Movie Review: Matrix Reloaded

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University

Matrix Reload, Warner Brother Pictures

The most anticipated sequel in recent memory, Matrix Reloaded leaves the audience with more questions to ponder than reasons to applaud. Starting off right after the first Matrix (viewers who haven't seen the first one will be lost, Reloaded doesn't start with a prelude) left off. Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his crew of renegade fighters, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) continue fighting the machines and freeing humans from the Matrix illusion.
After being blown to bytes in the first movie, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) returns with the powers to reduplicate himself in the Matrix with the goal to destroy Neo and those who wish to destroy the Matrix computer program.
The movie comes with highs and lows in the special affects and the plot. After smashing and defining special effects in the original with its "bullet-time" shots and gravity defining fighting scenes, the filmmakers felt they had to take the special affects a notch up. Unfortunately, they weren't perfect and if you are the Matrix, and your special affects are not flawless, you might as well not do them.
In the scene when Neo first meets up with Smith, the hero finds himself fighting against dozens and dozens of Smiths. The filmmakers invented away to duplicate an actor on screen over and over again, except the rendering on the shots made the film look like a really cool videogame and/or a really fake movie. The movie and filmmakers redeem themselves in the car scene that required a stretch of highway to be built specifically for the movie. The characters find themselves driving in and out of highway traffic (and at one point driving against traffic). When the scene is finally finished, don't be surprised if you're out of breath.
The plot as well has it highs and lows. Because the final movie of this trilogy comes out seven months later, the filmmakers had to make sure they had enough story to make another movie and it seems this movie suffers because of that by trying to fill two hours of film with about 90 minutes of storyline.

B-