Review of The Matrix Reloaded (2003) by Nadblaster — 10 Sep 2019

The first Matrix was weird, and experimental, and outstanding on virtually every level. Reloaded is a self-absorbed and somewhat pretentious sequel that is still thick on extremely cool and satisfying action, but doesn't hold up even remotely as well as the first. Normally I would say that's not the biggest deal, but the first Matrix movie marked a tremendous shift both in storytelling and cinema, and Reloaded doesn't do it justice except, again, in the action department.

Visually I found it actually quite a bit less engaging and satisfying than the first - a strange sentiment since the "spectacle" knob got turned up to 11 for this. Where it falls short is its egregious overuse of CG. It's from that era of computer graphics that the first Harry Potter and Fellowship of the Ring were in, where it's firmly lodged in Uncanny Valley - good enough to look mostly real, but not good enough to totally blur the line between real and animated. In the park scene, in particular, it's especially jarring and looks very, very fake. Very disappointing since the first revolutionized computer animation in film.

Audio-wise I again feel that they dropped the ball compared to the first. Every single action scene is horribly marred by insanely overactive sound dubbing; there is a melee combat scene about an hour in that is infuriating to watch because it sounds like a swarm of really fast bees are hurtling past your ears with every single move, and it takes away from the shockingly good martial arts choreography.

Storywise, again, it's completely turned off the subtlety of the first film and blasts you full-force with techno-Bible-babble. The first one asked interesting questions of the viewer that I still to this day think about - "how do you define real"? The second asks questions like "do you think Ducati motorcycles are cool" and "did you see all those Agent Smiths". I left the theatre after the first Matrix movie with a head full of ideas and questions about perception. I left the theatre after Reloaded with questions about scriptwriting.