Good summer film but ultimately fails to live up to predecessor

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2003)

For the past couple of months I have begun to feel sorry for the Matrix Reloaded. It is a film that not only had to hold it's own as a summer action flick but also had the immeasurably difficult task of living up to perhaps the most celebrated sci-fi action flick of all time. Did we really expect a film as good as the MAtrix?
But then I think to myself, on the other hand, did the Wachowski's HAVE to make another Matrix film? The answer is no and I no longer feel sorry for all the flak they have taken for tarnishing the once untouchable name of the Matrix. I hope for their sake that Revolutions is not only a fantastic movie in it's own right but also manages to make everyone think twice about Reloaded. I for one am not so sure the Wachowski's will be able to pull this off but I could be wrong.
As if the odds against it weren't enough Reloaded had similar unlucky fate as Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones; It was released two weeks after a Marvel film that garnered considerably better reviews than it. While Reloaded still managed to pull in more money than X2 (though the gap ($60 million) was not as large as experts had guessed) it's critical success was not as good. Unfortunately, it wasn't just the critics; movie-goers just seemed to enjoy X2 more. As if this wasn't bad enough an EVEN BETTER film came out a couple of weeks after Reloaded. This one was even a kids' film. Finding Nemo officially dethroned Reloaded as the 2003 summer king both by getting better reviews AND by making more money. Dethroned by a kids' film that no one had predicted would make more money, the Wachowskis may have made a whole load of money but have also suffered heavy embarrassment. They also have to live with the knowledge that because of all the negativity, revolutions will neither have as big an opening weekend, nor will it make as much money in the long run.
So this of course all means Reloaded is a bad film? Well... no. It's actually pretty good. Unfortunately it isn't it's The Matrix. It tries so so hard to be it's predecessor but it's not. Director Joel Silver said this film raised the bar to unimaginable levels. However there are no special effects in this film that we have not seen used in a whole bunch of films before. Just where does the bar get raised, Joel? When Neo fights the hundredth Smith? When we see a bullet time effect for like the ten millionth time? The most exciting scene in the movie is the car chase scene and despite all the hype, people were more excited at the Nightcrawler scene in X2, a scene that the filmmakers of X2 did not hype at all. This is a good example of hype coming back to haunt a film. Someone should tell film makers that the last thing they want to do is hype a scene in their own movie cos if the audience do not feel the same way, they're screwed.
The action scenes in Reloaded are top notch however and you can see a lot of time and effort has been put into them but there is one major problem...we've seen it all before. Unlike the first Matrix, where the viewer came out thinking "Wow, what the hell was that? How did they do that?" you just sort of sit there thinking "Oh. That again." and "bullet-time again". The only new cool action sequence is Neo flying (even if it is a bit too CGI-filled).
One of the most celebrated things about the Matrix was the philosophical aspect of it. I always had mixed feelings about this aspect. While the film was certainly more clever than your everyday run of the mill action flick, I'm afraid it wasn't Aristotle either. The "philosophy" in that film was rather shallow and very uncomplicated for obvious reasons. While I do not think that this was one of the Wachowskis' intentions, this aspect of the film ended up being probably the most talked about. For this reason Andy and Larry decided to amp it all up for Reloaded. This is where this film's main fault arrives. Given the plot of this film, there is literally no further philosophy than was in the first film but Andy and Larry have decided, rather than inserting real philosophy into the film, to only pretend to do so. The result is a number of the characters in the film saying normal things in stressfully complicated ways. This is nothing more than a cheap and low shot by the Wachowskis aimed at the less knowledgeable of Matrix fans. I find this to be the one thing about Reloaded that I cannot forgive. There are few things worse than being pretentious. If all you've got for us is a brainless summer blockbuster, then admit it. Don't try to fool people into thinking there is more than meets the eye to the film.
The unfortunate result of this is a lot of Matrix fans telling everyone that they did not get the film. If someone says this to you, be sure to ask them exactly what it is that you didn't get and watch them falter or say something ridiculous like "you have to find out for yourself". Accept everything in this film at face value. There is nothing subtle ot remotely sublime about it.
Overall Reloaded is a good action movie to watch if you want to see some good old fashioned butt-kicking and great special effects but if you're looking for an intelligent film, watch Adaptation or City of God.