So much more is expected from Reloaded and Revolution...

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2003)

As much as I will be part of the rabid throngs of people lining up to catch a spectacle as huge as Reloaded and Revolution...allow me to counter a common misconception.
The Matrix just happened.
With an uncanny midas touch, The Warchowski bros launched this then unknown film at the the right place, in the right time. With an execution commercial enough to bring in the box office moola and a philosophical subtext accessible enough for the general public to latch on to, the rest, as they say...is history.
The philosophical under pinnings though, (of blue pills, red pills, the subreality of consciousness and all that mambo jambo etc), so successfully popularised by The Matrix, was infact neither orginated by said film nor as fully realised than in other more accomplished works.
IMHO, the best execution on the concept of reality and perception was already explored in much more unbelievably visual opus, one year earlier, the grossly overlooked and criminally under-rated "Dark City" (One of My Top 10 All time Favourite Films)
Dark City was impactful both cinematically and ideologically. Most importantly, it rewarded my wildly abandoned reach for human imagination and thirst for ideas, by fulfilling as much promise a motion picture can ever hope to give.
On top of that, my background as a "trekkie" scifi nerd meant I instinctively respond to films which challenge me both intellectually and spiritually. Dark City was thus a near religious, life cleansing experience for me.
And any which way I look at it, this film soars to heights unseen since 2001: A Space Odyssey...
But due to its messed up marketing(positioning the film more like a horror film for the teenage crowd), the film did not find its intended audience and flopped unceremoniously. Of course it found its audience but by then its was too late...
That said, the thrist for something better than our run of the mill pop corn fare is still there, waiting to be quenched.
And The Matrix filled that void.
Of course, much to The Matrix's advantage, it was flavoured with a commercial zest which captured the hearts and minds of the masses(myself included) like few films can. Such divine formula for commercial success is way too hard to calculate. Thus credit all round for the clairvoyant Warchowski Bros.
But now that the Matrix mythology and its paraphernalia franchising juggernaut has reached Star Wars proportion, the brothers face an uphill task, to fulfil the massive, pent-up promise that the Matrix may be on to something.....anything.
Contrary to my allegiance to the much maligned "Dark City", I for one hope will like to see them succeed. If not for my pathetic pretence of objectivity(not!!), at least for the betterment of Hollywood cinema as a whole.
Such seminal works like Contact, Minority Report and of course, LOTR has managed to sneak out of Hollywood's assembly plant. May "The Matrix Trilogy" too be part of this cinematic revolution.
As such, to the millions of Matrix fans out there, do not bite me. My comments are reserved for the sole Matrix movie in 1999 alone. That is coupled with my sky high expectation that its capable of so much more. My eventual take on the worthiness of the entire trilogy, of course, will be decided after completing both Reloaded, and Revolution. I thus hope for the best.