Review - The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, CinemaCon in Las Vegas happened earlier this week, and while I did not attend, one confirmation that was announced at the event got me excited for what is easily my most anticipated film of 2021, and that is the upcoming fourth entry of The Matrix series: The Matrix Resurrections. While the trailer that debuted at CinemaCon is not yet online, I definitely look forward to when it is online, and I am definitely excited to see the return of a generation-defining sci-fi franchise. That said, let's dive into the two films of The Matrix series we haven't reviewed yet: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Released, respectively, in May and November of 2003, these two films were shot back-to-back, so it makes sense to review them together. So, let's dive into The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

       So, Reloaded opens with Trinity driving a motorcycle into a guard station, followed by her beating the crap out of the guards. This is followed by Trinity jumping out of a window, chased by an Agent, and catches a bullet that causes her to die. However, it's all just a nightmare that Neo is having, as he wakes up on board the Nebuchadnezzar. Morpheus, meanwhile, is working to land the ship along with the Nebuchadnezzar's new operator Link, who is the brother-in-law of both Tank and Dozer. Tank, evidently, died from his wounds, and Link took over due to a promise he made to Dozer some time before the first movie. 

         Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity head into the Matrix, where other members of the human resistance are having a meeting, where one of the Captains, Niobe, reveals that the machines are tunneling from the Earth's surface straight down to the underground human city of Zion. Niobe informs everyone at the meeting that a higher ranking officer, Commander Lock, has recalled every ship to return to Zion. Morpheus, however, requests that a single ship remains behind, in case the Oracle should attempt to make contact. Another Captain, Ballard, agrees to do so, and gives Morpheus thirty-six hours. Neo, meanwhile, heads upstairs and fights three Agents: Thompson, Johnson, and Jackson. Neo notes the programming upgrades in the Agents, but still proceeds to kick their asses. Neo then heads to the apartment of the Oracle, but finds no sign of her. 

       Back in the real world, the Nebuchadnezzar returns to Zion and docks in one of the landing bays to recharge. Morpheus is escorted to Commander Lock, while Link returns to his home to reunite with his wife, Zee. Neo, however, is approached by the parents of various resistance members aboard several ships like the Gnosis, the Icarus, and so forth. Later that evening, Morpheus speaks at a gathering in Zion's cavernous temple, where he confirms that the machines are tunneling their way to Zion, but that they shouldn't fear, as they've continually fought the machines and endured a century of war. The proceedings are followed by a massive rave, with Trinity and Neo leaving to spend their evening at home. 

       Back in the Matrix, two of Ballard's men reach an exit point with a message from the Oracle. However, one of them, a man named Bane, is infected by a returned Agent Smith. Smith turns Bane into one of a myriad of clones of Smith, and allows home to answer the phone and return to the real world. Now wakes up from another nightmare, and walks outside, where he meets a member of Zion's council of elders, Councillor Hamann, who shows him the engineering level, where machines work to keep Zion's air and water supply flowing. The next morning, Ballard arrives to give Neo the Oracle's message, and he, Trinity, Morpheus, and Link pack up and head out in the Nebuchadnezzar. 

         In the Matrix, Neo meets Seraph, who engages in a martial arts spar with Neo, after which he proceeds to take Neo through a backdoor network to the Oracle, who reveals that Neo needs to reach The Source, which is the machines' mainframe. However, to reach The Source, Neo needs a program called the Keymaker, who is a prisoner of a rogue program called the Merovingian. As the Oracle and Seraph leave, Smith arrives and reveals that he's no longer an Agent, but something completely different. After attempting, and failing, to turn Neo into another clone, Smith and his clones fight Neo, who gets away. 

           Back in Zion, the Council requests two ships leave to locate the Nebuchadnezzar and her crew, with Captains Soren and Niobe of the Vigilant and the Logos volunteering for the mission. Back in the Matrix, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity head to a high-class restaurant, where they meet the Merovingian and his wife, Persephone. The Merovingian refuses to hand over the Keymaker, sending Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity away. Persephone, however, offers to give Neo the Keymaker in exchange for a kiss. Neo agrees, and the two proceed to make out right in front of Trinity. Persephone then takes Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity to a chateau in the mountains, where the Keymaker is being held. The four proceed to leave, but are confronted by the Merovingian and his men, who Neo proceed to fight and thoroughly beat the hell out of. Morpheus and Trinity, with the Keymaker in tow, head out, chased by the Twins, a pair of spectral programs loyal to the Merovingian. A freeway chase, involving both the Twins and a pair of Agents, ensues, with Neo arriving to save both Morpheus and the Keymaker from certain death. 

         That night, the Keymaker informs Morpheus, Neo, Trinity, Niobe, Ghost, Soren, and Soren's crew of a building with an unreachable floor with many doors, one of which leads to the Source. However, the security of the building is tight, with every alarm in the building triggering a bomb. To prevent the alarms from going off, the power must be cut off by a margin of twenty-seven blocks. To make this happen, a nearby power plant must be destroyed, and the emergency system deactivated. Niobe and Ghost destroy the power plant, but Soren's ship is destroyed in the real world, killing him and his crew in the Matrix before they can finish shutting off the emergency system. Meanwhile, Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker are confronted by Smith, who kills the Keymaker, but not before he, Morpheus, and Neo head through a door to the building. The Keymaker points Morpheus to a door that will return him home, and gives Neo the key he will need. Trinity, meanwhile, enters the Matrix to finish what Soren started. 

