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Facing the Challenge

Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne in The Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix Reloaded

Download the trailer instead: it is 136 minutes shorter, it is free, and it has almost all the good bits.

A Bluffer's Guide to 'Reloaded' - a collection of odd, bizarre, and occasionally interesting facts that you never knew you needed to know.
Web sites

In the second chapter of the Matrix trilogy, freedom fighters Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) continue to lead the revolt against the Machine Army, unleashing their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation. In their quest to save the human race from extinction, they gain greater insight into the construct of The Matrix and Neo's pivotal role in the fate of mankind. Time is running out though - they have 72 hours until 250,000 probes manage to drill into the depths of Zion and destroy both it and its inhabitants. As they rush to stop it, Neo must also decide how he can save Trinity from a dark fate in his dreams

- from the official Studio synopsis

Disappointing

'Reloaded' is disappointing. Why? There are more fights, more special effects, and it is more dramatic than the original. So how could it be a disappointment?

Because if you take away the fight sequences, the special effects, and the mumbo-jumbo masquerading as philosophy, there is not much left. The core problem with 'Reloaded' is that the original 'Matrix' had a story to tell; 'Reloaded' does not. This sequel is much less complex and creative than the original. There is little character development, and little real plot development (except right at the end). There is a pointless sex scene between Neo and Trinity, inter-cut with a rave/dance/orgy/prayer meeting in Zion. To call it pointless is not just being prudish: this sequence is boring, and it adds nothing to the story. One viewer said:

It wasn't very erotic, but seemed more than anything else designed to remind us that Neo and Trinity had ports/plugs all over their anatomy. Was it saying that sex is just the act of two machines?

The plot is more like a series of disconnected scenes from a computer game. (Is the film just a sophisticated marketing ploy?) Watch out for what happens whenever someone opens a door: it almost always leads to a new and completely different scene. You could get away with using this kind of plot device once or twice, but 'Reloaded' uses it half a dozen times, and some of the scenes are pointless:

Monica Bellucci as the somewhat dark seductress Persephone and Lambert Wilson as the arrogant Merovingian appear and dominate the screen for about 20 minutes in the film's most unusual sequences which plays more like a European comedy than comic book sci-fi but oddly enough in between the French cursing and dessert gag it actually works. Randall Kim makes the essentially small Keymaker role into something quite likable, however the much touted 'Twins' are one-note henchman with about one line of dialogue and nothing special short of their overly used immaterial ghost trick and a penchant for old fashioned barber razors as weapons. Jada Pinkett-Smith did better than I expected and has a well-kept fierceness to her character, whilst Helmut Bakaitis does an interesting job in the strange and philosophy heavy meeting scene with 'The Architect'. The rest of the supporting cast from Clayton Watson as the kid to Steve Bastoni as Capt. Soren are a complete white wash though - it really gets like bad sci-fi cable TV at times in Zion

- from the 'Dark Horizons' review site

The fights and the freeway chase are not actually all that gripping: we will not look back on them as ground-breaking. 'Reloaded' is also philosophically pretentious and incomprehensible. This kind of obscurity is often a cover-up for emptiness of thought. If something is important, it should be possible to express it clearly.

In spite of all this, there is some plot development and character development: Neo grows in his position as a messiah / superman figure; we see Zion for the first time; we learn that Zion's destruction is (apparently) inevitable, and that this is not the first time it has been destroyed; we learn that the One (Neo) is himself a construct of the Matrix to solve the problems and instabilities introduced by human choices. And at the end, we are given a fairly broad hint that the 'real' world itself is no more real than the Matrix. It will be interesting to see where this all goes when 'The Matrix Revolutions' is released in November.

Serious questions

Millions throng to the theater, interact with the DVD, play spin-off games and frequent fan sites galore because of the trend-setting and oft-copied special effects and action. But cultural commentators, philosophers and theologians claim a deeper pull, to a metaphysical search for meaning evoked by the storyline's postmodern brew of philosophy, religion and hero-mythology.

- From the LeaderU online newsletter.

