| THE MATRIX RELOADED |
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| Following the huge success of 1999's The Matrix, a spate of poor imitations in the intervening years meant that the sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions would have come up with something pretty special. Visually, Reloaded doesn't disappoint, with the same beautiful fight choreography combining once more with the Matrix's trademark bullet-time to create some awsome spectacles. Like it's illustrious predecessor, Reloaded opens with Trinity in action and Neo shows some upgraded Agents he's still the Daddy. But all too soon the 'action' moves to Zion. The pace of the movie suffers a lot. Having whetted their audiences' appetite with these limited skimishes, the Wachowskis introduce a load of boring new characters. In an interminable Star Trek-bad sequence with loads of exposition and meetings, and worst of all, DANCING! Who wants to watch them dance and make speeches when they could fighting and shooting in gravity-defying flo-mo glory? Eventually, they decide to leave Zion and pretentious discussions about 'what is choice' and 'what is control' behind for a while and go back into the Matrix, where they can actually do interestings stuff. The film really only gets going when Neo encounters Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) again. The way Hugo delivers his lines was one of the many highpoints of the original Matrix for me, and when he stalks across the square saying, "Mister Anderson" in his growling drawl, scattering some Woo-homaging pigeons in slow motion, it signals a dramatic change of pace. The well-advertised Neo vs many Agent Smiths follows. This and the freeway sequence are absolutely amazing, and should be seen on the big screen. The film's denouement is strange. the crew of the Nebuchenezzar fulfil the prochecy and Neo meets the mysterious Architect. What follows is a good idea, a worthy twist to the saga, but very badly executed. The dialogue is impenetratable, the Architect's delivery monotone and uninteresting. Reloaded will have to be judged again when Revolutions has been released, the two are said to be more like one movie cleft in twain than two seperate sequels. An awesome movie when in top gear, but a bit flabby and pretentious in place. 8/10. |