well, i was kinda let down, to say the least

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2003)

it's 8.08am, friday morning, and i'm sitting on the train writing this review, on the way into uni. about eight hours ago, i was sitting in a room full of people in anticipation of what i hoped, even expected, to be the best film of the year. now, it *is* only may, but i think that it's a pretty safe bet to speculate that andy and larry wachowski's sequel to the matrix, reloaded, *won't* be at the top of my list come year's end.
first, the hype. yes, some of the effects are stunning (there's few words that can give them justice) - the explosions, especially when viewed in 'bullet time,' are probably the most visually exciting things you'll see in a long time. sure, the neo versus agent smith(s - and that's plural with a big fat emphasis) fight is amazingly coreographed and enthralling (depite the unshakeable feeling of watching a video game, in which neo is made of playdoh, that the scene gives - the cgi is *not* as flawless as some might have you believe) and the fourteen-minute, *epic* car chase that we've heard so much about has to be seen to be believed. it's truly one of the greatest action sequences of the last decade, and it's doubtful that we'll see any better in the near future.
but, and herein is the crux of the issue, the impact of this eye-candy, style, and action cannot stand in for an enjoyable plot, consistent and realistic dialogue or character development.
where the matrix combined the previously (almost) mutually exclusive super-hero 'cool' with an enjoyable and thought-provoking story line, reloaded just seems to stall. not that it isn't as philosophically intense as the first (it's probably far more so), it's just that it spends the first two hours 'wowing' us with the spectacular, and the last thirty-five minutes playing intellectual catch-up.
just to be picky, i have to mention the role of humour in reloaded too. in the matrix, much of the humour came from the fact that much of the audience identified with neo's geekiness. this allowed our amusement to be stimulated in subtle ways, and suited the film much better. sadly, the wachowski's attempts to add some sort of irreverance to the humour in reloaded (mostly through the horrible, *horrible* link) was as out of place as a child-care centre at an abortion clinic.
all this said, it must be made clear that i'm viewing this movie so harshly because of my expectations, and it's *potential* to be so much more. reloaded *is* a good film, the hero's journey of the christ-like (and a good few more jc references are thrown in for good measure) is enthralling, and morpheus's stubborness (which is surely being set-up for the third film, revolutions) is somewhat enthralling - almost like slowing down as you pass a car accident. neo and trinity's foray into love trundles along nicely without becoming the schmaltzy sideshow that it could have been, and the fate of zion will surely be the subject of intense (and interesting) debate. most interesting however, is the film's *re*posing of the original question, as we are left wondering - 'what is the matrix?'
in the first film, and even for the first three-quarters of reloaded, the answer seems far simpler than fans and critics have made out (whatever those pseudo-intellectuals might have said, the matrix was still a fairly straightforward hollywood film, not exactly philosophically earth-shattering), but the final thirty-five minutes of reloaded really throw up some difficulties. the matrix's 'architect' provides us with the revelation that this is the *sixth* 'version' of the matrix, the sixth neo, and the sixth destruction of zion. so far, i have not been able to provide answers to these questions, though they are of course not unanswerable. surely it would have been better however to build these questions up throughout the film, as opposed to hitting the audience with a ten-minute diatribe that we can't possibly ingest, leaving the vast majority of the audience a confused mess.
reloaded is dissapointing, but it *is* still an enjoyable film. neo is a likeable hero, and though it seems a little more muted than in the matrix, he's still an enjoyable figure for those of us who like computers a little too much, and are scared of the sun. so, go see it, and enjoy it, but please, *please* let's hope that the matrix revolutions, the final film in the trilogy (to be released in november), rights reloaded's wrongs.