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Review: The Matrix: Reloaded By Radar, (DT) May 16, 2003 12:38 PM PT

Certainly, it is no secret that Keanu Reeves cannot act.  Fortunately, the Matrix franchise doesn?t require him to do so.  He wears cool clothes and sunglasses and most of his screen time is spent kicking ass or rolling out dialogue so clunky that it makes acting irrelevant.  The rest of the cast, with the notable exception of a couple of the supporting roles, stoops to the occasion, simply stating their lines and posing rather than acting.  All this was okay in the first Matrix movie.               Science fiction can get a way with a lot as long as it has consistent internal logic, good special effects and a solid story underlying the more fantastic elements.  The first Matrix had all of these.  It took us along on a wild ride into a world of transcendent kung-fu, mechanical overlords and indestructible bad guys.  And the story was fresh and made sense.  It delved into things like perception and reality.  When Morpheus explained the way the Matrix worked it struck a chord with us.  ?Yes, hell yes,? we said. ?I was thinking something like that just the other day. Right on, Morpheus. Lemme outta this program,? we thought, and strapped in for the ride.  But it begged the question: If I had the choice, illusion or reality, which would I chose?  And how would I be able to tell the difference?                 Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect  of the original Matrix was that it gave the audience a solid basis for suspending the disbelief invited by wire works martial arts action.  Neo and Trinity were able to do things like run along walls because they could bend the rules of the digital universe in which they did battle.  It was a representation of the digital world of the hacker and they were its masters. It made perfect sense.             The problem with The Matrix: Reloaded is that the Wachowski brothers apparently forgot about all the things that made the first Matrix work.  Like, for instance, a story.  A full hour into it we still don?t know exactly what is going on?who is trying to do what and why.  Characters are introduced for no other reason than to spout some enigmatic lines of  neo-existential philosophy.  It seems that the movie just fills time between action sequences.  And the action sequences are the same as the sequences in the first Matrix, only more so.  That?s not to say they are bad.  They are a marvel to watch and there is still a certain grace to the choreography, but they do tend to run on for a long time and go a bit over the top.  Watching them is like watching pornography; it?s fun, but rarely is it something we haven?t seen in a prior scene and it does get old.  Especially without being in the context of a cohesive story.  Essentially, the movie relies on special effects and visual stimulation and that is never enough.             Like a lot of sequels, The Matrix: Reloaded tries to up the ante of its predecessor by creating a larger narrative universe complete with things like political intrigue, war plans and grand councils of some sort or other.  The problem with expanding the story (or spreading it thinner, depending on your perspective) is that it requires some downright grueling exposition to bring the audience up to speed.  Think Star Wars here.  (Yes, it is almost that bad.)               And the internal logical  construction of the story is not as strong as in the first.  Agent Smith, a computer program, and the most badass of the sentinels, has finally, in the late twenty-second century, figured out how to copy himself.  Apparently the skills of software pirates of the late twentieth century had been forgotten for a couple of hundred years.  But how could that be?  The entire present day world as we know it (including click and drag commands) is contained in the software system known as the Matrix, the very system in which Agent Smith operates with godlike autonomy.   It seems that if the copy command was available to him he would have known about it and used it in the first go round.               Perhaps The Matrix: Reloaded should be given a pass on some of these fundamental flaws because, after all, it is not a whole movie.  It is simply the first installment of an extraordinarily long sequel.  The second half to be released later this year.  Some of its shortcomings are addressed, or should I say patched together, in collateral materials like interactive DVD?s and games available for purchase.  So I guess if you really want to understand what is going on, you need to peel off a few bills for the privilege of finding out.  And, of course, buy a ticket to the second half.  It all smacks of a grand marketing plan.  The truly amazing thing about the Matrix plan is that it will work.  This iteration, like the first, will likely break box office records and spawn a billion-dollar industry in games, action figures and lunch boxes.  Perhaps the audience will figure out that it has been duped by the time the second installment of the sequel is released (now doesn?t that sound ridiculous: the second installment of the sequel), but by then the fix will be in.  This, from the brothers who demanded creative control in the interest of artistic integrity.                               I imagine a series of prequels is next.  Like I said, think Star Wars.