Replication Destroys Value

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2003)

Given the genius of the first Matrix movie, it is hard to imagine how a sequel could be better. Reloaded tries to improve on the first movie by giving us more: bigger cities, larger crowds, longer fights, and larger numbers of retro television monitors, but more isn't more. One scene epitomizing how more isn't more shows a horde of duplicate Agent Smith's fighting Neo (who, of course, has more super powers). The agents look like so many ants scuttling across the screen; some of the audience were laughing. The plot, so mindbendingly cohesive in the first movie, sprawls all over the place in this movie. The metaphors of the phone as conduit, the 360º pan as transcendence over illusory reality, worked in the first movie because they were novel, resonated upon each other, and were introduced sparingly. One example: the climax of the first movie was when Neo stopped several bullets, it cuts to Morpheus breathing "He's the one", and the soundtrack swells; in this movie, Neo stops several hundred bullets, and the reaction is, ok, on to the next fight scene, simultaneously boring the audience and cheapening the climatic scene of the first Matrix movie. And since Neo and his teammates always win when pitted against agents or Matrix denizens, there's no suspense anymore: you start to just wait for the fighting to be over. The soundtrack, except for some transient effectiveness - it lifted up an otherwise pointless orgy scene to the level of not-all-that-bad pop video - lacked the tightness of the first movie's. There's no reason to add a sequel to the first Matrix movie. For all its stunts, hard work, and stabs at developing forward, Matrix Reloaded is just Matrix Rehashed, and it cheapens the brilliance of the marvelous original.