Movies this week: The Matrix Reloaded

Four years ago, two college dropouts, Andy and Larry Wachowski were seated at a restaurant table drinking cup after cup of coffee and pondering over the fate of their new intellectual action film The Matrix. The Matrix as most followers of science-fiction films need not be reminded turned out to be the most refreshing film in the genre in the whole decade. Well, loyal fans have had to wait four years, until now, for the sequel- The Matrix Reloaded. The fact that the first days box office collection was a record take itself proves the heightened sense of anticipation. Not since Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, has there been such a build-up to a movie. It is unfortunate that the parallel does not end here. The Matrix Reloaded like Episode One fails to live up to expectations. Without divulging any bit of the plot, which so often makes reading reviews annoying, let us take a closer look at the movie making headlines all across the world this week. Undoubtedly, this movie has some of the best special effects conceived to date. Gaping audiences remain fixed to their seats all across the United States and for good reason too. Some of the set pieces are brilliant. One fifteen minute car-chase scene on a highway stands out as one of the most spectacular displays of special effects ever conjured and is well worth the price of a ticket. By itself, this scene does for Cadillac what no Bond movie could do for the BMW. Did I forget to mention that there was a technically outstanding sequence on a Ducati motorcycle? (But then again, a Ducati needs no such publicity.) Special effects aficionados will definitely not be disappointed. Hong Kong master Yuen Wo Ping, best known for the ballet-like fight sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon churns out some amazingly graceful fight sequences. A game on a Playstation2 or Xbox that has graphics that rival the ones in this movie would be a video-game addicts dream. However, slow motion bullet shots and freeze frame cuts between wirehanging kung fu kicks are now trademark Matrix effects and should have been used more sparingly. One particular scene in which Neo wields a steel pipe and beats replicate agents to a pulp reminds one of Sunny Deol in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Too bad that many of the plot twists are gimmicks used in Hindi movie formulas such as love conquers death. For another matter, this movie boasts no memorable lines like Dodge this., My name is Neo, or Follow the rabbit hole that were imprinted on viewers in the first movie. Make no mistake this is a suave movie though. Apart from the few blonde-haired actors in the movie who only wear cream suits, everyone else dresses and looks chic with the trademark black hair or clean-shaven pate, black sunglasses and black outfits. Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) are

back, starting where they left off in The Matrix. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is also back and able to replicate himself into innumerable clones, but is no longer as sinister as in the first movie. Many new agents are also introduced but none trouble Neo, Trinity or Morpheus anymore. New characters are also introduced such as Link (Harold Perrineau Jr.) , Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Persephone (Monica Bellucci), and the twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment). The twins could have been the most horrifying morphing characters since the never-die terminator in Terminator 2: Judgement Day but they disappear, as does the architect of the Matrix (Helmut Bakaltis) after a brief cameo. Perhaps they will all resurface in the final part of the trilogy later this year. Apparently, no expense was spared in making this movie a veritable visual treat. Unfortunately, this is also a flaw. While in the first movie, the special effects helped the plot move along; in Reloaded, scenes are created specifically for displaying digital effects. Zion is the last bastion of human civilization in a world ruled by machines. This was a basic theme in the first movie. In Reloaded, many sequences and characters depicted in Zion are portrayed. No doubt, many sequences and characters depicted in Zion will play a major role in the final movie of the trilogy slated for release this November. This does not however change the fact that they are unendurable. Take for example Zee (Nona Gaye) who only serves as a love interest for Link. Or Commander Lock (Harry Lennix) who is a rival to Morpheus but is predictably sidetracked throughout the movie. Or for that matter a tribal trance music video routine forced into the plot. Paul Oakenfold and Rage Against the Machine as usual provide a lot of the background score. Unfortunately, the Wachowski brothers, not only expect audiences to remember the entire original movie, but also spend too much time dwelling on redundant characters who act with amazing predictability. It is almost a sense of dj vu, of having seen it in the first movie. When a character is told not to do something, he or she will inevitably do it. When someone is given a talisman, it will come to use later. Neo can fly now, and can use his flight to save the day as he does on more than one occasion. Perhaps, the Wachowski brothers deliberately use this to point out that there is no such thing as chance, a philosophy that they tend to emphasize to an unending degree. The biggest problem with this movie is that every single character in the movie tries to say something profound and philosophically meaningful every time he or she speaks a line. This has a somewhat jarring effect because much of what is said is hollow pseudointellectual psychobabble. The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who is somewhat of a pathetic figure introduced in this move utters, I know, because I must know. A bodyguard (Collin Chou) protecting The Oracle (Gloria Foster) who provides a visually appealing but ultimately meaningless kung fu fight says, To know a man you must fight him. Was this high-sounding talk inevitable considering the fact that the Wachowski brothers sought to make a sequel to an intellectual action film? Probably not. Yes, viewers of the original movie may point out that Morpheus is a Krishna-like mentor to his Arjuna-like pupil, Neo. Understandably, an undercurrent of Buddhist-Hindu

fatalism permeates his thoughts. Unfortunately, verbal dialogues on existence tend to more often than not, slow down what is essentially an action movie. Just before a major fight sequence, there is a protracted discourse on Sartrean existentialism by a suave villain, Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), who of course has to have a French accent and be mythically linked to the bloodline of the Antichrist. The viewer is forced to say Yes, yes this is all very good but Ive come to watch a Hollywood action movie. Lets get the fight over with, shall we? It is hard to make the second movie of a trilogy stand out on its own. Had The Matrix Reloaded been the first movie from the Wachowski stable it would have been noteworthy. It fails only because of the great expectations that have built up over the past four years since The Matrix swept audiences off their feet. Perhaps, the final chapter to the Matrix saga, Matrix Revolutions, slated for release in November, will reaffirm a longstanding faith in the franchise.