reload

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2005)

Neo has been have nightmares over trinity; a repeating dream of her death. Adding to his troubles is the over bearing people of Zion, who look to him as a prophet to save them. The leaders of all ships are meeting as they have found new startling information. The machines are digging directly down to Zion; reaching in roughly seventy-two hours, but there are other things going on in the matrix. The agents have had an upgrade, but someone has come back; Agent Smith. He has been unplugged from the matrix and has become free, yet he is on a forceful fight to find Neo. Smith has also become able to copy himself; there are hundreds of Agent Smiths now.
Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are now on a mission to save Zion, but first have to find the Key Maker; who holds the key to Neo's final destination. Neon has to go to the source of the matrix, where he has to make a choice; save Zion or save the one he loves.
The Matrix Reloaded is an full throttle, action packed sequel to The Matrix. The look and feel though is very different though to the first one. The first Matrix had a very dark atmosphere to it; through the dark green and black colours, the green wash is present again, yet its mixed with white and light colours, making a much brighter feel. As the first matrix set up so much of the story, the Wachowski's were given more freedom in incorporate more action to the mix, though it wasn't evenly spread through the movie. At times you were given loads of information, some hard to digest on first viewing, than huge action sequences would follow, knocking out most of the information you just had. The scene between Neo and the Architec seemed over complicated; where the Wachowski's seemed to have swallowed a thesaurus, making it hard to follow the conversation.
The special effects are so much better, creating much more detail to the matrix and to the fights. Yet it was disappointing that the burly brawl did have to rely on so much special effects, losing some authenticity where you can see when Neo or Smith were computer generated. The rest of the fights though much more gracefully, flowing much better. The car chase is just mind blowing, being one of the best car chases i have seen. I remember the first view of it and i couldn't breath and my heart skipped beats, it was so intense and moved at such a fast pace and has such a climatic ending that just makes your jaw drop.
The acting was as of the same level of the first. At times people seemed to overact, losing some of the dramatic tension. Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock seemed to gruff and mumble a lot, not making him seem to serious. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss all give good performances again. It is sad that it was Gloria Foster's last performance as the Oracle, which she does great again.
It just falls short of the first Matrix, though continues the story and ends on such a high note, keeping you hanging for the final one.