At one point, the film seems to have something to do with a machine attack on Zion, the last city of human beings, and Neo's existential doubts about his messianic mission

Rating: 7/10 (6 June 2020)

After the resounding success of the first film, which revolutionized cinema, the second part of the planned trilogy initially arrives to end the public's anxiety. The Wachowski sisters try to expand the universe in a much more risky way in dealing with the public with new conceptual additions, which are shown in action or dialogues simultaneously. Here, the aim is to expand and "self-conscience" the philosophical discussion, varying between the struggle as a contextual end, or an easy resolution, and particularizing humanity as a principle for transcendent reach.
After defeating the machines in their initial combat, Neo (Keanu Reeves) still lives in the Nabuconodosor alongside Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Link (Harold Perrineau Jr.), the ship's new crew member. The machines are carrying out a major offensive against Zion, where 250,000 machines are excavating towards the city and can reach it in a few days. Nebuchadnezzar is summoned to return to Zion, to attend the meeting that will define the human counterattack on the machines. However, a message sent by the Oracle (Gloria Foster) causes the ship to depart again, taking Neo back to the matrix. There he discovers that he must find the Keyring (Randall Duk Kim), a being who holds the key to all paths in the matrix and who is held prisoner by Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and his wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci).
Obviously, the films still have qualities, but it is clear here that the story took very questionable directions. The first Matrix made the right choices on the scale. Presenting a virtual world that machines use to enslave humanity while the real world is in ruins would be a lot for the public to process, so telling Neo's personal journey in this reality was a wise choice. Here, the script falls into a very common trap seen in sequels of great successes earlier, which is to try to maximize everything at the expense of the main plot. It seems that everything, necessarily, needs to be bigger and better, which results in several exaggerations. What was a concise and well-defined science fiction becoming an avalanche. Numbers, speculations, tentacles. It would be redundant to repeat this here, since the silent self-promotion of the Wachowski brothers works better, in persuasion and convincing, than the gears of a manipulative matrix. In the minds of the Wachowski sisters and producer Joel Silver, a continuation should, by digital logic, be an upgrade. Potentiated effects, more vertiginous action, multiplied beating, in addition to in-depth metaphors and symbolisms. It turns out that the result does not have the edges trimmed. There are excesses, of the most varied types.
Perhaps what makes the Matrix a masterpiece is not the bullet-time, but the philosophical hints connected to the issues of the cyber world. There is no technological advance to replace an original and well-told story. In "Matrix Reloaded" the focus of Neo's story was removed and the protagonist was positioned as just another piece on a much larger board, the narrative lost much of its appeal. Dozens of new characters (from the city of Zion and the Matrix) come to just deliver vague dialogues and drive the script forward. Ironically, the new characters were as robotized and lacking in depth as computer programs and Neo, Trinity and Morpheus did not have enough time to develop the bows satisfactorily.
The newborn franchise then had a difficult task: to continue the plot even after the spectacular outcome, but without losing its charm. It didn't happen: the whole mystery of how the Oracle's prophecy worked, how Neo was so powerful and the fate of humanity was explained in the infamous scene of the Architect's monologue. The boring and sometimes incomprehensible explanation was a loss of immense quality, since the first film spoke deeply of philosophy and spirituality without losing its dynamics. The film's most crucial dialogue, between Neo and the Architect. In an attempt to create something rich and complex, the directors / screenwriters printed an exaggeratedly complicated language, notice how the dialogue with such a figure is full of "difficult" words just to complicate an idea that could be easily transmitted. Unfortunately, Neo's visit to the home of the Merovingian program (Lambert Wilson) is exceedingly long, making the feat of making a production associated with electrifying action and intriguing philosophical concepts boring and even monotonous. The pseudophilosophical speech yields 12 uninterrupted minutes. It is thought that the proposal is to support the "seriousness" of the film, but the content is identical to a dissertation written by a high school student who has just discovered Schopenhauer, Nietzche and Sartre. It is clear that this sequence, specifically, had the objective of linking some excellent action sequences through the streets, with trucks, cars and motorbikes, in some of the most inspired scenes in the film. Another notorious fact is the calculus of the machines, very well displayed in Matrix through the agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who is abandoned here, exchanged for eternal flourishes that end up confusing the viewer. The idea that the whole story is cyclical and that the chosen one is practically created by the machines is then lost within extensive dialogues that seek to hide its true message.
