Produced by Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Grant Hill, Andrew Mason, Bruce Berman.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Gloria Foster, Helmut Bakaitis, Monica Bellucci, Harry Lennix, Harold Perrineau, Lambert Wilson, Steve Bastoni

Part 2 of The Matrix trilogy goes further into an apocalyptic allegory of a war of humanity against machines. It deals with humans being ‘grown’ and used as energy sources for those machines and explores the idea of a simulated world (the Matrix) designed to keep a plugged-in humanity from discovering that the world they believe they are experiencing is simply a virtual reality programme. It involves a colony – Zion - of ‘awakened’ humans living in the real world deep below the surface of the Earth, who have been liberated from their foetal dreamtime cocoons and nutrient tubes, but who are in danger from octopus-like, marauding machines called Sentinels who are tunnelling their way swiftly towards Zion with the destruction of these insurgents as their purpose. At the end of the first movie a Messiah, Neo (Keanu Reeves), had been found and had accepted his destiny and certain special powers of ‘mind over the Matrix-reality’, in the fight to save Zion and liberate more of humanity from their virtual reality prison.  Within the Matrix there are Agents, Men-in-Black-type combat unit programmes designed to annihilate the awakened ones, who are essentially hackers into the VR system.

To match the breadth and scope of the epic vision there is state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery and cutting edge stunt cinematography that has taken film technology to new heights.  Without doubt these make The Matrix Reloaded one of the most spectacular movies made to date.

The intricacies of the plot are made easier to follow by the contrast of the super-futuristic world of the Matrix with the decayed, dingy world of Zion and the movie progresses at a fast pace.  It is within the Matrix that we see the most exciting special effects. A concept called ‘Bullet Time’ enables martial arts scenes of dazzling virtuosity enhanced by the alternating slo-mo and supersonic motion of acrobatic movements familiar to Hong Kong, Kung Fu movie aficionados as well as brilliant weaponry and visual bullet tracking reminiscent of comic books.

After confiding in Trinity that he has no idea what he is supposed to do in his role as The One, Neo visits the Oracle (Gloria Foster), who tells him he must find the Keymaker and makes an allusion to the Door of Light through which Neo must pass to understand the choices he has made.

Among other hand-to-hand combats, Neo has an extended martial arts battle with one hundred Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving), now a rogue agent whom Neo ‘liberated’ from the Matrix in the last episode, who has learned to replicate himself. Despite playing a robotic fighting programme who is never seen without his sunglasses, Weaving creates a unique character who in this movie is gradually enjoying learning for the first time to feel pain, sensation and emotion. It’s interesting that in parallel with former VR dreamers Neo and Trinity’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) evolution into individuation, belief in themselves and finding the Truth within, Agent Smith’s evolution entails self-multiplication - “Me, me, me! I need more!!” - while his obsession with destroying Neo continues.

There is a freeway car chase which takes 17 minutes of screen time and is thrilling from beginning to end.  A samurai sword-wielding Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and an agent fight atop an 18-foot truck at break-neck speed; Trinity on a Ducati motorcycle, with the all-important Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim) riding pillion behind her, dodges and weaves through oncoming traffic; head-on collisions between juggernaut vehicles, multiple car crashes and pursuers who morph and teleport alarmingly are some of the most exciting visuals ever seen in the cinema.

Contrasting with these action scenes are the tender and electric love scenes between Neo and Trinity including an extremely intimate heart massage at a climactic moment in the film.  Another contrast is Neo’s superhuman abilities in the Matrix (he can fly at 200mph) with his humility and uncertainty when approached by residents of Zion offering devotional tributes.

Newly introduced characters include a delicious French power-broker programme called Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) through whom Neo, Trinity and Morpheus must go if they are to find the Keymaker.  Merovingian and his wife Persephone’s (Monica Bellucci) sophisticated manipulation games intriguingly indicate the hunger these programmes, like Agent Smith, have for ‘real’ experiences of sensation and emotion, even if vicarious.  Merovingian talks about power, control and choice as all being illusions, and subtly manipulates those around him while smugly asserting, “We are completely out of control.”  Merovingian’s twin bodyguards, dreadlocked albino martial arts champions Adrian and Neil Rayment dissolve ethereally into demonic, gorgon-like wraiths and reappear relentlessly in the ensuing fight.

