The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

recommended

A Brilliant Conflict

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Well I have to start buy saying that this is an honestly good movie, but with all sequels it has it's flaws as well. (There easy to overlook).I think that this takes place at least six months after the first, and we get to see Zion an underground sanctuary where the human race hides, we also learn that the machines are digging their way to them. Neo flies, a prophecy is talked about and there is a ticking clock to all-out war with the machines. (Let me get into the flaws first).First I would like to say that this is a fun movie, great action scenes great visual effects. But the movie manly lacks in I would say character development, maybe a bit of the story is a little muttled, and a little confusing and convoluted. I can't place my finger on it but it's there, to put it simply they should have done something else for the story. Even before I seen this I was kinda expecting something different, you know, new villains, new threat just something cool but different. Not that what is in it isn't and not that I was let down or anything when I watched it but I'm saying that it was missed opportunities for something really special. (On to the good stuff).The action scenes are awesome and quite memorable, my favorites are when Trinity is on the freeway in a high speed chase, Morpheus fighting an agent on a semi-truck's trailer all the bad ass fights with Neo. There is a scene where Neo kisses Monica Bellucci that is quiet erotic also Neo and Trinity have a sex scene in this, I can tell the directors wanted to have some sex in this film LOL. A side from that this was an enjoyable film to watch all though I do watch this film a lot less these days, I do find myself going back to the first more often. But this one is still good and ends on a cliffhanger leaving you wanting more.Overall I give it a 7/10. Fun to watch every once and a while.

After the fantastic first film that was 'The Matrix', it is safe to say its sequels are simply money grabbing pieces of junk. The Matrix wasn't intended to have sequels, but due to the success of the first one it was unfortunately decided to create this incoherent pile of nonsense.Where did The Matrix Reloaded go wrong? First off, the fascinating concept behind 'The Matrix' is not so fascinating anymore since this sequel feeds on the same ideals, yet that kind of thing doesn't necessarily have to be a problem. ( Look at Terminator 2: Judgment Day for example as how a sequel should be ) But The Matrix Reloaded just comes across as a bunch of incoherent and pretentious nonsense because they wanted to build further on the original's ideas instead of the intelligent psychology that made the first one great. It is the kind of movie that tries to fool audiences in liking it so they can feel intellectually superior, which is something the original managed to avoid so well.Secondly, we have these terrible new characters like Niobe, Lock, Link, Link's girlfriend or something and that annoying kid that idolizes Neo which name i forget since he isn't memorable whatsoever. None of them seem to be able to act, and all of them have subplots devoid of any kind of emotional attachment to them since we first off barely know these characters due to their sudden appearance in this sequel, and the obvious fact that they cannot act ( especially that kid ). Smith has been changed to a prophet of some sort and seems to only be in this movie because of the success the first had. His character is really totally irrelevant otherwise.Third we have the obvious lazy CGI problem. Especially the scenes with Neo fighting the clones are just absolutely terrible. It uses a lot of CGI which was already dated at the time this was made and is comparable with a dumbed down weak fighting videogame. Especially the one where he pole dances around them horizontally, not sure who thought it was a good idea to put that shot in the film, but that person deserves to be fired, since it looks absolutely terrible. There is also simply put too much martial arts in it, like they wanted to impress audiences with their choreography instead of coherent storytelling yet use lazy CGI which basically ruins entire fighting scenes. The exception is the fight in the Chateau, which is one of the few pieces in this entire movie that was brilliantly filmed.Fourth we have Zion, the only human city left in the world which was mentioned a bit in the first Matrix. Yet every Zion scene is bleak, dead, dull, grey and lifeless. It has a lot to do with the characters there having the same characteristics, but the shots are ugly and the design behind the city is just terribly bleak all around. It does fortunately still have the stylish direction the first one had in scenes taking place inside The Matrix itself, and has a relatively interesting character with the Merovingian, yet it seems every little piece of strength this movie has has to come from the scenes in The Matrix, and even those suffer from terrible CGI and generally weak storytelling. There is also a character later on in the movie who basically destroys the concepts the first Matrix stood for ( stating anymore would be a spoiler ), so as a sequel it is also mediocre since it cannot follow up with an enhancement of the story, and instead overwriting it. It is both disrespectful to the original in this way, and pretentious in its own way of adding new concepts which make no sense after watching the first one.It is an unfortunate turn of events that these sequels were even created, as The Matrix was an amazing movie on its own. The smartest thing to do is to ignore the fact that The Matrix has become a trilogy and just keep watching the first one.

