ironhorse_iv Review of The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Entering the Matrix yet again. My mind is overloaded by this film.

[7/10 · 29 May 2013]

It sure is. The visuals, the story, and all of the references are all over my mind. It's a good action flick with a decent dystopia plot, but watching the Matrix film series and its 2nd movie Matrix Reloaded get really, really confusing. I know the first Matrix (1999) movie was just as baffling, but in here in this sequel, it's over complex. To simple down the over complex plot for you, this is how it goes: Neo (Keanu Reeves) must decide on saving Zion and risk killing Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) or allowing Zion to meet its doom by saving Trinity. That's it, everything else in the film, you don't need to understand, unless you want your mind blow by stress trying to figure it out. For the normal mindless popcorn flicker, there are plenty of action in the film. I like the brawl with a hundred Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving), Château fight, and the Highway Battle. In the burly brawl, did they really use a sound of a bowling ball knocking over pins? Yes. Now, that's just silly. The CGI in the film was amazing. There are plenty of slow bullet time for you to sink your teeth into to the point, it's become somewhat a parody of its normal self. There are moments in the film, I kept asking myself, do we really need that 'there'? Talking about things not needing to be there. I always skip the cave-rave scene every time I watch the film. It's so pointless and out of place. It looks like an orgy full of cavemen beach bums rather than a Matrix movie. I adore all the philosophical discussions of free will v foreknowledge, Taoism, the references to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the levels of realities, and so on, so on, but a lot of this film has so much exposition that never get explain or go anywhere. There always beating around the bush in this film that it leave you mind-boggling. Deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information might be a great plot device, but overwhelming the story dialogue with too much intelligent with little to no result can leave the audience asking themselves, what did they say? Not everybody is as mindful as those of the writers. They even put a theory about werewolves and vampires in the middle, that is confusing and never brought up again in the film. Even some of what they are talking about, isn't totally truth in a certain P.O.V. such as the topics of Control, and understanding choice. There is no bigger epic failure of exposition dialogue than that of the Architect, that supposed to explain everything in the Matrix World. It all sounds reasonable when he explains it to Neo, but it isn't very logical. It's the stupidest world building ever. It leaves a lot more questions, then it does provide answers. While, the 3rd movie in the film series Matrix Revolution (2003) did explain more, it's still a huge headache worth of information yet to be explain. There are whole chapters of books and videos trying to understand the whole Matrix mythos and how it is mediated across both film and games, with all different opinions and so call answers to questions to what the film is trying to say. In my opinion, the writers Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski felt like they were trying too hard to developed a complex plot and it hurt the film a bit as some people found the dialogue to be boring, confusing, or sometimes hard to follow. It isn't an easy subject to wrap your mind around. So to some people, it might be not entertaining. I do like the new characters that they add to the story. I do enjoy Link (Harold Perrineau). He probably the best new character, I like. The role of Zee, Link's wife was originally given to singer/actress Aaliyah, who was killed in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, before she could complete shooting her part for The Matrix Revolutions. Nona Gaye replace her. It sad that happen during film. Overall: Seeing that this is the second movie in the trilogy. I did like it, but the ending was kind of a downer. I wouldn't say, it's better than the 1st movie, but it wasn't a total failure like some critics pan it. In my opinion, it's worth the ticket price when I saw it in 2003 and worth having it as a DVD in my DVD collection.