In spite of its weaknesses, 'Reloaded' does prompt us to consider some serious and interesting questions: about the nature of reality, whether we are pre-programmed by destiny, fate, or God, about what it means to be free, and about the importance of our choices.

The questions raised, both by 'The Matrix' and by 'Reloaded' could become legitimate starting points for discussing some key things that followers of Christ believe. However, the attempts made by some people to turn these films into some kind of Christian parable are misplaced. They are not Christian parables.

• The Matrix raises questions about what reality is and how we know it. In The Matrix, the everyday world is an illusion, and the unseen reality behind it is harmful, whereas in the Bible's worldview, the everyday world is real, and the unseen reality behind it is an infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, personal God.
• In The Matrix, our central problem is the illusion of the world we live in, and our great need is to be delivered from the illusion and from the machines that created it. (This is more a Buddhist worldview than a Biblical one.) In the Bible's worldview, our central problem is our own moral corruption and waywardness - the fact that we are rebels against the God who made us - and our greatest need is to be forgiven and rescued.
• In The Matrix, the savior / messiah figure Neo is a 'mere mortal', full of self-doubt, who sets out to save the world through dramatic and violent actions. In the Bible's worldview, the savior / messiah figure is Jesus, the unique Son of God, who saves his people not through violence, but through extreme self-sacrifice.

A Bluffer's Guide to The Matrix Reloaded - a collection of odd, bizarre, and occasionally interesting facts you never knew you needed to know

• The stars had to spend months in martial arts training before the movies were shot. Even then, Keanu Reeves had to wear a neck brace after a motorbike accident, Laurence Fishburne broke an arm, and Carrie-Anne Moss broke a leg. Hugo Weaving described making the movies as 'a really brutal process'
• 'Reloaded' and 'Revolutions' took 270 days to shoot (before any FX were added). Most movies take around 50 days
• There are two and a half thousand FX shots in 'Reloaded' and 'Revolutions' - the original film only had 412
• For the highway chase sequence, a mile-and-a-half long stretch of highway was specially built, at a cost of $40 million
• Directors Larry and Andy Wachowski deliberately avoid the Hollywood media circus. They are reputed to have only ever given one press conference
• 'Reloaded' took $93m in its first weekend at US cinemas, the second-biggest opening of all time behind Spider-Man
• There are reputed to be more than a thousand Matrix-related web sites

Web sites

It should go without saying (but we will say it anyway) that by linking to a site, we are not necessarily endorsing it or agreeing with what it says. We have tried to provide a good range of links to sites about the movie, and to comment on the movie. Many of these sites also contain links to more articles and additional sites.

'The Matrix Trilogy' - this review by Mark Saunders has been updated in light of the release of 'Matrix Revolutions'.

'The Matrix Reloaded' review.

'The Matrix' - our original review of the first film in the trilogy.

The official Matrix site

What is the Matrix?
Part of the official Warner Brothers Matrix web site, this is a collection of articles on the philosophical implications of The Matrix.

Dark Horizons' review of The Matrix Revolutions

Welcome to the Machines, by Ross Anthony

HollywoodJesus.com's "The Matrix Revolutions" page - commentary from a Christian viewpoint

The Matrix and God-talk in America (part 1) by Terry Mattingley

God-talk after The Matrix (part 2) by Terry Mattingley

So, What is The Matrix? Rethinking Reality
Cultural commentator Roberto Rivera sums up the religiously syncretist components of the the blockbuster film, The Matrix. He makes a strong case for the essential role biblical Christianity plays in a story like this, namely one that "works" in terms of inspiration and a worthy storyline. That is reality.

The Gnostic Matrix
Launching from the first film of The Matrix trilogy and its use of gnostic themes, Closson goes on to explicate the essentials of Gnosticism as a historical religion and more recent seedbed for New Age and liberal "Christian" thinking.

"Who Put These Fingerprints On My Imagination?" Engaging the Matrix
David Dark ties the human experience of looking beyond the world system to freedom with the popular film, The Matrix. A very experiential journey that explains The Matrix like Jesus explicating a parable, borrowing from Dark's close-up interaction with high-schoolers seeking answers to the big questions of life.