(Spoiler Alert : this review may contain Spoilers).The movie The Matrix Reloaded was a great sequel to The Matrix. There were a lot of hidden meaning in this movie just like before with a lot of reference to religion. The world as we know it, is a place where we live, grow up, get an education, etc. This has been the reality that almost every human being on the planet knows. People think that every day they make choices that affect how their life goes on. For example, if you to go to college and get a degree to get a good job and to support yourself. Choose to start a business or company, then you can make money and also help other people with your product or ideas. Well, no, you don't have a choose anything in your life. These so called choices that you make are already made for you. This world is not the real world, but a fake one that is here to misguide us and to hide the truth about life. That truth is the what the movie The Matrix Reloaded is about. The world isn't real and that we follow blindly a world that hides the truth from us. Freewill is a complete lie that is made up so that people will follow this fake world and not second guess it. The choices that we think we make aren't really made by us, but already made for us. We are here to understand why we made it. There is a reason why things happen the way they do and we need to understand it because it is beyond our so called control.There is a scene that takes place on a bench in a park about half way through the movie. The Oracle is waiting for Neo on the bench and is watching people as they walk by. Neo, who is accompanied by seraph the person who protects the Oracle, walks into the park and is greeted by the Oracle. Neo is there to get answers for the things that has been going on lately. The Oracle tells Neo about choice and how we are not here to make them but to understand why we did what we did. This will be an important factor that Neo has to consider when he is conflicted with the event that goes on. The survival of the real world Zion in the movie depends on what he does.This movie has points that reflect the teachings of The Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata, which are Hindu religious texts. The Bhagavad Gita is a story about Arjuna and Krishna. This whole text is about the conversation that the two had while in the middle of a great war called the Mahabharata. The warrior Arjuna was conflicted due to the fact that the people he was fighting and was supposed to kill were his relatives, friends, teachers and etc. Arjuna was just about to quit and go back to the forest to live out his days in exile when Krishna (a god) talked to him. Krishna tells Arjuna that this is his duty, his purpose in life. The people he kills are not really going to die, but go to the next step in the reincarnation cycle.In the movie, Neo is the like Arjuna in the sense that he is ready to quit and he doesn't know what to do. The Oracle makes it easy for him by telling him that he already made the choice and now all he had to do is understand why he does what he does. The Oracle also says that the "One" which she refers to as Neo in the movie, has to go back to the original source. In the movie, the original source, is the machine mainframe. He must once again become a part of the mainframe.This is another reference to the Hinduism culture. In Hinduism the ultimate goal is to become one with Brahman. That is the only thing that matters in life, in fact the purpose in life is to merge our soul back with Brahman. Brahman is the one god that is above all others. The part where Neo has to join the Machine Mainframe is just like the how we have to merge our soul with Brahman. The similarities are undeniably there and that what the whole movie was based on. The Oracle Says that the purpose of the one is understand the choices that he already made and also in the end to join the mainframe to reset the matrix and bring peace to both the Matrix and Zion.The plot of the movie is great and there is a greater hidden meaning to every scene. This movie is undoubtedly a great classic and it lives up to the expectation of The Matrix series.

Unlike the first film, this film focuses on the action rather than the story. The first film took time to give each aspect the attention it deserved and did it well, however this one doesn't seem as bothered about the story. The story itself is quite confusing and rather underwhelming, I got quite confused as to what was going on at times. The pacing is also quite bad at the start of the movie, taking ages to get into the actual story and just showing us stuff we don't really care about. Even though I don't like the fact that this movie prefers the action over the story, thankfully the action for the most part is great. The highway chase scene is a highlight and I loved every second of it- easily the best scene of the entire film. The way the events flowed and the way it was shot was great. Many of the other action scenes were pretty decent too, however there were some times where it didn't work as well like the Neo vs God knows how many Agent Smiths. The way the scene was shot was good and the way it flowed was also good but it was obvious that most of it was CGI and the scene seemed quite stupid at the end of the day. The ending is awful and ends completely out of the blue and feels extremely rushed with its unnecessary cliffhanger which tells you that this film was only made to set up The Matrix Revolutions, hence why they were released only six months apart. It basically says that this film was a two hour advert for Revolutions. In fact, after the credits there's actually a trailer for the next movie. So much for subtlety. With this film, I feel almost exactly how I feel with X-Men: The Last Stand; it's not a good movie, it's not a bad movie either, but it takes a huge dump on the franchise. It may seem like I bashed on this movie lots but I think it's alright at best. It certainly does have great action but the story is rather underwhelming and confusing and the ending is annoying. If you just want a dumb action movie then I would recommend this, however if you want a film as interesting and clever as the first then there's probably not much point watching this. 6.5/10 Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks it's stupid that Neo can fly.