Fall from grace

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2003)

YES THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS
The Matrix (1999) was a cinematic marvel. An instant sci-fi classic, in fact. So, it makes me sad to see how mediocre, and sometimes downright bad, The Matrix Reloaded turned out to be. Firstly, the special effects. We have more of the same kind of bullet time and "slow-mo-to-fast" editing that gets old fast. The much hyped fight between Neo and the hundred Agent Smiths was rediculous. The CGI was laughable. In one shot in particular, when Neo soars above the Smiths, he looks unaccaeptably fake. And not just a little fake. He looks like a video game character. It was sad to see such mediocrity. During the highway scene the CGI shows its limitations as well. In particular, the scene when one agent jumps on the hood of the car and then off again. In other less technically challenging scenes, the CGI looks great. For example, the Twins in their digital forms looks superb. However, I can look past the CGI shortcomings. The film's real weakness is the script and some of the cast choices. The story in this movie is very very weak. Firstly, many of the fight scenes seem forced and staged. For example when Neo fights the Oracles' bodygaurd.
Most will argue that the script's reason is a good enough one, that had to fight Neo on order to know it was really him. I don't buy it. It seems to me just an excuse to have another fight in the movie. The fight between Neo and the many Agent Smiths is anotehr peculiar instance in the film.

First of all, Agent Smith's character in this sequel has been reduced to a petty little power hungry guy. He now has a little kid mentality who is only back in the story because supposedly Neo freed him when he imploded him in the first movie. In the original Smith was a great character. ONe of the best onscreen villains ever, in fact. In Reloaded, he's just annoying. Sad, becuase Hugo Weaving is a great actor and he is wasted in this by a subpar script. And so we are subjected to the soon-to-be-famous brawl between Neo and the agent smiths. And it gets rediculous fast. At one point Neo throws one smith at a few other Smiths and the we hear the sound of falling bowling pins.......
The fight between Morpheus and an agent atop an 18 wheeler is also sadly framed. It is a pointless fight since at any point the agent could have killed Morpheus by shooting him since Morpheus cant dodge bullets. But alas, another fight scene. Also, realistically, the truck driver seeing whats going on around him would not keep driving as usual.
When the Twins are in pursuit of Morpheus and Trinity they could have easily killed them all including the Keymaker in the garage. Also for those who will argue that the Twins were not trying to kill the Keymaker, they fill the car with rounds of ammuntion so its safe to say he was expendable. Also one of the agents has clear shots at Trinity while she's driving the car. They could all have been killed easily during that chase and it makes it hard to like the scene when noticing all these things. The ending with the Architect seems laboured.
Many characters are also tepid. The "French" guy (sorry cant rememebr his name and am too lazy to look it up) is a good character but the scenes that surround him are pathetic, ie. Neo trading a kiss for the Keymakers whereabouts, and the French guys wife (see above, i am lazy) betraying him just like that. It kinda hard to explain it. It was just really badly written. The dialogue is also pretty bad. Everyone in this movie has an opinion on choice and free will and all that.
The Matrix was cool becuase it didnt shove the philosophy down our throats. It left it to us to wonder if the matrix was such a bad thing after all. Sure, we cheered for Neo and Morpehus but we understood where the agents were coming from. Naom(b?)i was pointless. Jada cannot act worth poop. Neither can the Link actor. You know, the cripple from Oz. Bad. And the way they work in Tank's demise was stupid. And the whole thing at the end with the doors was crap. When agent smith(s) appeared again, i was just bored. gimme a break.
So what did i like??? The fight scenes in themselves were choreographed very well. It takes alot of skill to do such a great job as they did and they deserve all the kudos they receive. The Twins were great but their potential was sadly wasted. They could have been contenders, to quib Brando. Also to this film's credit there is still an air of mysticality and awe that made the first one so great. Although it has diluted. The fact is, that I just dont care as much about the characters as I did after i saw part one. I wanted to like Reloaded, I really did. And I tried, but it didn't move me as much as I hoped it would. I gave it a very generous 7. I dunno, I guess I expected too much. Dont worry though, most of you will like it. It's not bad, dont get me wrong. Just didnt fill me with that same level of excitement as the first one. I'll post any more greivances or admirations I can think of later.