The Matrix Reloaded Review
by Ram Samudrala (me AT ram DOT org)May 20th, 2003
The Matrix Reloaded
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/matrix.html
The second part of /The Matrix/ is actually a contradiction of the first, but by design. And I'm not just referring to the plot.
The film begins by showing us how Thomas Anderson aka Neo (Keanu Reeves) has fulfilled his role as "The One": enabling the last existing human enclave, aka Zion, grow to large numbers by freeing more people than ever before from the clutches of the sentient AI that is waging a war with the standing humans. Neo, his guide Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), his love-interest Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and the leaders of Zion learn of a plot by the machines to physically invade and destroy Zion. To fulfill the prophecy, they set out to take the fight to the virtual reality (matrix) created by the AI.
Their quest involves yet another circular discussion with the Oracle (Gloria Foster) who is still as enigmatic as ever; the return of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who was previously destroyed by Neo but has developed an ability to clone himself; an encounter with Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) one of the chief software architects; and various and sundry villains illustrating the cool special effects present in the film. In the end, Neo uncovers the truth about the prophecy which results in a paradoxical situation.
Beyond the clever pseudo-philosophical implications, the reason the first film was so successful has to do with its "look and feel", one that only spawned countless imitations, but none matched the original: the matrix is portrayed as a surgically clean slow-motion anything-is-possible possible, and outside is a man-made dystopia completely with sewers.
In my view, the key here is to make sure that two sets of atmospheres are alternated in the right amounts so that the attention of viewers can be sufficiently held. That doesn't happen in /The Matrix Reloaded/ since a lot of time is spent on exposition by the characters. Don't get me wrong: I love any thought-provoking intellectual movie as much as anything, and I did enjoy the film on that level. However, with regards to profound philosophical questions, it is better to subtly leave the questioning and the answering to the audience (like the first film did) instead of laying it all out. Which in this case only reveals the pseudo-philosophy to be rather vacuous. (In a sense, the Matrix exemplifies the problem with institutionalised learning/teaching of philosophy, which is that it simply is not challenging.)
The music is top-notch, borrowing heavily from the electronica genre (more so than the first) and complement the fight sequences incredibly well. Even though the fight scenes are an extension of what we've seen before, the synergy with the music makes it seem fresh. On that note, there's an interesting rave-like party held just before the populace of Zion awaits war with the machines, suggestive of many trends in electronic music and pop culture today. However, the beating of the tribal drum, along with people dancing to it in a feel-good free-love atmosphere, makes the point that this sort of dancing and communion is beyond any particular culture or time. (See? Everything doesn't have to be spelt out! Everyone knows that the Neo body in Zion needs to have clean pants after having sex with Trinity in the matrix -- right?)
The look and feel in the film is as good as the first one (though having just seen the first film before seeing this one, I marvelled at how ahead of the game the filmmakers were four years ago). There's a spectacular car chase that starts with a fight between Neo and his friends and Merovingian's thugs. The fight and the chase grows tiresome eventually but it is definitely a treat. All the action scenes are imaginative, with excellent choreography and editing.
Some interesting paradoxes about our dependence on machines (at least the "good" ones), and the creation of Neo are brought out, as the movie propounds a strong deterministic line (the choices have already been made; you can only ask "why?"). The line between the reality that is Zion and the matrix is blurred significantly. It wouldn't be too hard, for example, to imagine a complete reversal where it turns out that Zion is the artificially created reality and the matrix is the real one. Or where the entire situation (involving both Zion and the matrix) is yet another simulation (similar to what we saw in /The Thirteenth Floor/ and /Existenz/).
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