THE MATRIX
RELOADED / ***1/2 (R) May
14, 2003 Neo Keanu Reeves Morpheus Laurence
Fishburne Agent
Smith Hugo
Weaving Trinity Carrie-Anne Moss Oracle Gloria Foster Niobe Jada Pinkett Smith Zee Nona Gaye Lock Harry Lennix Link Harold Perrineau Persephone Monica
Bellucci Twins Neil and Adrian Rayment Warner
Bros. presents a film written and directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry
Wachowski. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (for sci-fi violence and some
sexuality). BY
ROGER EBERT Commander
Lock: "Not everyone believes what you believe." Morpheus:
"My beliefs do not require that they do." Characters
are always talking like this in "The Matrix Reloaded," which plays
like a collaboration involving a geek, a comic book and the smartest kid in
Philosophy 101. Morpheus in particular unreels extended speeches that remind me
of Laurence Olivier's remarks when he won his honorary Oscar--the speech that
had Jon Voight going "God!" on TV, but in print turned out to be
quasi-Shakespearean doublespeak. The speeches provide not meaning, but the
effect of meaning: It sure sounds like those guys are saying some profound
things. That
will not prevent fanboys from analyzing the philosophy of "The Matrix
Reloaded" in endless Web postings. Part of the fun is becoming an expert
in the deep meaning of shallow pop mythology; there is something refreshingly
ironic about becoming an authority on the transient extrusions of mass culture,
and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) now joins Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Plato of our
age. I
say this not in disapproval, but in amusement. "The Matrix" (1999),
written and directed by the brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, inspired so much
inflamed pseudo-philosophy that it's all "The Matrix Reloaded" can do
to stay ahead of its followers. It is an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure,
combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts,
chases and explosions, romance and oratory. It develops its world with more
detail than the first movie was able to afford, gives us our first glimpse of
the underground human city of Zion, burrows closer to the heart of the secret
of the Matrix, and promotes its hero, Neo, from confused draftee to a Christ
figure in training. As
we learned in "The Matrix," the Machines need human bodies, millions
and millions of them, for their ability to generate electricity. In an
astonishing sequence, we saw countless bodies locked in pods around central
cores that extended out of sight above and below. The Matrix is the virtual
reality that provides the minds of these sleepers with the illusion that they
are active and productive. Questions arise, such as, is there no more efficient
way to generate power? And why give the humans dreams when they would generate
just as much energy if comatose? And why create such a complex virtual world
for each and every one of them, when they could all be given the same illusion
and be none the wiser? Why is each dreamer himself or herself, occupying the
same body in virtual reality as the one asleep in the pod? But
never mind. We are grateful that 250,000 humans have escaped from the grid of
the Matrix, and gathered to build Zion, which is "near the Earth's
core--where there is more heat." As the movie opens, we are alarmed to
learn that the Machines are drilling toward Zion so quickly that they will
arrive in 36 hours. We may also wonder if Zion and its free citizens really
exist, or if the humans only think so, but that leads to a logical loop ending
in madness. Neo
(Keanu Reeves) has been required to fly, to master martial arts, and to learn
that his faith and belief can make things happen. His fights all take place
within virtual reality spaces, while he reclines in a chair and is linked to
the cyberworld, but he can really be killed, because if the mind thinks it is
dead, "the body is controlled by the mind." All of the fight
sequences, therefore, are logically contests not between physical bodies, but
between video game-players, and the Neo in the big fight scenes is actually his
avatar. The
visionary Morpheus, inspired by the prophecies of the Oracle, instructed
Neo--who gained the confidence to leap great distances, to fly and in
"Reloaded" destroys dozens of clones of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in
martial combat. That fight scene is made with the wonders of digital effects
and the choreography of the Hong Kong action director Yuen Wo Ping, who also
did the fights in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It provides one
of the three great set pieces in the movie. The
second comes when Morpheus returns to Zion and addresses the assembled
multitude--an audience that looks like a mosh pit crossed with the underground
slaves in "Metropolis." After his speech, the citizens dance in a
percussion-driven frenzy, which is intercut with Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne
Moss) having sex. I think their real bodies are having the sex, although you
can never be sure. The
third sensational sequence is a chase involving cars, motorcycles and trailer
trucks, with gloriously choreographed moves including leaps into the air as a
truck continues to move underneath. That this scene logically takes place in
cyberspace does not diminish its thrilling 14-minute fun ride, although we
might wonder--when deadly enemies meet in one of these virtual spaces, who
programmed it? (I am sure I will get untold thousands of e-mails explaining it
all to me.) I
became aware, during the film, that a majority of the major characters were
played by African Americans. Neo and Trinity are white, and so is Agent Smith,
but consider Morpheus; his superior Commander Lock (Harry Lennix); the
beautiful and deadly Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), who once loved Morpheus and
now is with Lock, although she explains enigmatically that some things never
change; the programmer Link (Harold Perrineau); Link's wife, Zee (Nona Gaye),
who has the obligatory scene where she complains he's away from home too much,
and the Oracle (the late Gloria Foster, very portentous). From what we can see
of the extras, the population of Zion is largely black. It
has become commonplace for science fiction epics to feature one or two
African-American stars, but we've come a long way since Billy Dee Williams in
"Return of the Jedi." The Wachowski brothers use so many African
Americans, I suspect, not for their box-office appeal, because the Matrix is the
star of the movie, and not because they are good actors (which they are), but
because to the white teenagers who are the primary audience for this movie,
African-Americans embody a cool, a cachet, an authenticy. Morpheus is the power
center of the movie, and Neo's role is essentially to study under him and
absorb his mojo. The
film ends with "To Be Concluded," a reminder that the third film in
the trilogy arrives in November. Toward the end, there are scenes involving
characters who seem pregnant with possibilities for Part 3. One is the
Architect (Helmut Bakaltis), who says he designed the Matrix and revises
everything Neo thinks he knows about it. Is the Architect a human, or an avatar
of the Machines? The thing is, you can never know for sure. He seems to hint
that when you strip away one level of false virtual reality, you find another
level beneath. Maybe everything so far is several levels up? Stephen
Hawking's A Brief History of Time tells the story of a cosmologist whose speech
is interrupted by a little old lady who informs him that the universe rests on
the back of a turtle. "Ah, yes, madame," the scientist replies,
"but what does the turtle rest on?" The old lady shoots back:
"You can't trick me, young man. It's nothing but turtles, turtles, turtles,
all the way down." Copyright
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