Away from the Hype: THE MATRIX SEQUELS

The effect The Matrix had on culture in 1999 cannot be overstated. It was, in all ways, a game-changer. It spawned innumerable knock-offs in which a stoic hero would shoot guns and do martial arts in slow-mo (Ultraviolet, Equilibrium, etc.), it was spoofed in countless movies and tv shows, it resurrected Keanu Reeves‘ career, and made a lot of bros think they could pull off a long black coat and sunglasses when they most definitely could not.

The Wachowski Sisters did something that no other filmmaker had done for a very, very long time. They had made a movie that itself became a genre. That spinning camera effect in which the central figure remains still or in slow-motion became ubiquitous but was always referred to in terms of The Matrix.  It was that Matrix thing.

Enrolments in martial arts courses went up, Foucault books about simulacrum became bestsellers, and AOL chatrooms were flooded with users called things like NEO_THEONE talking about this incredible movie.

So obviously, they made more of them and that’s where things get a bit less fun. The Matrix sequels are held up as examples of directors with no oversight making weird bloated cinema or as missed opportunities or as misunderstood classics.

They are strange beasts in that to fully understand The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions you were required to watch a bunch of Anime short movies (The Animatrix) and play an okay video game (Enter The Matrix). The Animatrix provided background to the machines assault on Zion, the formation of the Matrix, and the character of The Kid, while the game gave users the chance to play as characters during the events of Reloaded and set up some character beats and events for Revolutions. At the time, this was considered insanity and too much of a chore for the average viewer, whereas now it is completely the norm to require an audience to have watched a week’s worth of Marvel content or many years of Star Wars cartoons to understand a plot point in the newest show or movie.

When I saw these movies in the cinema in 2003 (yes, they were both released in the same year) I was blown away by them, but I haven’t watched them since. With the fourth instalment coming out next month this is the perfect time to plug back into the Matrix and see how they hold up Away from the Hype.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

As much as I enjoy them, it’s hard not to see that the MCU has dulled our taste buds for what we expect from our blockbusters. Some of the Marvel movies are dynamic and interesting but so much of it looks and sounds the same, it’s like subsisting on a diet of bread and water sometimes.

Watching The Matrix Reloaded is so satisfying as it is incredible to see a big blockbuster with a capital-L Look and aesthetic. Nothing on screen is chosen by chance and every part of the animal is used with its distinct musical score, fighting style, fashion choices, and colour palette. It is also unashamedly horny AF.

It is fascinating to go from modern sex-less blockbusters to something that happily celebrates that people like to get it on, and when faced with cataclysm they get down to techno music in a cave and have a big sweaty dance party. Admittedly, when I first saw this movie, I was dismissive of all this but to watch it now, it is such a unique way of showing the stakes of the machine attack. Another movie would probably have Neo see a mother and a child or an old man or some other signifier that innocents might die. Instead, the Wachowskis give us this grand celebration of life. Horny sweaty Techno life. Turns out I’m a big fan of this.

And it did get me thinking that this is a quality we rarely see in modern blockbusters. Big event movies like the Star Wars’, superhero movies, and the Nolan films are so very chaste when it comes to anything sexy that isn’t played for laughs or simply a shot of a shirtless superhero. I’m not saying that I want to next Thor movie to be a softcore porno, but it is interesting to see a $120 million-plus event movie feature a sex scene intercut with a very sweaty rave that is two drinks away from an orgy.

I chose to open this review with the above once I found that any time I mentioned this movie, the response was always related to that cave rave scene. That scene seems to be the Jar Jar Binks of The Matrix franchise, that element that people can’t seem to look beyond when assessing the movie’s quality.

Thinking about it, maybe a better comparison would be the “Martha!” scene in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. If you mention that movie on social media or in a group of friends, someone will inevitably quote that scene at you. They won’t give context. They won’t elaborate. They’ll just say, “Martha”. And that’s it. It is indicative of the way we talk about movies these days. For some people, watching a movie is less about trying to enjoy and experience it, and more about trying to find the single snarky tweet they can post afterward. Perhaps they’re too cool to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and give it more than a surface watch, perhaps we’re living in the post-CinemaSins world of nitpicking snark in place of criticism. Either way, I would rather a movie try something interesting and original and maybe fail than just more of the same year in and year out.

But ignoring the rave – even though it’s awesome – this movie is excellent. As a sequel, it pushes the Matrix storyline forward from a small story about a simple crew of freedom fighters into a much bigger conflict while still keeping the focus on the main trinity (pun unintended) of Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity.

The bigger conflict is that Zion is under attack from the machines, which puts Morpheus and his beliefs up against the pragmatic military figures within the last human city. This new dynamic is especially enlightening because we get to see Morpheus in a new light. In The Matrix, he is surrounded by his acolytes who all believe (except Cypher) that his crusade is worth following. Outside of that crew though some see him as a fanatic and understandably so. Outside of the context of the Nebuchadnezzar and its crew, Morpheus gives off some real Jim Jones vibes when talking about how the One will save them, which is a very brave way to present your film’s mentor figure but it works so very well to create a sense that our heroes might be fighting on the whims of an extremist.

