MATRIX: Reloaded?!
By Wendel Ladringan

What was hyped to be an insatiable follow-up to 1999's blockbuster hit fell short of living-up to the uber-chic and witty original. "The Matrix Reloaded" opened up nationwide this past Thursday, amidst some not-so-encouraging reviews following the Wednesday night previews in Los Angeles and New York City. While the movie continues its awesome blend of death-defying stunts, kung-fu fighting skirmishes, and CGI-enhanced acrobatics, its momentum crashes from time-to-time because of the overly long-winded "soliloquies" and purposeless, yet still impressive, scenes. The film brings back all the major elements of "The Matrix." However, listening to characters waxing pseudo-philosophical seemed a bit of a bore at times.

Keanu Reeves reprises the role of cyber-human hero Neo, who is joined by his band of soldiers, lead by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Morpheus continues to be the eccentric guide who's main goal is to protect Zion. Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) returns as Neo's love interest, and the cast introduces Captain Niobe, played by Jada Pinkett-Smith. The characters engage themselves in the usual bevy of martial arts, quick chatter, and disagreeable decisions, and while these things play-out like the norm, it's the dialogue that seems to rattle the movie onto a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

Conjectural banter is one thing, but the plot is laden with wanna-be-philosophical mumbo-jumbo that makes you think twice about whether or not the character is asking to be taken seriously. A prime example of this is in the scene where Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo make a sudden visit with Merovignian (Lambert Wilson) at a very shi-shi restaurant to discuss the "freedom" of the Key Maker (Randall Duk Lee). To the villain's utter surprise, Neo slyly says to him, "You know why we're here." With no qualms, the French-accented Merovignian glossily replies, "Yes, but do you? You think you do, but you do not." The albeit pleasant exchange of wit is similarly replayed again in other scenes, between different characters, and in the end you're left with Bart Simpson's annoying voice rattling "I know you are, but what am I?" in your head. Obviously, the writers for "Reloaded" didn't think too much about this as the monotoned-style acting yokes and chokes with the poorly written and exceedingly wheezing dialogue.

For the most part, "The Matrix Reloaded" delivers. Its fight scenes are, obviously, very Matrix-esque - alluding to the original's jaw-dropping action sequences. But even still, only two of the major fight scenes are actually worthy of praise. The first scene that offers awe-inspiring combat is where Neo is confronted by not one, not two, but by dozens of continuously regenerating clones of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), the "Men-In-Black"-looking computer program that goes haywire, so to speak, as a rouge agent. The scene is resplendent with Neo single-handedly kicking, punching, upper-cutting, and eventually out-witting clones of the annoying agent. While the scene doesn't exactly measure up to the scenes in the original, it definitely gets the sequel on its feet; the film's first action-packed scene of substance.

The other sequence that worthily kept viewers' eyes glued to the screen was the freeway chase, where Trinity and Morpheus made all attempts to keep the Key Maker away from Merovignian's horribly-fashioned Albino Twins (Neil & Adrian Rayment). As Morpheus devoutly battles agents atop a moving big-rig, Trinity chic-ly weaves in and out of extremely busy traffic first in a classic Caddy, and then on a firey Ducati. The scene easily grabs the distinction as the film's ultimate apex.

As "Reloaded" just barely-delivers with its action situations, it also continues to share some very ironic undertones. What's thought of as being a hedonistic, heavenly paradise is Zion, the morbidly dark universal home of Neo, Morpheus et al. Near the beginning of the film, the people of Zion converge together in what seems to be a cathedral-like nave of stalagmites and stalactites as one of the head-honchos delivers an "opening prayer," which seemed to sound more like a presidential address. Even more ironic is how the "congregation" then shifts gears and the venue doubles as a night-club-slash-orgy; a feature that seems to be focused on for at least a half-hour. And even the hordes of sentinels, or squid-like machines, rally together to destroy Zion like a bunch of demons ready to pillage the heavens. There's clearly a message that's trying to be relayed here, but with the way that things pan out the message just isn't as lucid as it could've been. As one of the characters suggests, "I don't care about Oracles or prophecies or Messiahs! I only care about saving our city!" Perhaps that character should reconsider.

Sheer disappointment? Well, not really. Fans still flock to theaters to see the follow-up to the 90's mega-hit, just about. But despite the billion-dollars at the box office, it truly didn't convey as much as the hype and 4-year wait had hoped. The decent fight scenes could've been better. The "wah-wah" dialogue could've been less heart-wrenching and more to-the-point, rather than being abstractly theoretical (just note the Architect's foreign babble towards the end). And the ending?! Well, my friends, that's for you to figure out.

Oh yeah, if you waited past the over-drawn and sleep-inducing flow of closing credits at the end, you would've been "treated" to what seemed to be a 10-second montage of even more sleep-inducing footage from the final Matrix installation, "The Matrix Revolutions," due out in November. Hopefully, "Revolutions" will be reloaded with more of the original's panache. "Reloaded" was barely - uh - loaded.