You can file this review in the "The Matrix fans finally have their Phantom Menace" filing cabinet.

This is going to be a bit lengthy and will indeed carry spoilers, so if you don't want to know anything about the Matrix Reloaded and how the story plays out, I suggest that you read no further.

I guess one way to start this review and to spell out my mild disliking of "Reloaded," I should start the review with the final quote from the Original and far superior Matrix movie.

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules or controls, borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

I've always seen that quote as a promise of things to come. And honestly, it may still be. But that quote is empty, completely hollow in the second movie. The promise given by Neo at the end of the original movie is that Neo is going to teach all of his followers and fellow soldiers, that "there is no spoon." He's going to teach them that there are no boundaries and there are no limitations. That mountain in front of you is just a set of codes and numbers. It isn't real. That freeway that you're riding your bike on isn't a freeway at all, but is instead a series of programs. That agent that you're fighting, isn't a real being at all but is instead just a set of wires and code. That's what that paragraph says to me.

And then we get to 'Reloaded' and we learn that the promise is just an empty ass shell. It's a broken promise and it's completely heartbreaking. At the end of the first "Matrix" movie, Neo is quite simply a god. He's able to see that there are no limitations. He's able to see the code completely around him and he's able to bend it and twist it to his will. So what's the first thing he does in "Reloaded." He fights 3 agents as if he's still confined to the rules of everyday life like he was in the first one. For all that talk about there being "no spoon" and "freeing his mind," Neo is still puttsing around with wire-fu and half assed martial arts. It happens constantly in 'Reloaded.' When he finds himself 1000's of miles away from his friends, instead of just fucking with the code and instantly transporting himself to their location, he chooses to fly at an incredible rate, only to barely save them. When his love Trinity is being chased out the window, instead of just realizing that he's in a computer program and teleporting himself to their location, he instead flies around only to barely save her. I just don't understand why Neo is still confining himself to the same rules that everyone else is living by.

In the final paragraph of dialogue in the first movie, Neo more or less promises the Matrix that he is indeed Master Yoda and that he's going to teach his people how to do the same things he does. Not only does he not teach his troops and their followers how to do this, he doesn't even teach his most trusted friend Morpheus nor does he teach his girlfriend Trinity, even though he knows that in many instances, they're pretty darn close to meeting their demise. Why in the fuck can't Trinity fight an agent? Why does she come dangerously close to perishing in the end of the movie? Simply put, it's because Neo doesn't teach her shit. It's because she's still confined to the same limitations and rules that Neo is, although they should both be well past that point in their evolution.

My brother said it perfectly when he said that the Wachowski brothers have a case of "Lucasitis." Like George Lucas, they've become masters at the technological way of telling a story instead of using strong dialogue and a credible story. It's the "show me" aspect of moviemaking. It's "look at what I can do" at the expense of old fashioned story telling. Special Effects are always best when they're used to augment the story, not tell it. The special effects in the Lord of the Rings movies desserved to win the Academy Awards simply because they are well.....special. They augment the story. They don't tell the story. Lucas and the Wachowski's have sadly forgotten that lesson of Film Making 101. They've fallen into the trap of thinking that a 30 minute blitzkrieg freeway chase and a marathon fight between Neo and 30 Agent Smith's will be enough to tell the story. As fucking cool and entertaining as they are, when they're all said and done, it feels empty. He's defeated 30 Agent Smith's, so what. There are very few times in 'Reloaded' where the movie has any kind of pulse and feels alive at any moment. Zion is about to be destroyed? Ho hum. You wouldn't be able to guess that from the acting of the leads. It's all very, been there and done that. The movie promises a lot, but never lives up to those promises.

Screw cliche. I don't care. I know it's cliche to compare movie franchises, but right now, I'd say that the Lord of the Rings and X-Men franchises are in far capable and better hands than the Matrix. When I see the Matrix, I see a failed second movie. The second movie for me is the most crucial and usually best movie of the franchise. "The Two Towers" was far superior to me than the original "Lord of the Rings" movie. "The Empire Strikes Back" was the complimentary blow job after a great first "A New Hope." "X-Men" was a nice game of softball on a Saturday morning. "X-Men 2" was the Friday night, sold out crowd baseball game with 75 degree weather. Each instance of "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Two Towers," and "X-Men 2" met and far exceeded my expectations of what a sequel could be. Not only was it as good as the original, it blew the original out of the water. You left each of those movies feeling like you'd just seen the coolest movie of all time. You wanted to instantly go back and see the movie again and again and again. You wanted to make the special trip to the theaters with your brother for a 12:00 noon showing three days after you'd seen it the first time. You wanted to pick apart the things that you thought were cool with your friends immediately, whereas in "Reloaded" I sat around for a few minutes and picked apart what I didn't like.

