Movie Details
| Title: | The Matrix Reloaded | |
| Director: | Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | |
| Year: | 2003 | |
| Genre: | Science Fiction | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.27.21 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (2)
- The Matrix
- The Matrix Revolutions
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.27.21 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2021 It felt like much had changed between 1999 and 2003. I had graduated college. Was trying to figure out what came next. I was watching a lot of movies. And the gang of college friends had continued on in the form of a semi-annual weekend where we got together and hung out. Usually these revolved around some big movie release and this was one of them. I think I first saw this in some theater in Chicago as part of a whirlwind weekend where we also played through the entirety of Enter the Matrix. The first was such a huge hit that the sequels were one of the biggest budgets and all-consuming deals ever. Production took forever... I think the Wachowskis really wanted to get Jet Li to be in them, I think the dude who played Tank held out for more money and was replaced... so much was made about these two sequels being shot together that the release more or less dominated a year or so. Not only was there the movies but also the video game where you played as Niobe and Ghost, setting up the events of the second film. There was also The Animatrix which was an anthology of sorts of animated shorts told in the Matrix world... It seemed like every idea from the first movie was now exploded and any possible influence or inspiration was on full display for the world to consume in preparation of the all-mighty coming of the second and third movies. Maybe Phantom Menace was the only movie with more hype behind it. So of course everyone was disappointed. I do remember being a defender of this one at the time. Second movies are tough, right? They have to build on the first but also set up the third. The Two Towers had also just come out so it seemed like a few awesome set pieces and a lot of connective tissue was the template they were following. And I loved the second Back to the Future, so I was willing to give benefit of the doubt. If you considered the highway fight scene The Matrix's Helms Deep, you could kind of let the zion rave and all the clunky resistance politics slide in hopes that the third paid everything off nicely. I was also of the opinion that while some of the effects clearly didn't work, a lot of it really did. Watching it again, I'm not as convinced. Even the highway sequence, which was still the highlight for me, cut to really clear green screen when it was time for Morpheus to fight the agent. All of the car and motorcycle work still looks great, but it's super obvious any time they abuse the digital human effects they had. Neo and Agent Smith look completely video-game-y. This isn't helped by the cartoonish sound effects like bowling pins accenting the action. The level of effects fit so well in the first film but now it's clear they reached too far for the sequels. That kind of thing is polished now with the Marvel movies but didn't work back then. A major problem that I had at the time was wrapping my head around why Neo still needed to fight agents. Once you defeat death and realize that pain is a mental construct and stop bullets and fly around, why do you still need to kung-fu? Now I guess I see it like he's a superhero with specific abilities maybe? But it still holds true that if he's seeing The Matrix for the code that it is, he should be a MUCH bigger badass there. He should be not just able to fend off a hundred Smiths but to walk through walls and stop fists like they were really slow bullets. It still bugs me but I do understand that the intent of the movie is to be a cool sci-fi mixture of martial arts and technology and philosophy so the fighting's gotta be there even if they have to invent characters like Seraph just to put more fighting in. But it stretches the premise that the first film set. I guess that's what many of my story issues share. How can Agent Smith can infect a physical person with his personality? Wasn't he obliterated? Even if he has some of Neo's "code"... Neo can't do that shit, he's still kung-fu-ing. So a lot of that speaks to them having to make more story... set up some plot devices that allow them to carry four more hours of content. Where the first hour of the first movie is like a master class in exposition, this one feels like I'm watching Star Trek: The Next Generation or something. All that stuff in Zion felt so strained and uncinematic. Clearly the "easy" scenes to shoot quickly to make enough room for the hard shit. Side Note: The rave scene doesn't bother me so much as that there is exposed lava right where they are dancing. All those people would be boiled alive or asphyxiated right? And while I did understand more of what The Architect was talking about, I still have that vivid memory of being... almost pissed off that there's this chunk of exposition intercut with these action sequences... I remember understanding nothing of what The Architect said. Like my mind was dashing to keep heads and tails of everything going on, so much so that the dude's words one-by-one made sense but strung together meant nothing. Now I think it's just the Wachowskis thinking "how would a computer sound trying to talk to a human" and using some big words. And again. Neo can see in code right? Like, why are his conversations with both The Oracle and The Architect so stilted? For the most part I thought Keanu did a decent job of acting "different" in this one, more mystical or empowered or whatever... but he still reverts to "Whoa..." guy in these two scenes. So... final thoughts on the middle movie. I do appreciate the stuff with these rogue programs... TRON-esque exiles hiding in the nooks and crannies of back doors and hacky bits of the matrix. I think Neo stopping the sentinels is a good ending to a second movie (although again! if he can digitally start Trinity's heart... if he can stop the sword blade with his hand then why does it bleed! Shouldn't it be he either stops it cold or it lops off fingers? Why is there a middle ground?), and it's not really that bad I don't think. If the first movie is a 9, this is a 7. I guess it really is the next movie that shits all over the franchise like the last season of Game of Thrones. Let's find out. |
