Matrix Unloaded Part 2: Matrix Reloaded
When released in 2003, Matrix Reloaded saw millions flocking to the theaters to see it, but was it worth it? This article continues my three part series on the Matrix Trilogy as we take a closer look at the second installment in this blockbuster saga. And once again, Dear Readers, I must warn you that this article will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie, it might be prudent to do so before reading on. As for the rest of you, plug in and enjoy.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Just like the original, Reloaded opens with Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss), doing something amazing. This time it is flying through the air on a motorcycle, and then jumping off just before it crashes into a security station at the base of a skyscraper. Moments later we see her jumping from a window in the same building with an agent following close behind.�¯�¿�½
The bullet time technique lets us follow their every shot, and finally the one bullet that pierces Trinity’s stomach. She falls, stunned, and the Neo (Keanu Reeves) wakes from his dream. He is asleep on board the Nebuchadnezzar with Trinity at his side.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
The scene was effective in establishing conflict in Neo’s mind, but ineffective in thrilling the viewer. It is simply a small collage of effects that we have already seen, drug out through bullet time. Still, it’s enough to remind us that we are once again back in the realm of the Matrix.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Shortly after this Neo and Trinity are told to get ready to go, and they, along with Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) arrive at a meeting of several captains of the human resistance, among them Morpheus’ former lover Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith).Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
In this meeting we are told that there are a quarter million sentinel machines digging through the earth toward Zion and it will not be long before they reach it. Morpheus raises conflict by asking that one ship remain behind in order to await word from the Oracle, but basically the scene serves as information only. In the midst of this debate, Neo senses something, wonders off, and goes to the guard station. He tells the two guards that the meeting is over and that they should leave because agents are coming.�¯�¿�½
No sooner have they gone than agents burst in the door. Seeing Neo fight them is the first time the movie is ever really thrilling. It pulls us back into the world and reminds us that Neo has newfound power and confidence. Once he has defeated them, he flies off, rippling the ground where he once was. Seeing Neo in flight amongst the clouds is not at all impressive, and looks more like a video game than a movie. Meanwhile, down below, an agent is confronted by none other than Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who has somehow returned to the world of the Matrix.�¯�¿�½
As we watch, Smith puts his hand in the agent’s chest and copies himself. This makes us fear him even more and sets up a new threat in the world and new possibilities for the broken rules of reality.
Neo reunites with the Nebuchadnezzar and they head for Zion, the last human city.�¯�¿�½
Flying into the Zion docking bay is a wonderful sequence, introducing us to the fully functional miniature world the humans have created deep underground in a series of gigantic caves. As the crew walks through the city, we understand that Neo is now an influential and well loved force among the humans when a young kid who idolizes him comes up and starts yammering non stop, and then a crowd of people come to offer him gifts and ask for assistance.�¯�¿�½
We also become more aware now of Neo and Trinity’s desire for each other, which has grown substantially since we last saw them. The jump from like to love in the gap between films makes it a little awkward for the viewer, but we can still see where the filmmaker’s are going.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Meanwhile, Morpheus is greeted at his ship by Captain Mifune (Nathaniel Lees), who tells him that Commander Lock (Harry Lennix) wishes to see him in his office. Lock is the commander of the defense of Zion, and he is fiercely angry with Morpheus about his decision to leave a ship behind to wait for word from the Oracle.�¯�¿�½
We have no connection with Lock. He is the clichÃ?© character of a hard-nosed leader who doesn’t take crap from anyone and does everything by the book, but then again, maybe that was the point. The meeting is interrupted by Councillor Hamman (Anthony Zerbe) who calms Lock down and expresses his great faith in Morpheus.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Here, we also see the development of one of the Nebuchadnezzar’s new crewmembers, Link (Harold Perrineau) who is the new operator after the death of Tank. He goes home to his wife, who is worried because Tank and Dozer were her brothers and she doesn’t want to lose another loved one to the war. This scene is effective because it plays like an old-fashioned war movie, and the emotion is palpable.
