May 2, 2003

What Is The Matrix Reloaded?

Let’s start from the ending.  Watch the credits if you want to be like The Oracle, glimpsing the future.

Enough tap dancing, I guess… I am not authorized to review the film, which is fair enough.  I got to see the film in one of the best theaters in Los Angeles, the WB Steve Ross Theater.  It’s where I first saw the original.  I often remember the absolute shock I was in after seeing the film, running to the first publicist I saw, screaming, “Do you people know what you have here?!?!”  They had figured it out just a few days earlier.

Oh… forgot… you don’t care…

The Matrix Reloaded is an extraordinary piece of film.  It is, as were The Two Towers and The Empire Strikes Back, a true middle movie.  It is a classic example of a series in which there was a vague idea of a trilogy, but that never really came together until after the success of the first film.  (Remember when the two films were supposed to be a prequel and a sequel…The Animatrix fills that void.)  As a result, the first movie had a classic beginning, middle and end.  And it follows that the second film has a lot of splainin’ to do.

This is very different than what Bryan Singer & Co. did with X2.  Both films make the assumption that you already know the territory.  But while X2 effectively raises the bar from the original, expanding further on the central theme, The Matrix Reloaded challenges the fans of the original film to catch up with an entirely new world within The Matrix Universe.

If the original was about life inside The Matrix and coming to grips with it, the new film is about life outside of The Matrix and figuring out the future of humankind.

There are no fewer than 10 major new characters, some of which get more screen time than others.  There are many new rules of The Matrix, some of which are clear and some of which seem destined to become clearer over time. 

The effects for the film become the new standard, integrating reality with CG effects in more interesting and effective ways than ever before.  I don’t want to discuss, now or until long after the film is in release, some of the CG effects, since some are relatively seamless and you shouldn’t spend your time at this movie trying to distinguish which shots are which.  The weird part, however, is that for the first time I can ever remember, I noticed a few digital stuntmen the way that we used to have notice real stuntmen for so many years.  At first, I thought they were real stuntmen, very effectively filling in, but slightly different than the actor involved.

Of course, the big set pieces are absolutely breathtaking.  You’ve seen the freeway chase and the multiple Smiths in the trailers.  You don’t know the half of what those scenes offer.  And there is more. 

Perhaps the greatest effect the Wachowskis use is casting.  Once again, they have found some of America’s great underutilized actors and given them good roles.  I don’t know whether you will find the joy I did when running into some of these surprising choices, but I am not going to ruin it for you.  There is one cameo that I seemed to be the only person in this screening to notice… made me laugh out loud.  Here’s a hint… he is more likely to be seen on Crossfire or Nightline than in a major summer action movie.  And he doesn’t wear his glasses in the film.  Great.

The Wachowskis must have a hard time buying pants because their balls are so freakin’ huge.  The first film’s clean, clear, undeniable answer to the question “What is The Matrix?” made the experience a brilliant puzzle that was not too complex to piece together by film’s end.  Not so this time.  The boys question everything we thought we knew the last time.  And they add new ideas constantly throughout the film.  And we don’t always get the answers.

It is a bit like The Phantom Menace, in that Lucas was faced with both satisfying expectations and creating a new world for his vision that existed before the first film we all know and love so well.  The Wachowskis make better choices, in my opinion, fearlessly exploring the dark side of the heroism that expressed itself in the first film.  This is a masterstroke.  If Neo was a religious icon of sorts, how would that effect him and those around him?  How does Morpheus’ regal style play outside of the Nebukadnezar?  Is Zion a paradise below earth?  The Wachowskis answer those questions - and a lot more – in a very human way. 

You may remember the discussions of how much of a filmic pastiche the original film was.  The brothers have left that behind here too.  This is a film of a specific vision.  There are a couple little homages, but nothing like the original.  It is a significant leap of personal style… particularly when you consider how many of the flourishes from the original have been dumped because of how many people imitated them over the last few years. 

The thing that most grabbed me about Reloaded was how clearly the third act sets up even more major changes of tone in the final film.  If the first film was inside The Matrix and this one is outside of The Matrix (even though there is a lot of time spent inside), I would bet that the third film is truly revolutionary, in the sense that the final film seems to be being set up as the most raw, most dirty, most emotional film of the trilogy.

When we get there, The Matrix might be the greatest trilogy of all.  The idea that we will be experiencing the climax of this story and the climax of Lord of the Rings in the same year is almost overwhelming.  The funny thing is that although the series share many elements, they could not be more different at the core.  Both are “save the human species” adventures.  But Lord of the Rings is about the power of people coming together.  And The Matrix is about the power of the individual and, eventually, the value of human love.  The warmth of Rings makes it the Oscar favorite for next year.  But these two trilogies will skip down the primrose path of time together as decades pass.

So are you confused yet?  I hope so.  I don’t want to get in the way of your experience of this film.  Or of my next viewing of the film.  This is a definite 2 or 3 timer film.  It is so much richer a pudding than the first film that some people are going to have to let their intellectual stomach settle a little after seeing it.  It’s challenging that way.  But it is a challenge that is going to blow people away.

Amazing.

READER OF THE DAY:  M&M writes:  “Where George Lucas really dropped the ball, and hard, was in his portrayal of the Jedi and their lives/adventures. So far, they seem to simply stand around looking befuddled and "wise". With the exception of the final stadium battle in Clones, the silent Darth Maul fight in Phantom, and the Yoda Dooku duel, we've scant knowledge of the Jedi and their work,

As a child, the fallen Jedi portrayed in the original trilogy seemed truly mythic. Law Enforcing gunfighters in an escalatingly out of control wild west. The scenarios I imagined them being apart of were endless in variety. Just imagine what Frank Darabont or Bryan Singer or David Fincher or Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino or Ridley Scott etc etc. would do with the opportunity to flesh out the world of the Jedi in greater detail.

Show us the true trials of a Jedi knight. Show us the individual stories of the order. The story potentials are limitless. And with different creators at the helm, different stoytelling methods and strengths would be displayed.

George lucas' obsessive protection over the franchise makes less sense, now that opinion of the prequels has been so sharply divided. It should be obvious to him at this point that fans on both sides of the divide (and I largely enjoyed Attack of the Clones) would appreciate different ideas and takes on the order he made so mythic. Why not indulge us? He has nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”

E ME:  This guy is going to love Reloaded?  But let me know what you thought of X2 first.  I’m in for a $69.4 million opening.