Another seminal character is The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) whose revelations about the Matrix, Neo’s destiny and the choice he must make, “The door on your right leads to the Source, the door on your left leads back into the Matrix…” predict a direction the sequel Matrix Revolutions will no doubt take when it is released later this year.  In this scene there is a fascinating device whereby Neo’s face is shown on a bank of a myriad monitors behind him. Each monitor simultaneously shows a different reaction Neo could have to the astounding information he is being told. The way he reaches inward each time to find his Higher Self response is elegantly done.

There are a few problems with the film. There was much necessary explication, albeit in a pseudo philosophical mode which was often reduced to an even more simplistically banal and clichéd level in an attempt to make the film flow faster.

Some of the dialogue is stilted and delivered with very little life or conviction, especially scenes in which Morpheus pontificates (except the one in which he powerfully addresses the massed denizens in the Temple of Zion) and a few others, though Neo and Trinity, Merovingian and Persephone notably escape this.  Disappointingly, Morpheus’ scenes with a new character, Niobe, (Jada Pinkett Smith), who has presence and potential, lack chemistry and the dialogue is boring. Morpheus says heavily, “Some things never change and some things do!”  made worse by Niobe repeating that riveting revelation later to someone else. Fishburne sometimes delivers his lines as though any expression will result in his being strangled by a self-tightening knot. Fortunately his action scenes are powerful and convincing.

There are a few scenes that felt bafflingly extraneous, in particular the over-long mass dance scene in the Temple cavern with its candles, cauldrons of volcanic fire and gigantic vaulted roof seeming more like a huge dance cavern, its denizens sensuously writhing and dancing.

Despite these less than absorbing elements one of the final scenes brings in a wholly new factor into Zion which has been previously hinted at and which promises that the sequel will be just as astounding and densely layered.

Of the mythological references in this epic, with the names Morpheus, Persephone, Niobe, and ‘Neo’ (Greek for ‘new’), some seem significant, others not. There’s an apparently gratuitous whiff of French royalty and/or Grail legend in the name Merovingian – a dynasty of Frankish kings. Writing and directing team the Wachowski brothers have brought in a patchwork of elements from religion with ships called the Nebuchadnezzar, Osiris and Logos, an Oracle (called the Mother of the Matrix) with a Taoist Kung Fu bodyguard called Seraph, (“You can never really know someone until you fight them”), a prophecy and the messianic concept. Zion itself is a name synonymous with Jerusalem, the ‘Fields of Peace’, and representative of the ancient place of messianic salvation, a safe haven of faith and brotherhood. It is impossible to ignore the political and historical connotations of Zionism, a movement that fought for a homeland state for the ‘chosen people’ partly wrested from its enemies and fiercely defended against surrounding hostile forces, and a nice reversal for the Zion at the Earth’s core in the original Zion being the eastern hill of Old Jerusalem. There are various references to Gnosticism too numerous to mention.

Neo, ‘The One’ loves Trinity, a neat duality of male and female and the divine trinity symbolism combined with the mathematics of prime numbers and the philosophy of autonomous Selfhood that maintains its integrity through being indivisible. Continuing messianic references are in Neo’s original name, Thomas Anderson, the given name either with possible Gnostic connotations, or to the self-doubt he had to overcome and his surname meaning ‘son of man’. The spiritual element continues with a door of light being a significant, unknown but foreseen test for Neo. Spiritual evolution is seen in terms of assuming one’s destiny, using one’s gifts for the higher good of humanity and human values against machines and in following one’s inner truth rather than simply believing someone else’s. 

The power of this epic is in the synthesis of superb Hong Kong wire-style martial-arts action, philosophy, historical references, mythology, and theology, with cutting edge technology, advanced computer-generated imagery, and virtual special effects to create an unforgettable spectacle. With all this however, I was less affected than I thought I would be. Musing on why this is so I have concluded that it is precisely because it does come over as a spectacle, rather than an experience of potential depth, that the impact is so much lessened.

© Avril Carruthers                          18^th May 2003