My Review of "The Matrix: Reloaded"

The Matrix: Reloaded came out back in 2003. It was 4 years after the original movie had come out. The filmmakers had a tall order to fulfill because the expectations for this sequel was sky high. There were so many aspects of that original movie that we wanted this new sequel to match.

I admit that I was really disappointed when I first saw this movie back when it first came out. That's why I wasn't looking forward to re-watching this movie. The reason why I decided to check it out is because the newest reboot of the Matrix franchise is coming out in December of this year. I wanted to catch up to where the last movie ended by the time I watch it. Also, my opinion tends to change after over a decade so it wouldn't be a bad idea to check it out.

The movie starts off similar to the way the original movie starts off. We have Trinity on some sort of mysterious mission. She eventually gets chased down by the agents and in doing so there's a dramatic scene where she's falling off a high rise shooting bullets at the agent chasing her. The agent unfortunately gets a fatal shot on Trinity and that's when Neo wakes up.

We soon find ourselves on the Nebuchadnezzar, it's the ship in the real world that Morpheus captains. Obviously Neo is shook from what seems to be prophetic visions of the future. He wants to know what it's all about and how he can avoid this horrible event from being reenacted.

That's not the only thing on everyone's mind though. It seems as though the machines are finally getting ready for an all out assault on the last human populated area called Zion. Intelligence has noted that they're estimated to bring in a quarter million machines to attack their human sanctuary.

Never lose hope though, Morpheus still believes in the prophecies that have been passed down to him. After the events of the first movie it's safe to believe that Morpheus is onto something. Neo is definitely "the one" that they've been waiting to find. Now they have to wait to hear from the Oracle to understand what they have to do next.

In a nutshell that's what this movie is all about. There are obviously a lot of subplots that keep this movie going but they almost feel like video game side quests as the movie continues. There is a sense of mystery that they don't quite capture like they did with the first one but that's fair. The first movie was revolutionary because no one knew what the Matrix was.

All the philosophical questions and metaphors are all there in this movie just like the first one but they're conveyed in a different way. I felt like the original movie was a little more subtle with the questions they ask the audience. In this movie it feels more like the movie is confronting the audience directly. I can see why they did this because we already understood what the Matrix was all about and we're already familiar with the tropes they play around with.

Further discussion goes into the determinism of our life choices. In some ways I thought that this movie is having fun with us by being self aware of itself. Is Neo and the gang really making their own decisions when they're following a prophecy? Are computers able to make choices themselves for self preservation? It all becomes really wacky when you realize everything is determined because it's written in a script for the movie.

Though these questions often give us as the audience a self reflection of our own daily choices in life. We wonder there is a higher being that has predetermined our paths in life or is everything actually just a series of chance and opportunity?

I found that this movie dived a little deeper into the subconscious mind of the programs within the Matrix. All of them are artificial yet in this advanced stage in AI they are fully self aware. Why would you have written a code in them to self preserve themselves or even care for one another. They have emotions and basically look and feel like actual human beings. What makes them real or not? Technically they are beings that you can touch see and feel yet they're artificial.

All of these philosophical questions kind of went over my head when I was younger watching this movie. The way that they had these discussions were in your face for this movie whereas the first one melded neatly into the action and intrigue of the events going on in the movie.

That's not to say this movie didn't have spectacular action scenes. Watching this movie close to 18 years afterwards had me scratching my head because I was still blown away with the action sequences. They have a wild car chase scene on a highway where they use practical effects to do all of the stunts. It's mind boggling how they were able to do this.

There's even a scene where Neo fights a whole slew of agent Smiths. Yes he's back. Agent Smith was destroyed in the first movie but has come back with new coding. This means he has new powers. This crazy fight was absolutely bonkers but after so many years you can see some of the CGI that they used. It's not quite as subtle as I remembered it.

For the most part a lot of the CGI still holds strong today. It's pretty impressive. There are the odd scene where Neo and other characters look practically like cartoon characters flying around the screen but it doesn't totally take you out of the movie.

A weird discovery for me was all the comedy that they packed into this movie. There are some nuanced jokes throughout this movie that I actually chuckled at. I don't think I understood that they were jokes back in the day but now I can see it clearly. There's the obvious bowling pin crash when Neo knocks down a bunch of agents. Then there's also some nuanced jokes within the banter between some of the characters. I found myself paying way more attention to the dialogue this time around.

The end culminates to a cliffhanger because it was already announced that The Matrix Revolutions was going to come out after this movie had come out. It's sort of like how Back to the Future did their second and third sequels.

Overall, I had a lot more fun watching this than I did when I was younger. I still don't think that this movie is as magical as the first but it had some redeeming qualities that I now understand. It's not the terrible movie that I remembered it to be. That's why I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It's a passing grade and I hope the last movie will get me more jazzed for the sequel coming out this month.