Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith
Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers

After 4 long years, the follow up to the highly successful The Matrix is here. It delivers the best action sequence you'll ever see and an excellent sci-fi storyline.

We all know the story. After a terrible war against machines of their own creation, mankind was imprisoned in a giant virtual reality machine called the Matrix. In their own mind, people are living their daily lives in what we would call the present-day world. In reality, they are in a giant machine being used as batteries for their mechanical oppressors.

As Droopy pointed out, it's no coincidence that some of the top grossing movies of all time are science fiction stories. Science fiction is the only venue where viewers can see things they've never seen before or consider concepts that most people aren't twisted enough to consider.

The Wachowski brothers compensate for our lack of twistedness and then some. If you thought the concept in the first movie was over the top, then The Matrix Reloaded will tie your brain in a knot! It was very complicated. Not only was it absurdly complicated, but major plot points were revealed in long, rambling narrative that used big words. That got very annoying at times. Some of the speeches were almost completely unbearable to listen to. What I did appreciate however was that they didn't oversimplify the story.

Even though I loved the movie, I don't think it will be as well received as the first because of its very strange plot. It seems to me that anyone who didn't like the movie didn't really get the plot, which is understandable because the plot doesn't really make sense. It's a bunch of invented concepts that don't have any basis in reality. But that's what sci-fi is! Recent attempts at true sci-fi, like Minority Report introduce new ideas like being able to predict a crime before it happens, but then the rest of the movie is just action. Jurassic Park asks the question, "What if we could bring back extinct animals?" The answer, "Nothing really, unless you're dumb enough to return to the island they were cloned on again and again." They dumb down the storylines to provide light entertainment. Does that mean the general audience would not appreciate a deep storyline? I think The Matrix Reloaded will be a good indicator of how much philosophy is too much.

Why does Matrix mean more to me than school or church? Because those things suck! Just joking of course, but maybe if Jesus was beating up 100 Pontius Pilates at once people would be at church every week! The directors of the The Matrix Reloaded toss in a bunch of images of Jesus and make some of the characters look like priests so if the movie is successful people will go crazy and start analyzing it to death. The images have been around for ever and their implications are known to everyone, but combine these images with martial arts and over the top gun play and it becomes more interesting. I'm sure this movie will inspire many a philosophical conversation (over the net of course) about Christianity and industrialization and man's dependence on machines. Kind of silly and sometimes in the movie you wonder if they actually have a point to make or if symbolism is just used to make people curious.

But the action!!! Wow! Like the first movie, there are amazing martial arts sequences and lots of shootings and explosions. They just stepped it up a bit and added a very elaborate car chase that was worth the price of admission alone. I think the image of Morpheus standing in the middle of a freeway with a sword in one hand and a gun in the other will stick with me for a long, long time, you know... as something to strive toward. You'll see some things you've never seen before in this movie.

MastaCSG
Queen

DroopyMcC		This one doesn't get a face card from me due to some intensely boring sequences, as well as the poor direction and even poorer writing. I will say this however: the action is incredible. I've seen the first Matrix many times but I can't see myself watching Reloaded over and over again. The thick-as-molasses parables in which everyone speaks is infuriating. When the DVD comes out, I'm skipping straight to the action and leaving the rest unwatched.
Ten