THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

I wrote in my review of THE MATRIX that its sequels began to concern themselves with "various Little Reveals" in contrast to the Big Reveal of the first film. By that I meant (though I didn't specify) the various subplots the creators introduced to flesh out the world of 2019, both in the human refuge of Zion and the AI-created domain of the Matrix simulation. This consequently means that the narrative emphasis moves away from Neo's journey to illumination and onto a more external conflict. But the Wachowskis weren't nearly as good at keeping up the symbolic discourse they'd achieved with the first movie.

RELOADED ends in a cliffhanger that was resolved the same year in MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, so in a sense the two films are more like two parts of the same story than are most such sequels. The creators are quick to establish a ticking-clock menace that will dominate both halves of the narrative: that the machines have figured out the location of Zion and are burrowing through the earth to reach it and capture all humans they don't destroy. Thus there's greater attention to showing Zion as a city under siege, and depicting the conflicts of its military commanders. I don't imagine much of this melodrama enchanted 2003 audiences so I'll ignore it all.

There are also a couple of subplots involving love in both movies, mostly the affection that's grown between Anderson (Keanu Reeves) and the human form of Trinity, aka Tiffany (Carrie-Ann Moss). The script makes an attempt to relate the human propensity for love to the greater problem of human choice, but I can't say I found the attempt very profound. The conundrum of free will and determinism is evoked several times, but this potential complexity too takes a back seat to high-tech kinetic adventure.

The subplots that prove most meaningful are those discussing how some of the AI beings in the matrix have gained sentience. At least one such being, the Oracle, is said to have been designed to become "intuitive," though the script does not say how this was implemented. Other AI beings have become "rogue programs" that have escaped their original limitations, and the foremost of these is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). Originally he was simply one of the many Matrix-programs set to monitor the human captives. But after Neo defeated him, the Smith program not only re-constituted itself, it "learned" from the experience and became capable of independent action. This comes in handy for RELOADED because the real-world machine-creatures are amorphous monsters (one Zionite calls them "calamari"). Smith thus becomes the true face of all predatory AIs, and this is skillfully shown by his ability to "overwrite" other Matrix-programs and create multiple duplicates of himself. 

 As the Wachowskis created new characters it became abundantly clear to me that they often tossed out familiar names-- "Niobe," "Persephone"-- without connecting those names to what the characters did or represented in the narrative. And since the trinity of Neo, Morpheus, and, well, Trinity remains the core of the story, a lot of the additions come off as simple noodlings.

But though the ultraviolence doesn't feel quite as "zen" this time around, the action-scenes remain at the top of their form. I would not hesitate to nominate "the Burly Brawl," in which Neo takes on a couple dozen Smith-clones, as one of the best fights in all cinema. Part of its appeal is that the uncanny precision of all the flailing figures is to remind the viewer that all of them, including Neo's avatar, are essentially bits and bytes of computer information interacting with one another, which gives the fight a more metaphysical appeal.

There's also a subplot in which Neo dreams of Trinity's death and averts it, but REVOLUTIONS will undo that particular bit of grace.