 |
Evil Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) gets his hands on
his good guy nemesis Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The
Matrix Reloaded, the anticipated sequel to 1999's The
Matrix.
|
The old Superman wore funny-looking blue tights and a goofball red cape whenever he took to flight. Is it any wonder he's yesterday's news? Neo (Keanu Reeves), the futuristic superhero at the heart of The Matrix Reloaded, the first of two sequels to the 1999 sci-fi hit, The Matrix, sports a sweeping, ankle-length, black jacket and sleek sunglasses before he leaps into the air. At first glance, Neo looks like a rocket.
Neo, dressed like some postmodern priest, is the most fashionable superhero you'll ever meet. He's also the poster boy for all that's good and awful about the first two installments in writers-directors-brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski's Matrix Trilogy. Peel away Neo's sleek exterior and you'll find monosyllabic dialogue, deadpan facial expressions and emotional dead air.
Neo, brought to wooden life by the consistently wooden Reeves, is vacant. There's nothing in his heart and even less between his ears. One you strip away his gravity-defying heroics and I-Want-That wardrobe, you're left with a dull action man. Without a compelling hero at its center, the Matrix myth is doomed to failure despite its eye-popping effects. Basically, Neo is no Achilles, and that's what Matrix Reloaded desperately needs.
It's been four years since the first Matrix movie and the second installment, Matrix Reloaded follows suit in cookie-cutter manner. Its eye-popping effects are mind-boggling to watch. Matrix Reloaded delivers new, new action. There are stunts unlike anything you've ever seen before. It's what summer blockbusters are about, but there needs to be something beyond the stunts.
Matrix Reloaded also delivers more of the chaotic, nonsensical storytelling that hampered the first movie. Everything is tossed into the Wachowski brothers' soup. Instead of an understandable story, Matrix Reloaded offers slivers of kung fu fighting, Eastern philosophy and an underground city borrowed from Fritz Lang's 1926 silent film epic, Metropolis. There's an over-the-top car chase that pays homage to the history of movie car chases. Perhaps the Wachowski brothers, who made their derivative noir thriller, Bound, before creating The Matrix, intentionally left no room for storytelling. By comparison, summer's other action blockbuster, X2: X-Men United, offers a comprehensible plot with a clear beginning, middle and end.
In Matrix Reloaded, Neo, a nebbish computer hacker, consults the all-knowing Oracle about his role as the "One," the person believed to rescue mankind from its slavery and defeat its machine masters. Neo joins rebel leaders Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) to save Zion from an approaching army of machines. Zion is the last stronghold for humans, an underground city filled with tubes and turbines. Zion also represents how dark and dreary mankind's future has become. Neo's world is one where machines have enslaved humans in a dreamlike state and feed off the human energy. The synthetic Matrix created by the machines is a world of pristine office towers and suites that resembles midtown Manhattan. The real world is an industrial ghetto. It's a sci-fi story that should be simple, but the Wachowski brothers twist its inside-out plots to the point of confusion. Matrix Reloaded is cluttered and chaotic when it should be as streamlined as its heroes' clothes.
The stylish wardrobe worn by Neo and his rebel friends is everything in Matrix Reloaded. In fact, I'd argue that the futuristic clothes even outdo the film's action effects. Matrix Reloaded boasts two breathless, action sequences. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) returns to fight Neo, and this time he's armed with a new, deadlier power. He can replicate himself and in one of the film's best moments, Neo finds himself on a rundown city play lot surrounded by hundreds of Agent Smiths. It is one of two "Whoa" moments in the film.
Later in the movie, a freeway car chase between Morpheus, Trinity and a pack of baddies led by ghostlike twins, jolts the film to life. This freeway chase, a collection of backseat brawls, a motorcycle race, exploding trucks and superhero leaps between speeding cars, is unlike any action scene I've ever seen before. Imagine: If the freeway chase is the climactic action sequence for the second film, what did they hold back for the finale, Matrix Revolutions?
This freeway chase is the type of new, new action the Matrix first created in 1999, and Matrix Reloaded delivers more of the same. I admit that I flashed the biggest grin while watching the chase unfold, forgetting all about the film's nonsensical storytelling. However, when the chase finally reached its fiery conclusion, Matrix Reloaded comes to a crashing halt. When the action quiets down, it's designer Kym Barrett's stylish clothes that grab our attention, trying to compensate for the film's soupy storytelling. Yet, clothes cannot support an entire movie, no matter how stylish they may be.
Reeves has found his trademark performance as Neo, a character who speaks in monosyllables and maintains a confused expression throughout the film. Neo and Reeves are a perfect match, but that doesn't mean he holds my attention.
As Agent Smith, Weaving matches Reeves' deadpan expressions with a constant smirk and few words. Moss remains the quintessential action heroine as Trinity, a lithe fighter in black vinyl. Fishburne makes good use of his booming voice and barrel chest as Morpheus, the rebel leader who believes in Neo's role as mankind's savior. In a better movie, Moss and Fishburne would be given the chance to bring their characters to life.
There are a handful of newcomers in Matrix Reloaded, but only a few of them make an impact. Jada Pinkett-Smith is pushed to the sidelines as the rebel leader, Niobe, a headstrong woman who was once Morpheus' lover. Pinkett-Smith enjoys only one brief fight scene in the movie, which marks her as disposable. The same treatment is given to Harold Perrineau, who plays a shipmate to Trinity, Morpheus and Neo. Lambert Wilson and Monica Bellucci shine as a slippery couple on the side of the machines. Randall Duk Kim brings a rare, humanistic touch to the film as the mysterious Keymaker, an elderly man who holds the Matrix's secrets.
The second Matrix sequel, Matrix Revolutions, hits theaters in November. Nine animated shorts, "The Animatrix," will be released on DVD in early June. Fashion, music and moviemaking will continue to be influenced by The Matrix. It's possible that a cogent story could yet emerge.
One last thing is worth noting. The best thing about Matrix Reloaded, its eye-popping freeway chase, is something not completely computer generated. Its stunts are part of the real world of stunt drivers and crashing cars. The computer still has its limits, even in a digital-heavy movie like Matrix Reloaded.
CityBeat grade: C.
Printer-friendly version
