will quickly be lumped in with the greatest trilogy of all time (that is if you pretend the most recent films never existed), Star Wars.
Rating breakdown:
Special Effects = 10/10
Dialogue = 5/10
+ charlie craine
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