Movie: The Matrix Reloaded

Actors: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Monica Belluci and more
Director: Wachowski Brothers, Producer:

A review to TMR is as necessary as a review to detergents in Pakistan. Nearly all are owned by each other so it doesn’t really matter who buys which, the same guy(s) makes money. So everyone who watches films will watch TMR anyway. And that is the sole purpose of film reviews not criticism in Pakistan. Criticism is different, it is evangelisation, and it is the truth. The truth is that as divided as opinions may be between geeks, scholarly types and the average movie fan, the Matrix will still make a lot of money. The Wachowski’s will be called all things between genius and thief.

The tagline instructs “Free your mind.” If the filmmakers believe in the tagline deeply then the Matrix is only elementary school for newborn intellects. Mixing together more brilliant sources a whole issue of Herald hasn’t the space to extrapolate on; The TMR follows Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss), Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) and the city of Zion (a “real” city in the “unreal” world) as they make an attempt to avert the attack of cold, inhuman machines which are headed to Zion. Neo prophetically dreams of the death of Trinity and must be prepared to save her when and if the prophecy comes to pass.

The photography is crystallised but fails to alarm as the visual language of the trilogy has long been accepted. (The concluding chapter arrives in November). The action is pornographic and there is next to no stimulation despite the drawn out action sequences. The acting is fairly horrible but like the first film is less noticeable under the film’s visual embrace and information overload. The music is perhaps the worst factor and one wishes for a composer like Clint Mansell (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) or Trent Reznor (NIN). For those whose intellectual growth was initiated by the first film should notice that this is shoddy proselytising because the actors are not suitably armed to deliver messages that are cobbled together from several religions, philosophers and writers. People who crave similar intellectual content should seek out Grant Morrison’s “The Invisibles” series of graphic novels which the first film “borrowed” the entire plot and several of the theories from. Morrison was intent on suing the filmmakers after the first one was released but after his anger wore off, he decided to be pleased with a mainstream film planting his thought-grenades in audiences’ minds. For those hungering for more brain food should also see these raided sources. Films: “Ghost in the Shell” & “Akira.” Books: The works of SF luminaries William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Terrence McKenna. There can be no perfect review for TMR.

This is the best you’ll get.

Rating: Unnecessary. You know you want it.