‘Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without...’
If the MCU has achieved anything, it’s showing Hollywood how to make a sequel. In Scream 2, the characters have a meta conversation about sequels that surpass their original. All of the usual suspects are cited. Aliens. Terminator 2. The Godfather Part II. The point being that a successful sequel used to be the exception not the rule. The Marvelification of cinema has changed all that.
The Matrix Reloaded dropped in 2003 at the same time as the Lord of the Rings franchise was just coming to an end and the Star Wars prequels were in full swing. At the time, Reloaded was warmly received by audiences (it remains the highest grossing entry in the franchise), but looking back on it now, time has not been kind to this uneven sequel…
Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) continue to rage against the machine. This time against the backdrop of an impending attack on the free city of Zion. In order to save humanity, Neo must find someone named the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim) in order to achieve access to the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) – the creator of the Matrix.
Let’s start with the positives. The action sequences here, whilst relying heavily on CGI, still slap. The car chase scene is one of the best in all of modern cinema, and the many fight sequences are still thrilling even all these years later. Monica Belluci’s ridiculously over-the-top cameo is a sight to behold, but the rest of the supporting cast struggle to make an impact. At 2 hours and 18 minutes, every single scene that takes place in Zion feels like an eternity. The lack of interesting supporting characters really harms the movie in those scenes, leaving the viewer fidgeting and yawning whilst waiting for one of Neo, Morpheus or Trinity to show up again.
The plot is labyrinthine and purposefully obtuse but this is par for the course for any Matrix film. The key is to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, The Matrix Reloaded never really feels like its own film. It always comes across as a stepping stone to the final entry in the original trilogy, and the whole film suffers because of it. The thought of any sequel ending with the words ‘To be concluded’ in 2022 is preposterous, and it felt anticlimactic even then.
The Matrix Reloaded is not an unenjoyable experience. It has some wonderful moments. But it is also inherently flawed. I’m interested to see how The Matrix Revolutions holds up twenty years after the fact. Review to follow. Or in Matrix parlance – To be concluded…