The Matrix Reloaded – Film Review

Freedom fighters Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) continue to lead the revolt against the Machine Army, unleashing their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation. In their quest to save the human race from extinction, they gain greater insight into the construct of The Matrix and Neo’s pivotal role in the fate of mankind.

When The Wachowski‘s The Matrix was released in 1999, it was hailed as an extremely thought-provoking, multi-layered, and incredibly fun action film that challenged perceptions of what truly excellent action films can be like. The world that was on display in that original film as well as the characters such as Neo and the Agents made it one of the most memorable films of all time, so making a sequel would be a remarkably tough task for any director to attempt.

Yet, against all odds, the Wachowski’s more than rose to the occasion when it came to making The Matrix Reloaded, which brilliantly expands upon the world, themes, and characters that made the first film so memorable. It wastes absolutely no time in re-introducing our characters – it expects you to know who they are and be familiar with them which I love. I’ve always hated when movies talk down to their fan base. Chances are, if you’re watching The Matrix Reloaded you’ve seen the first one, so there’s really no need to do a big re-introduction montage with these characters.

From the moment the film begins we watch Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus getting right down to business; this time having to deal with the war on Zion. Neo goes on a daring mission to rescue the elusive “Keymaster” but he quickly realizes that if he wants to save Zion from imminent destruction, he must do so within seventy-two hours and also confront “The Architect”. Right away, you feel as though the stakes in this follow-up film are significantly higher than they were in the previous outing. We know that Neo is “The One” and that he’s ridiculously powerful but we recognize that seventy-two hours is not a long time to basically stop an all-out war from happening, no matter how special our protagonist is.

It also doesn’t help matters that Neo keeps coming into problems. The Keymaster is an extremely difficult person to find and the people he comes into contact with are not being too cooperative with him. Because the tensions are so high in Reloaded, we constantly feel on-edge and we question whether or not Neo and company are actually going to succeed in their efforts. The action in this sequel is also dialed up to a ten, with tons of extremely entertaining shootouts and fist-fights sprinkled throughout the movie.

One scene, in particular, involves Neo getting into an all-out brawl with dozens of Agent Smith clones which is undeniably one of the most iconic fights in cinema history. In the first film, it was explicitly established that the Agents are ridiculously powerful people. In fact, early on in the movie, Neo is told that if he sees an Agent, no matter what, he must run. Do not fight. Of course, at the end of the film we get that amazing scene where he one-handedly fights off Agent Smith and that was fun to see, but even though Neo beat Smith, we still recognize that he is deadly.

So in Reloaded when we literally see dozens of Agent Smith clones trying to fight Neo, we feel a genuine sense of tension because we know that just one Agent could kill somebody, and here Neo is fighting a whole army of them. The fights in this movie are absolutely incredible and the choreography is truly state-of-the-art, although I will say that a lot of the CGI and visual effects in this film are just straight-up bad.

And sadly there are a couple of scenes every once in a while that just feel perplexing. Yes, we know that Neo and Trinity are together now after the events of the first film, but do we really need a several-minute-long scene involving them kissing as if their life depends on it? Probably not. Every once in a while the film will cut away from the main story to something of lesser importance and it does take you right out of the movie. Luckily, when the main storyline comes back into focus, it’s incredibly easy to get sucked right back into it.

But a couple of big flaws aside, The Matrix Reloaded is a wonderful sequel that ups the ante in more ways than one, expanding on the vibrant and heady world and continues to flesh out its main cast of characters. It’s not quite as good as the first outing, but it’s still a staple in pop culture, and for a good reason.