It's after watching "X-Men 2" and "The Two Towers" that you realize why you went to movies in the first damn place. You want to go places that you haven't been before and see things that you haven't seen before. And the Matrix Reloaded DOES provide that. But even more deeply, you want to care about the characters. You want to see them succeed even though the odds are against them. The second movie is PIVOTAL. It's the make or break movie of any franchise. Without a strong second movie, you don't care in the third movie if the protagonists fail or succeed. In "TESB," you realize that the rebels are in some serious stuff. You just know in your bones that everything's going to come to a head, because the entire movie a build up to the third. You know that Vader and Luke are going to fight and that the rebels are going to make their last push against the Empire. And as the credits role, you hunger for that last movie to get here as quickly as possible. In "The Two Towers," you just know that the war is brewing and that things are going to come to a head. Same with "X-Men." Things are not hunky dory and you literally can't wait to see just how your favorite band of characters is going to make it out of their pickle. But after viewing, "Reloaded," I just don't care. I know that I'll be there opening night like the rest of the world. I do want to see how this ends because I am intruiged. But I'm not having that feeling "that feeling in the pit of my stomach" like I did for the other movies. I wasn't white knuckling my arm rest in anticipation like I was for those other movies. I wanted those movies now. At this very damn instant. In this case, I can almost care less.

It's only natural to compare the two big blockbusters of the year together. If I had to pick a few words to describe the difference between "X-Men" and "Reloaded," those words would be Depth and Sacrifice. In the X-Men, I found myself caring about what happened to each character whether they were minor characters or if they were the main characters. There was always that sense of urgency in "X-2" that "Reloaded" never had. You wanted to see Wolverine hack up every single damn soldier that set foot in his house. Not because you wanted to see violence and bloodshed, but because you saw a man protecting his own against an invading force. You wanted to see Ice-Man and Rogue kiss, not because I'm a sap and like romantic movies, but because kissing and love is one of the most basic of human emotions and to miss that is like missing an essential part of your body. I didn't get that sense of feeling as I watched anyone in the Matrix Reloaded fight an agent. You don't care if Morpheus or any of the other hackers beats an agent, because for me, it's not something I could relate to. I didn't care to see Trinity and Neo make love, because it's not something that they're denied. There is no lack of denial and loss. They always have it, so it's nothing special when they engage in it.

But even more than Depth of character, the biggest difference of all between "Reloaded" and "X-2" is sacrifice. Particularly Jean Grey and Trinity. When Trinity runs in to save the day, that's all very very cool. I was desperately wanting, for the sake of the story, for Trinity to die. I wanted something for Neo to fight for for the rest of his days. She comes in and flies out the window and we all know what is going to happen. We'd seen it foreshadowed throughout the entire movie. And when it happens, the film comes alive. She's shot. She's in Neo's arms. It's going to be a sad farewell and it's going to give Neo something to fight for. But instead, Neo becomes this Messiah that not only pulls the bullet out, but brings Trinity back to life because "he loves her too damn much." Where is the sacrifice? Where is the will to go on? Where is Luke losing his innocence by saving his friend's lives? Where is Han in carbonite? Where is Gandalf falling down that pit to save his friends in the original "LOTR?" It's not there.

In X-2, Jean Grey understands the meaning of the word. She senses something beyond herself and a calling that's more important than her life. So she gives her own life to save her friends and her colleagues. She loses the love of her life. She understands the word sacrifice as being more than just a word. By Jean Grey sacrificing her life, something beautiful is grown out of her death. With the promise of her death reaping great rewards for the future of the X-Men because of her sacrifice, we are able to stand up and cheer and say, Yes, you did the right thing. Now rise up. It's time to self actualize. In "Reloaded," it's all kinda Disney. It's the kiss on the lips to bring Sleeping Beauty back to life. There is nothing gained and nothing lost. All that foreshadowing and dreaming Neo did about Trinity was wasted. He was able to bring her back to life just as simply as he was able to stop a bullet.

Fan boy and reviewer, Harry Knowles pointed out one of the biggest disappointments of Reloaded in a way that I hadn't heard before. He points out that Warner Brothers owns DC comic books and "The Matrix Reloaded" is very much a DC creation. With that being said, it's very DC Comic Books esque in that it has a lot more compelling villains than it has heroes. DC comics is this, Lex is more compelling than Superman just as The Joker is more compelling than Batman. Marvel has comic books that has the heroes just as compelling if not more so than the villains. Spiderman is just this teenager with great capabilities. The X-Men are this rag tag group of people that don't fit into their society and are made all the more compelling because of it. The X-Men heroes, say Wolverine or Professor X or even Cyclops for that matter are just as compelling as Magneto or Pyro. The Hulk is this double identity thing that defies all kinds of conventions. Half human, half monster. In "Reloaded," the most compelling character to me is former Agent Smith. You actually find yourself getting bored when he's not on screen. You wonder when he'll be on again. He's one of the few characters who, ironically enough, display any kind of glee and human emotion about their role.

