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The Matrix Reloaded review
:. Director: Andy & Lana Wachowski
:. Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne
:. Running Time: 2:00
:. Year: 2003
:. Country: USA
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The sequel exercise, artistically perilous but commercially juicy, generally consists of a spectacular and budgetary overbid invariably duplicating the original formula. The success of The Matrix lies in its capacity to—openly—assimilate its cinematographic and cultural influences (Blade Runner, Dark City, Terminator, William Gibson, MTV) to then create a universe, unique by obeying its own codes and revolutionary in its original marriage of the visual and the cerebral.
The Matrix Reloaded does not disobey these rules, the Wachowski brothers adhere to the build-up principle inherent to a second chapter. The bases—both screenwriting and visual—of the Matrixian world were established in the first opus, and one disembarks in known territory, as the effect of surprise is gone. The narrative is linear here, having lost all its originality to embrace this universe previously built with such complexity. The sophisticated intrigue, which borrowed from various philosophies, was replaced by an anecdotal concept of choice. Simplistic, copied but more spectacular and less naive, The Matrix Reloaded thus officiates like a sequel par excellence, according to criteria established by Hollywood, giving up its cult status for that of a blockbuster—at least to the first degree.
Because once past the glossy surface of the film, one notes that the Wachowski brothers created a film with two levels, just like the world in which the protagonists evolve. Under the blockbuster look intended for the masses, The Matrix Reloaded is also a film by cinephiles for cinephiles where the filmmakers fully assume the origin of their creation and its now mythical status. The film multiplies references, a sort of cinematic conscience acknowledging the capacity of recycling in cinema. Science fiction, martial arts and medieval films as well as spaghetti westerns are celebrated here, generally through winks, from Metropolis, Nosferatu, Star Wars, Aliens, Highlander, Galactica and Superman to Robin Hood, John Woo and rave music. The directors also took the opportunity to integrate a new genre, erotism, with an emphasis on the sadomasochistic dimension of the ensemble, while the importance of music—an art complementary to cinema—is shown through the transition from the score to its representation onscreen with the rave scene.
While the filmmakers acknowledge their inspiration, they are also very conscious of the importance of their work. And that's where the action scenes intervene, in particular the central sequence where Neo fights Agent Smith multiplied ad infinitum in a building course. After redefining the standards of action cinema at the visual level, the style of the Wachowski brothers was recopied to a level of banal vulgarity, sinking into a stereotype in the hands of uninspired filmmakers, from Charlie's Angels and Tomb Raider to the recent Equilibrium, without even mentioning the battalion of TV series and straight-to-videos. Thus through Neo sweeping this army of agent Smiths, the Wachowski brothers sweep all these cinematographic clones, by once again pushing the visual level of their cinema, and at the same time that of Cinema.
The different genre of fights, acrobatics and chases abound, redefining action film once again, suddenly making nearly 30 years of action flicks obsolete. And that is the difference with the too academic largess of The Two Towers review, technology put here at the service of imagination, for the profit of a work whose aspirations are much bigger. The bar has just been raised, and the genre films that follow will not come out unharmed. After this new episode of The Matrix, can one look at a new Star Wars or Terminator with as much fascination? It is not very probable and unambitious productions such as Charlie' s Angels and Tomb Raider no longer have a raison d'être.
If the script is purified to the extreme, it is in order to better embody action cinema, to adapt to it and give it a new form. As the title indicates, the Wachowski brothers only reloaded the machine; but they also created a rare action film equipped with an self-reflective conscience, giving a salvational electric shock to two dying genres: action and fantastic, and offering new visual possibilities to cinema.
Fred Thom
 The Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack
The Matrix
The Matrix Revolutions
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