Starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett-Smith

Plot Summary Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of their crew continue to battle the machines that have enslaved the human race in the Matrix. Now, more humans are waking up out of the matrix and attempting to live in the real world. As their numbers grow, the battle moves to Zion, the last real-world city and center of human resistance.

Scuz:

Here in lies the future...the future of movies that is. The Matrix is not only is a rock em', sock em' hell of an awesome action flick, but it also instills some of that good old German Nietzcheism and crap. Prepare to be real "loaded" to enjoy Reloaded.

Part of why I wasn't so into the first Matrix film was because I really didn't understand the story. Give me some credit ok, I was a young, nubile, jaded 16 at the time. Anyway, the action was revolutionary (but then again, countless mimics have told you that already) but the plot was just so-so and the development sluggishly snail paced. Having gotten that pesky introduction out of the way (and for myself, clarifying the story by reading summaries), Reloaded shows you the real gems (too bad not Keanu's!) by enhacing their characters, tossing in some fresh meat for the grinder (newbies), demystifying the overall philosophy behind the "Matrix", and if possible, creating even more spectacular actions scenes than from before. Forget "bullet" time, its nuclear bomb time now.

An aspect that I really liked about Reloaded was Neo's slow progression of character and discoveries of power as the "chosen one" (although you'll never be the chosen one you biters of Buffy! Wahahahah!). He is the formulaic hero that we have all come too love. Powerful. Conflicted. Restless. And extremely hot. Ok, that last one was for me. He also has the fate of the world on his shoulders which unfortunately come in conflict with the longings of his heart. And what is cool about Reloaded is that you can really see this. No, not necessarily by Keanu's acting, but the story connects in a pattern that reflects such turmoil. Primarily because the focus is all about Neo, which some people cricize since apparently only a plethora of superheroes is cool now at days. The Matrix rebukes this fact. By narrowingly down their central storylines to only Neo, Trinity and Morpheus, you can truly see the character growth of each one as they continually contemplate and reflect about their past, present, and future actions which will unavoidably affect the future actions of all of mankind.

BUT, enough of that. You know what you really wanted to see was just the cool kick ass action, and guess what? Its every bit as cool and kick ass as you expected it to be. Bra-vo, to stepping it up from the first one as the choreography is not only better, but so are some of the CGI effects (I say some because I can't be convinced on the flying quite yet). What results are the most drool worthy scenes ever to be created on this earth. Makes you glad to be alive, I'm telling you. I can't describe it using words, so I'm not going to even try. Take my word on it though, FAN-TAS-TIC.

It also does not hurt that they hired the best freaking director of photography and cinematopher there is in the business. The shots, the lighting! Yummy with a spoon dude. If you think Neo spinning around the bullets is cool in the first one, prepare for 10 times more of that creamy goodness. It's just freaking beautiful and hypnotic to watch and makes you literally say "OMG", or many other verbal shouts of ectasy, during the movie. Pure, unadulterated visual pleasure (except these people have their clothes on).

Ok, this isn't too say that it's flawless (though damn near it). While I love the Wachowski brothers, sometimes after knocking our socks and other pieces of clothing off with action, they slow it down too drastically with long scenes of dialogue. It distracts from the movie, but you also can't afford to miss what they are saying since every bit of dialogue in this movie is concentrated as hell with philosophy needed to understand the story. So what happens is that you may get confused (architect?!) at certain points, or for some, even sleepy =P (Crabs!). Thus, the movie feels unevenly paced and people don't see the value in it in other aspects. Although, as for the cliffhanger ending, don't blame it on the bros. They wanted a big long ass Titanic sized version of both films together, but the WB wanted to rape us of more money by splitting it up. There's economics for ya.

So, how do I conclude this. I love it. I love it. I love...most of it. It's not my favorite movie, and I don't think it could be, but I can recognize that it's EXTREMEly spectacular in many aspects. For those, that compare it to X-men, don't. They are different, let's leave it at that. They both have their goods and bads, and while I have to review both films again, right now in my "NEO" euphoria over the Matrix, the far reaching goods of Reloaded more than makes up for its insignificant bads (except I don't get how he could not choose Persephone over Trinity, that just makes no sense. Major plot flaw =P). Anway, reLOAD into theaters guys. It's quite REVOLUTIONary.

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Frey:

The movie everyone and their mom have been waiting for has finally arrived. And you know what? It wasn't as impressive as it was all hyped up to be. Don't get me wrong. The movie is very pleasing to the eye, especially for those of you who are special effects whores like Scuz. But all in all, The Matrix Reloaded doesn't live up to its hype which is a shame, but nonetheless, the movie is still pretty kick ass.

So basically, the saga continues. Neo continues his journey as the one and has to put an end to the matrix and save the last human city Zion. I really wish I could explain the plot better, but honestly, the movie left me really confused. The machines are tunneling their way down to the earth's core where Zion is located. Before that happens, Neo must track down the creator of the Matrix and put in end to all this madness. But ah...there is a twist. And this twist is what's making me so confused. I guess I'll just have to go watch it again...which I really don't mind.

So what makes the Matrix Reloaded so good. One word...or acronym...CGI. For almost two and half hours, our senses are delighted with a deluge of special effects. These effects add to the tremendous choreography of the fight scenes. These scenes were just incredible. The freeway scene is just as awesome as I thought it would be from the trailers. And Neo's fight with the hundreds of Mr. Smiths was also really cool. However, I do have one gripe. There were certain areas where you can totally tell that it was computer generated. I think the test for quality CGI is to see how well the graphic designers can make the audience believe that it were actually real. However, during certain parts of the movie, I was disappointed at how computer-generated the characters looked. However, I was able to see past this and enjoy the eye candy that was on the screen. It was awesome.

The action sequences and the CGI, however, can only carry the movie so far. The movie was way longer than it needed to be and there were scenes that just seems too drawn out. In the beginning, before most of the action started, there was a point when I was actually drifting off. I NEVER drift off during a movie, much less a movie like the Matrix. However, once the kick ass action scenes started, I was wide-eyed and attentive.

I'm not even going to comment on the acting because a movie like this is
not about the acting. No one expects it to win Oscars for the actors' performance. And everyone knows Keanu Reeves is not exactly the greatest
actor in the world. He gets the job done and that's all that matters. Hopefully, since I wasn't that impressed with this one, my expectations will be lowered for Matrix Revolutions, and I will be blown away. The middle movie of trilogies tend to be the worst anyway. Please, Matrix Revolutions...do not disappoint!