With the exception of some genuinely spectacular sequences, thanks to brand new, laborious and ingenious special effects, "Matrix Reloaded" is one of the most boring, pretentious and confusing films of recent times. The whole action suffers from prolonged and often unnecessary sequences. In the first film, the fighting had a certain raison d'Ãªtre: they were either part of Neo's learning or they were deadly duels against the agents, seen then as unbeatable. Now, the hero fights every ten minutes. He fights (for a long time), without major consequences, with a guardian of the Oracle, with the henchmen of Merovingius, twice with the Smiths. The impression we have is that the long and didactic pseudo-philosophical scenes are just a hook to generate action scenes. Another excess is that in the first film, Morpheus was the voice of reason and hovered over the others with his teachings. Now, all the characters have something "intelligent" to say about freedom, faith, choice, power, free will, destiny ... Philosophy has become a fetish. Obviously, the redundancy with which catchphrases are said causes wear and tear.
At one point, the film seems to have something to do with a machine attack on Zion, the last city of human beings, and Neo's existential doubts about his messianic mission. The feeling of absolute disorientation is compounded by the fact that many scenes in the film are, in reality, mere continuations of plots developed in the video game Enter the Matrix and in the Animatrix short films. An excellent marketing scam, for sure. It is clear that these action scenes remain impeccable, bringing the most modern and advanced features in the cinema at the time of its release. Neo battling a hundred replicas of Agent Smith or Trinity falling in slow motion, on his back, while fighting a duel with an agent, in addition to the long sequences of chase through the streets are undoubtedly moments of pure cinematic joy. And they are almost worth the price of admission.
The visual issue ends up gaining more relevance to the detriment of philosophical issues. In terms of deepening, we started from exactly where we were left in the first film. There are no didactic efforts to remind us of each of the elements already presented, which works in favor of the narrative of the work. The journey through the rabbit hole is now much deeper, taking us not only to Zion but to the fundamental principles of the Matrix. The production design maintains the same logic established in the long predecessor and brings us, through Zion, a true amalgamation of human cultures. With a scrapped appearance, full of mechanisms that seem to have been taken from the beginning of the 20th century, this last stronghold is filled by people who look more like refugees. The Wachowski remain true to their original premise in this regard and make minorities the majority in this "real world", remembering that only those who are not in love with the shadows projected on it leave the cave. The sequences in Zion rescue much of the spectator's astonishment when in the first film - now we know another side of this universe, which, however dystopic, still holds hope.
Of course, other aspects are explored with a lot of category. The religious side is quite accentuated. Morpheus is, more than ever, the leader blinded by belief. Neo is, more than ever, the messianic icon. And the sequence of the party watered by sensuality and electronic music in Zion is emblematic. It does not just contrast human affection versus the coldness of machines. It also suggests that the unplugged become alienated in the face of a commanding voice and respond only to the carnal desires inherent in human nature. In the refuge city, there are even power and ideological duels between ship commanders and advisers. From this perspective, the routine outside the Matrix in itself becomes potentially explosive.
Shortening the plot and removing several of the supporting characters (perhaps migrating them to the acclaimed animated miniseries Animatrix) and summarizing everything in just one film would have been ideal for Matrix. The impression "Matrix Reloaded" leaves is that the main concern was to deliver something visually even more striking than the first film and that most of the narrative only served to prepare the audience for the final duel of men against the machines in the coming "Matrix Revolutions ". Despite new elements, little really contributes to the advance of history, but it is still very worthwhile to follow this sequence.