I'll conclude the comparison on this note. X-2 had a lot more heart and meant more to me than "Reloaded" did. Each character in that movie, made you carry an invested interest in them. When you see Pyro looking longfully at the picture of Ice-Man and his family, you sympathize with him. If even for a second or two. And that longing makes you more empathetic to his feelings and you almost feel glad when he's torching those cops, because you know he's raging against the system that shuns him on a daily basis and prevents him from having a family. When you see Magneto as a child in the first X-Men movie cry as his parents are sent to the gas chamber, you feel sympathy and empathy for him as he does his damndest to guarantee that that doesn't happen to him as an adult. The list is endless for both heroes and villains of that movie. There are glimpses here and there of just little things like that. I just didn't get that in the Matrix. Neo outside of the Matrix is just as stale and cardboard as any actor playing Jesus in any biblical epic movie. There's not much emotion there. The only time Morpheus registers as a human being is when he's denied the dance by Nairobi in "the rave" scene. That's about it.

Another failed promise that "Reloaded" doesn't live up to is the thought at seeing some Vampire, Wherewolves, or ghosts. It turns out that any ghost story or UFO story that you've ever heard was just a glitch in the system of the Matrix. It turns out that these monsters are very much like Neo and live by their own rules. They kind of go in and out of whereever they please at will much like Neo is supposed to be able to do. Yet for some reason, the directors must have forgotten to tell the actors this because at one point, a beautiful brunette takes out one of these said creatures with a fine silver bullet. And you'd think that the Wachowski's would have the gall enough to make good on their promise (that they made twice) by at the very least showing a Vampire or a Wherewolf. And you almost think it's going to happen when Neo is confronted by the french guy and all his monster henchmen. But what do we get instead? We get more wire-fu. We get dudes with machine guns. We get guys that use swords that seem to do damage only to the inanimate objects around them.

I thought most of the Zion stuff was overall underwhelming and pretty lame. I thought the costumes were altogether hokey beyond watchability. The rave dance scene while Neo and Trinity got it on, was shot with all the skill of an MTV Video director. There was nothing all that compelling that we were seeing or watching. There was no sense of, HOLY COW THIS IS COOL. It was pretty cliche past the point of no return which I guess is problematic of the "paying homage to everything humanly possible" ethos that the Wachowski's live and die by.

I guess I should mention something about the action sequences. I'll say this a precursor. I'm a spoiled little brat when it comes to action scenes. I found my love of Hong Kong action movies at a really early age so I was able to watch some really great movies and action sequences right as I was coming to that age where everything you see on television and in movies is just shit hot cool. One of my main gripes with both Matrix movies is that I don't think the fight scenes are all that great. It's just really hard for me to see Laurence Fishburne and Keaneau (sp?) trying to perform martial arts to a level that takes most martial artists YEARS to perfect. It's just not there for me. No matter how many CGI Agent Smiths there are or however many wires Neo has tied around him, I just can't get passed my own perception that I'm watching just different variations of kick, block, punch, jump, block, kick, punch. Maybe I'm just spoiled. I was raised on Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies for crying out loud.

Speaking of action sequences, herein lie a majority of the problem. I've asked a lot of people who liked this movie what their favorite aspects of the movie were. And almost 9 times out of 10 their response was "the action sequences were pretty cool." They rarely mention the lack of a mind blowing story that the first movie had. They rarely mention how in the first movie, Neo was like King Arthur pulling a sword from the stone yet in "Reloaded" he's returned the stone to it's stone resting place. And I guess this is just a sign of the times. They see these cool action sequences and these cool freeway chases scenes, and they are really exciting dont get me wrong, and they think that these great scenes constitute great cinema. Before the dawn of the internet, the movies that ranked as classics and standards were the ones that had great stories and great spectacle. Now, it's mostly reliant on "spectacle." Don't belive me? Just look at the IMDB top 250 list. There are just some god awful picks in that list. Go see for yourself.

I agree with Harry Knowles in that this movie feels like a rough first draft of a movie that lacked all the emotional depth and urgency of the first, and far superior Matrix movie. It's like no one told the Wachowski's to maybe go back and change a few things here, and change a few things there. It's just a souped up, hyper version of the first. And for that it's not as good as it could, and should have been. I don't want to sit here and try to figure out what I would have done differently. I can't do in 30 minutes what the Wachowski's couldn't do for 3 years. It just doesn't feel right to me. That's all I'm saying. 2+2 does not equal 4 four me.

Here's a good quoted paragraph from Harry Knowle's review on "Reloaded."

"So I wonder if seeing it more than once will improve the dialogue of the first hour or so, or make that lifeless retarded rave interesting, or those terrible Zion actors better performers? I wonder if a second viewing will allow me to understand why the Neo in this film isn't the Neo we left in the last film? Or why the film seems so distracted by making cute winks regarding the various Matrix materials out there, instead of telling a compelling story. I wonder if I'd think these characters are smarter than Frank Darabont's characters in NIGHTMARE OF ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIORS, cuz once they knew they were going into a dream, they developed and opened their minds and released their potential, whereas here? nobody is living up to their potential?"

I honestly can't think of anything else to say at the moment. I guess I've rambled long enough. If I think of anything, I'll post it later. I don't want to say that "Reloaded" is a bad movie because it isn't. It's actually quite good at parts. But I'm just a bit disappointed. There is a third movie that's coming out later this year and I can't wait to see that movie. It's called "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Until then, I have my dvd's if I want to reminisce.

matt out