As a sequel, it goes for everything bigger. The stakes are higher, the action sequences more extreme, and the wordy monologues about choice and cause and effect longer and denser. These monologues might test some viewer’s patience and some of the CGI during the Neo flying scenes and fights has aged poorly (though Neo looking like a computer game character within the Matrix is oddly fitting), but overall this is a great second chapter of this trilogy which ends with a literal dun-dun-dun music queue of a cliffhanger.

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The best huge-scale battle sequences ever put on film have got to be the ones featured in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Both The Two Towers and The Return of the King fill large amounts of their runtimes with massive armies kicking the shit out of each other and it never gets boring. And why? Because Peter Jackson keeps us with our heroes throughout. We never find ourselves lost in the battle or less than completely invested because we’re afraid for Pippin or Aragorn or Gandalf throughout.

The problem with the main huge battle sequence in The Matrix Revolutions is that we don’t have that human connection. The three characters that we know best when the fight starts we haven’t seen since the opening of The Matrix Reloaded and even then we had one or two scenes with each. Zee, Link’s wife, is probably the character we’re closest with as we’ve spent a lot of time with her spouse so we have a connection. The other two characters: Mifune, the gruff captain and the Kid are less interesting because there’s not much flesh on their characters and the Kid doesn’t even have a name.

And it’s a particular shame because the visuals are so very strong. The special effects are gorgeous with the waves and waves of sentinels pouring into the dock and being held back by the mechs and everything looks very crisp and clear, but as above, it’s all a bit for naught because while I understand the stakes, the lack of human connection keeps the tension at arm’s length.

Once the Hammer, piloted by Jada Pinkett Smith who absolutely kills in these movies, begins its trip towards Zion and there is a ticking clock of how the humans will get the gate open in time for their arrival, the tension ramps right up. Armies of mechs firing a rainstorm of bullets at an endless tsunami of squid robots is fun for a bit but hard to sustain our interest while a single mech trying against the odds to make the shot needed to save the day is nail-biting and awesome.

The battle sequence is long and exhausting, building up to a few minutes of “Come on come on come on!” excitement as the Kid tries to open the gate, and this leads to an overall issue with the movie: Distribution of runtime.

Look at the ending. The final moments of the movie are rushed and confusing. Yes, Neo has stopped Smith and peace is found between the humans and machines, but what about the Matrix? The prophecy of the One stated that he would destroy the Matrix and yet the final scenes of the movie take place in a restored simulation with a brief line about how “the ones that want out” will be freed. So has the Matrix rebooted? Or will people be made aware of the simulation and be given the choice to opt-out?

In a movie trilogy filled with monologues, why do the characters become so reticent now? If the Wachowskis needed time for a wrap-up scene maybe they could have cut the Ramachandra scene on the train platform which, and please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, doesn’t add anything to the movie except introduce Sati who, again correct me if I’m wrong, also doesn’t add anything.

A brief aside, I know that the Ramachandra/Sati stuff is more fleshed out in the video game, but if the game sets up their character, I’d like to see some payoff.

Another scene that could have seen the scissors is Trinity’s death. It is so strange to me that her death created no feeling in me at all. My wife watched the movie with me and I’ve seen her cry at a dog food commercial. Trinity’s death? Nothing. Perhaps it’s because her dying words last for three minutes or perhaps it’s because each of these movies has ended with a person dying and being brought back to life. Trinity’s death is hollow in the same way that a comic book characters is. If Superman dies in the comics tomorrow we know he’s coming back one way or another. If Neo or Trinity die, chances are they’ll be resurrected (The Matrix Resurrections in theatres this Christmas).

The human connection with the characters is lessened with each instalment of the trilogy until finally we’re watching a character we know and like die and our expressions don’t change. the Wachowskis keep putting our attention in the wrong places, away from the character stuff, and more toward the special effects. I’ve got nothing against special effects but if there’s no humanity in them, what’s the point?

Final Thoughts – Away from the Hype

Away from the hype, I actually found myself enjoying these movies more than I originally did. The Matrix Revolutions is a weak trilogy ender but when it’s firing on all cylinders its gorgeous to see: the Smith fight in the finale, any time Hugo Weaving is on screen, Ian Bliss’s spot on Agent Smith impression, the opening the gate, and the gaudy Hel nightclub opening.

The Matrix Reloaded is a lot better than I remember and without the crushing hype of having to reinvent cinema as The Matrix did, it’s a fantastically clever action movie with set-pieces on set-pieces, intense horniness, and big ideas.

With both of these movies, the most satisfying thing is to see filmmakers taking huge swings and trying to make something huge but also personal. The Wachowski style is writ huge on every image and while not every big swing lands, in the modern era of same-y blockbusters, it’s very nice to see filmmakers having a crack at being weird and not just retelling the same story over and over.

After binge-watching the trilogy (and Animatrix and Enter The Matrix cutscenes) I couldn’t be more hyped for The Matrix Resurrections. I’ll have to see if I still have my Nokia banana phone lying around somewhere, ready for opening night.

How do you feel about The Matrix sequels? Let us know in the comments below!