Defending the Matrix sequels

The Matrix became a sensation almost from the moment it was released in spring 1999, for a number of reasons. One reason was the sheer novelty. Although Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski wowed some cinephiles with the stylish, sexy 1996 neo-noir Bound, the brothers still weren’t widely known, and The Matrix wasn’t based on any existing, market-tested property. But it had a hell of a trailer, with Keanu Reeves dodging bullets, and cool-looking characters practicing martial arts in mid-air. And since The Matrix came out during a thin stretch of the movie calendar, audiences turned out. And then they came back, weekend after weekend, bringing their friends to see something that wasn’t like any other movie out there at the time.
The second reason The Matrix did so well is that it’s very, very good. Even now, after two decades of other films aping its visual style and special effects, the original remains instantly hooky, with one grabby scene after another. And I’m not just talking about the action sequences, which actually have lost a little of their power to thrill, after so much repetition. The plot itself has a highly satisfying structure, first introducing super-hacker Thomas “Neo” Anderson (Reeves), then having Neo discover that there’s another layer of reality beneath what his conscious mind has always known. Once Neo learns that his real body is actually plugged into a machine in a dystopian future, there follows an unplugging, and then an extended training sequence, during which he learns to manipulate reality inside “The Matrix,” thus aiding the surviving humans in the rebellion against their mechanical oppressors. It’s a classic hero’s journey, bolstered by the feeling of true revelation—“Ah, so this is why the world feels so phony sometimes”—buoyed by the movie’s fairly sophisticated conversations about what “reality” and “destiny” mean.
I’m not sure exactly when the wild enthusiasm for The Matrix curdled into disgust for its two 2003 sequels, The Matrix Reloaded (released in May) and The Matrix Revolutions (released in November). My sense is that the darker, hokier, more thunderous Revolutions so depressed fans that the backlash dragged the reasonably well-received Reloaded down with it. But I do remember some grumblings when Reloaded was released, too—along the lines of, “This all better be headed somewhere amazing.” The relatively weak box-office take for the third film is another indicator that some were so put off by Reloaded that they didn’t even bother with the third act. Still… the reviews for Reloaded weren’t terrible. And neither is the movie, in my opinion.
Granted, I can’t contend that either Matrix sequel is as good as the original, which is one of the best films of its decade. I also can’t contend that The Matrix really needed a sequel—let alone two. As with Star Wars, The Matrix introduces a world and a history and hints that there’s more to be revealed, but it doesn’t really play like the first chapter of a story. If anything, one of the keys to The Matrix’s success is that it intentionally leaves so many questions unanswered about who Neo really is, and how the virtual world and the real world intersect. Fans were left to hash all that out among themselves—which at the time proved as diverting as the movie itself.
That said, The Matrix Reloaded honors the original’s inquisitive spirit and amped-up action. The movie is practically a setpiece-delivery device, from Neo fighting a multitude of the enforcer program known as “Agent Smith” to his cohorts Morpheus and Trinity zipping down a freeway while being chased by spectral twins. And between the eye-popping chase-and-fight scenes, there’s lots and lots of talk. Some of the winding, philosophical conversations in Reloaded appear to have been inspired by the Internet chatter and academic papers that bubbled up after the success of The Matrix. The characters confront whether The Oracle, who guides Neo, is really trustworthy, given that she’s only a program; and they discuss whether free will exists in relation to prophecy, and whether it’s necessary to understand how machines work in order to use them. Then Reloaded climaxes with another intense “everything you know is wrong” reveal, as Neo meets The Architect, who tells him that this whole rebellion scenario has played out multiple times before, and always ends the same, with the world being destroyed and recreated. The Matrix Reloaded rests in the tradition of trilogy fulcrums: It extends the mythology while hinting that the audience’s previous presumptions are off base. Reloaded is also the Matrix film with the most heart, linking Neo’s choices to his love for Trinity. Overall, the movie has high entertainment value.