Later, there is a great meeting in a gargantuan, beautifully designed cave in which Morpheus addresses the people.�¯�¿�½
He tells them of the coming threat, and that Zion will not stop fighting, and then urges them to celebrate. One thing that does not make sense is that there has been a great deal of talk about people disagreeing with Morphues, but when he is at the helm everyone loves him. After his speech is complete, the people of Zion dance to techno tribal beats, sweating and writhing intercut with Neo and Trinity making love in their rooms. The sequence serves no purpose other than sweaty nudity and slows the film down.�¯�¿�½
Neo awakes from yet another dream and Trinity asks him what is wrong. They go through a clichÃ?© dialogue about Neo fearing to lose her, and Trinity reassures him that he won’t. Of all the many things the Wachowskis are adept at, romance isn’t one of them. Neo then goes out to get some air and meets up with Hamman. They discuss the irony that there are machines doing work in Zion when they are in fact fighting against machines.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Hamman gives an intellectual and needless speech about control, once again slowing the film down. The next day a communication from the Oracle is received, and Neo is sent to meet her. He walks into a quiet little room to find Seraph (Collin Chou). They exchange words, and when Seraph finds out Neo wishes to see the Oracle he fights him. After the fight is over Seraph explains that he had to fight him to make sure he was who he said he was, and then they go through a backdoor into a nondescript hallway with dozens of doors.�¯�¿�½
This is a new addition to the Matrix world, called Programmer Access. Keys can be laced with Matrix code and when placed in a lock they will lead you to any place you wish, even if it is on the other side of the world. Seraph puts in a key and opens a door on a small city park, where the Oracle (Gloria Foster) is sitting on a park bench. During their talk, she begins to explain to him that she herself is a program, one of the oldest in existence.�¯�¿�½
She goes on to tell him that every time he has ever heard of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, or anything supernatural that it is a rogue program that has hacked into the Matrix and found new abilities. In a way, this is logical, but it also takes some of the mystique away from the world. The Oracle then gives Neo instructions.�¯�¿�½
He must go and find “the source”, to do that he needs The Keymaker, and to get him he must go to a program called The Merovingian. Seraph and the Oracle depart, and not two seconds later Smith arrives, and so begins the most famous sequence of the film.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Neo does battle with Smith and all his copies, first hand to hand and then with an iron pole from the park. The sequence works in theory, and for the first two minutes its fine, but when too many Smiths join in the film blurs into a video game with bade computer work, and after a while it just gets boring.�¯�¿�½
After all, how many times can you hit something that doesn’t bleed and doesn’t die? At long last, Neo escapes, and the hunt for the Merovingian is on.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
They find him in a fancy restaurant in the city. Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus enter together and address the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and his wife Persephone (Monica Belluci). The dialogue goes on for a good five minutes, and the Merovingian discusses cause and effect, power and weakness, and a host of other pointless things. There is so much intrigue in his voice that anything that has meaning is lost on the viewer.�¯�¿�½
Basically, he tells them he won’t give them the Keymaker, and leaves them to be with a young woman whose desert he has spiked with an aphrodisiac. His jealous wife offers to help them, but only if Neo will kiss her as though he is in love with her. He agrees, and the scene lets us trust her a little more.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
She leads them through the kitchen where the closes double doors, unlocks them with a key, and opens them on a sprawling mansion. She tells them where the Keymaker is, and then the Merovingian arrives. Trinity and Morpheus leave to find the Keymaker, while Neo fights the henchmen.�¯�¿�½
The ensuing fight scene is one of the few intriguing ones of the film thanks to its use of swords (after they empty clips at Neo and realize he can stop bullets). Trinity and Morpheus find the Keymaker and run with him only to be pursued by the mysterious silvery twins (Adrian and Neil Rayment) who can turn into translucent, incorporeal ghouls and pass through matter at will.�¯�¿�½
They flee to a parking garage and steal a car with the twins in hot pursuit. Neo defeats the Henchman and then tries to find his friends, only to discover that his miles away in the mountains. Link tells him where to go, and he sets off through the air.�¯�¿�½
The car chase on the freeway is one of the film’s triumphs. It brings us something totally new in comparison to the first film, as well as unleashing some of the film’s best looking special effects. As the chase continues, agents also enter in the pursuit, jumping across cars and shattering them as they try to catch the Keymaker.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Finally, Trinity and the Keymaker escape on a motorcycle while Morpheus deals with the twins by blowing up their Escalade. Neo arrives to pull him out of the freeway, and the plan is launched for Neo to get to the source.�¯�¿�½
They must infiltrate a building�¯�¿�½with almost impenetrable security, and they mount a plan of attack. When it begins, we see Trinity fly through the air on a motorcycle and jump off before the motorcycle blows up a security outpost, just like in the opening. This creates a foreboding, because we know what should come next.�¯�¿�½
After some struggle, Neo makes it to the source, which is in fact a white room filled with monitors all focused in different parts of the Matrix. In the middle of it sits the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis). He tells Neo about the Matrix, and how there were many different versions before perfection was reached. He also tells him that there have been six other One’s just like him, all of which have died, and all of which have led to new and better versions of the Matrix.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Neo refuses to believe him, but the Architect is completely stoic and it is clear he’s not bluffing. This little bit of information is given to him in almost ten minutes of meaningless dialogue. The Architect uses too many big words with too little bearing on the situation, and he just rambles away like a VCR Manual. Neo leaves, only to find he’s not where he used to be, and he has to fly back to save Trinity, who has now been shot, just as she was in the opening, by an agent.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Neo flies so fast that the world is pulled in a jet wash behind him. These shots are unbelievably excessive, making Neo so powerful that we can’ believe anything can challenge him anymore. He stops Trinity before the hits the ground and somehow pulls the bullet out of her body through the Matrix. Once again, Neo is just too powerful for the world to make sense anymore.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
Back in the real world, the crew struggles to repair their damaged ships before sentinels arrive in the tunnels. Neo and Trinity are now back and fighting. The scene builds tension, and we’re not sure where it’s going. Finally, the squiddies arrive, and just as they’re about to strike, Neo destroys them with his mind, and then passes out from the force (funny, he can tear the world apart when he flies but he can’t destroy two little robots without going limp).Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
In the end, we see Neo laying in the medical room onboard a ship next to Bane, a character who was seized by Agent Smith earlier. Smith copied himself into Bane and infiltrated the real world, so the cliffhanger really works.�¯�¿�½
Overall, Reloaded was an entertaining film, but its efforts to make better what was already seen in the first film failed. Reloaded is best when it is unique, like the car chase and the twins. Also, there seems to be too much emphasis on the world and not enough on the characters, making us care about them less, but not to worry, there’s still one film to go. In the next article, we’ll take that final turn into home as we examine the final film in the trilogy: Matrix Revolutions.
