The Matrix Reloaded: Movie Review, DVD Review (2003)

(Originally published 2003)

Written and directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, 138 minutes, rated R.

“The Matrix: Reloaded” supersizes everything that was super about the Wachowski brothers’ smash, 1999 cult hit, “The Matrix.” It's a film of excess and restraint, proving you can have both in a blockbuster without embarrassment, though it is fair to say that this time out, the Wachowskis are more inclined to unleash the former than embrace the latter.

The movie is a sequel boosted immeasurably by its convoluted predecessor.

The first film, a fantastic-looking bear riddled with a mother lode of literary and cinematic references, pop psychology, New Age ideas and trippy slang, was merely a primer for all that’s to come. Now, armed with the required viewing of that film, audiences can fully enjoy on DVD the Wachowskis’ vision of human survival in a machine-dominated world.

Picking up soon after “The Matrix” left off, “Reloaded” follows Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Link (Harold Perrineua) in their all-out attempt to save the world’s last human inhabitants--now moshing in the underworld city of Zion--from extinction by the machines.

Joining them is Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), a potent pixie with a mean chop and a vicious kick who once had an affair with Morpheus but who now finds her religion, so to speak, in the capable hands of Commander Lock (Harry Lennix).

To stop the machines, Neo and company must find the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), physically hack into the Matrix’s mainframe and reach the Architect. That will prove nearly impossible to do, particularly since Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith is back on the case and he now can duplicate himself a hundred times over.

Joining him are evaporating albino twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment) and the Eurotrashy Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and his brooding, undulating wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci), who give the film the comedic jolt it needs.

With his lover, Trinity, at his side, and Morpheus close behind, Neo gives Agent Smith and his lackeys a series of fights to remember.

And that’s just what “Reloaded” becomes, an often breathtaking array of action sequences that are so exuberantly entertaining, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the considerable excitement the Wachowskis generate.

More literal and streamlined than its predecessor, “Reloaded” might disappoint those hoping for more answers to the first film’s underlying mysteries, but it must be viewed for what it is--the middle film of a trilogy. Think of it as a shot of adrenaline to the heart of the series, a movie intended to offer a heavy-breathing break from the heavy-handed psychobabble before the Wachowskis address all our questions about Neo’s destiny in “The Matrix: Revolutions,” which drops on Nov. 5 to conclude the series.

Grade: A-

Technorati tags:

movie reviewsmovie-reviewsmoviesfilmfilm reviewsdvddvd reviews

Related Posts with thumbnails for bloggerblogger widgets