The Matrix Reloaded

The second film of the series. Zion is under threat. The machines are digging toward the city and the attack is calculated to arrive within seventy-two hours. Neo knows his abilities now. He flies, stops bullets, and inside nobody can touch him. But he is dreaming. He sees Trinity's death over and over and wants to prevent it. From there the film is a search for a source. The Oracle gives a name, that name leads to another, and that to a keymaker. There are new opponents along the way. Agent Smith is no longer attached to the system; he copies himself, and hundreds of Smiths attack Neo in a park. The motorway section is the best constructed action. A road was built for it and the sequence was filmed over weeks. What the narrative is interested in is not freedom but design: at the end Neo enters a room and is told that his own choice is part of the system too. That speech is the most argued-over part. The language is deliberately dense and many viewers took it as a fault. The film cuts off in the middle and continues in the next one. It was made together with the third film in a single shooting period. The fights were again prepared with Hong Kong choreography and the actors trained for months. The digitally produced crowd fight was a technical experiment at the time and the result plainly shows its age now. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith and Monica Bellucci are in the cast. Lana and Lilly Wachowski directed. Who it is for: anyone who liked the first film and wants the world widened. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the simplicity of the first; the narrative is crowded, the speeches are long, and the film does not finish by itself.