Amazing action, horrific writing

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2006)

The Matrix Reloaded has powerful pros and powerful cons. Its difficult to say which outweighs the other. The action is unbelievable, some of the best action sequences ever put on film. The story is decent, with a nice series of twists and complications. The dialogue (and for the most part the actors who are forced to speak it) are horrible. And ultimately, the movie is highly condescending. The philosophy of the first Matrix was imbued in the essence of the story. It was not only one of the best action films ever made (a totally revolutionary one, at that), but it was also intelligent and original. It got the viewers thinking, and had numerous great philosophic one liners (You think that's air you're breathing? There is no spoon.) Four years later, the Wachowski brothers have decided you're not smart enough to think for yourself, so they'll turn those one-liners into condescending lectures about determinism and free will, about the nature of the human and predestination, all of which sound like class notes taken from first year philosophy. Then, they'll make their characters deliver these pointless speeches in pointless scenes that pointlessly take up time. The conversation between the Merovingian and our heroes is absolutely unbearable, and unwatchable. Given the material, its not surprising that the acting in this film is below the standard of the first one. Keanu Reeves can't act, but he doesn't have to, so it doesn't really matter. Carrie Anne-Moss is decent, as are some of the new additions (Link, Niobe, Seraph). What is most disappointing here, however, is the degeneration of Morpheus. In the original Matrix, Laurence Fishburne gave us a kung-fu-fighting, gunslinging, building-jumping sage, a man of wisdom. In Reloaded, Morpheus is more robotic than the machines they're fighting. He is the one that has to deliver most of this philosophical garbage, and even though Fishburne is a great actor, I don't think anyone could make this sound like anything other than what it really is: the condescending claptrap of two ex-philosophy students, stroking their egos. In fact, the only time we get a glimpse of the old Morpheus is during his fight sequences. As for these, well, they're the movie's redemption. They fly past the first Matrix, and crush almost all other action sequences in recent memory. The Brawl sequence, in which Neo confronts the 100 Smiths (his duplication trick is the best addition to the story) will leave your heart pounding. One thing the Wachowski's have succeeded in is pushing the bar for action films again. The real highlight (worth watching the movie for in itself) is the Freeway Chase, a scene that is beyond any doubt the best chase in film history, with ghosts, agents, cars, motorcycles, trucks and battles on top of trucks, crashes, explosions, bullet-time shots, and Morpheus with a samurai sword: in Neo's words, "Whoa." Another great improvement is the development of Smith from a cold-blooded agent, to a power-hungry, duplicating opposite of Neo. Hugo Weaving is the only actor in the film that comes out ahead. Here, he plays a Smith who, so coldly evil and emotionless in the first film, is now devilishly evil with a sense of twisted humour, (The great thing about being me is there's so many me's; if you can't beat us, join us; me, me, me. Me too!). He overplays the part with a vigor that seems to be lacking in every other character in the film, and is one of the only people who doesn't seem like a machine.