      Neo, meanwhile, enters the door and meets a program called the Architect, who created the Matrix. The Architect then proceeds to break down that Neo is the sixth iteration of the One, he carries within him a part of the Matrix code called the Prime Program due to being the result of the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix, and that two prior versions of the Matrix were utter failures, with a more intuitive program, the Oracle, creating a solution: give the people whose minds are in the Matrix the choice, regardless of whether they were aware of the choice at even a subconscious level. The Architect then informs Neo that he will need to enter the Source, have the Prime Program removed from him and restored to the Source, and choose the next iteration of Zion's council from individuals within the Matrix, as Zion itself is about to be cleansed, with Neo's noncompliance resulting in a fatal system crash that kills every human mind still in the Matrix, which when coupled with the destruction of Zion will mean humanity's extinction. The Architect also informs Neo that Trinity went into the Matrix, and his nightmare of her death is going to come true. Given a choice between two doors: one that leads to the Source, and the other that leads back to the Matrix, Neo returns to the Matrix and saves Trinity from death. 

         Back in the real world, Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and Link are forced to evacuate the Nebuchadnezzar, which is destroyed by the machines. While running, Neo manages to stop a group of pursuing Sentinels before collapsing from the effort. Another ship, the Mjolnir (referred to as the Hammer), arrives and rescues the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar. Roland, captain of the Mjolnir, breaks down a planned surprise attack that went wrong when an EMP was triggered, with the Mjolnir finding a single unconscious survivor: Bane. The movie ends with both Neo and Bane in the ship's infirmary with the doctor, Maggie. 

           Picking up where Reloaded left off, Revolutions starts off with Roland and his crew searching the Matrix for Niobe and Ghost, as well as for Neo, but no signs of anyone. Seraph then calls with a request for Morpheus and Trinity arriving immediately. Neo, meanwhile, wakes up in a train station, Mobil Avenue. The train station is a bridging point between the machine world and the Matrix. Neo meets a family of programs: Ramachandra, Kamala, and Sati. Ramachandra reveals that the train station is controlled by a program called the Train Man, who works for the Merovingian. Morpheus and Trinity, meanwhile, meet the Oracle, who has a new appearance. In universe, it's because Ramachandra made a deal with the Merovingian to save Sati in exchange for the termination codes for the Oracle's outer shell, and behind the scenes, it's because actress Gloria Foster passed away mid-production on the two movies, and actress Mary Alice was cast in her place for Revolutions. After failing to catch the Train Man, Seraph, Morpheus, and Trinity head to Club Hel, where the Merovingian is currently located. After fighting his goons, and Trinity pointing a gun at his head in a massive Mexican Standoff, the Merovingian agrees to let Neo go. Upon returning, Neo goes to see the Oracle, who answers some final questions for him. First, Neo's power is drawn from the Source, which is why he was able to stop the Sentinels before. Second, the Architect and the Oracle have two opposing purposes: to balance and to unbalance the equation, respectively. Third, Smith is Neo's opposite, as a result of the equation trying to balance itself out. Finally, that Neo will need to fight Smith one last time. Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity exit from the Matrix, and Bane wakes up in the infirmary, while in the Matrix, Smith turns Seraph, Sati, and the Oracle into more clones of himself, disrupting the Matrix coding even further. 

         Back in Zion, Captain Mifune of the APU Corps gets ready to defend the dock from the incoming Sentinel army, while the Mjolnir finds the Logos and gives her a jump start. Neo then requests to take a ship to head to the Machine City, where the true location of the Source is. Roland laughs the request off, but Niobe gives Neo the Logos, with Trinity joining Neo. Bane, still controlled by Smith, kills Maggie and stows away on the Logos, tries to kill both Trinity and Neo, but only leaves Neo blind, only able to see through the Source. Trinity flies the Logos to the Machine City, where the defenses try to destroy them, but they head through the storm covering the sky, and Trinity sees the Sun for the first time. The Logos crashes, Trinity dies, and Neo heads to negotiate with the machines. 

         Meanwhile, the race is on for the Mjolnir, as Niobe pilots the ship though a mechanical line, while under pursuit and attack by Sentinels, to get to Zion in time to stop the army of Sentinels from getting past the dock. While the Mjolnir fights her way to Zion, the APU Corps fights the machines off as best as possible, with sixteen-year-old unit volunteer Kid, who idolizes Neo for helping him out of the Matrix, opening the gate for the Mjolnir to get inside the dock and active an EMP to stop the Sentinels. Unfortunately, more are on the way, and everyone in Zion is evacuated to the temple. Neo, meanwhile, speaks with a massive machine called Deus Ex Machina, who agrees to Neo's desire for peace between the humans and the machines in exchange for Neo finishing off Smith for good. Back in Zion, the Sentinels stop attacking, and Morpheus and Niobe realize what's happening: Neo is fighting the final battle. 

        In the Matrix, Neo confronts Smith, who has effectively taken over the Matrix completely, and both agree that the war is going to end that very night. The two fight through the streets, in the air, in buildings, all in the middle of a massive downpour. As the fight goes on, Smith accidentally says something that the Oracle told Neo earlier, and Neo allows himself to be assimilated by Smith. The Deus Ex Machina sends massive pulse of energy through Neo, which destroys every clone of Smith, leaving behind the Oracle, Seraph, and Sati. The Sentinels are recalled from Zion, and the humans celebrate the war being over. 

       The Architect goes to meet with the Oracle, telling her that she played a very dangerous game in trying to exact change with the Matrix. Sati arrives, and shows off a gorgeous sunrise that she made in honor of Neo, ending the movie. 

       Okay, so The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, while individually being pretty weak, work much better as a pair. It really helps to watch both movies together, as one or the other isn't quite as good as both combined. The movies did go quite overboard with the philosophical jargon, but the action was still pretty kick-ass, and Keanu Reeves was still a lot of fun to watch as Neo, as were Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity, and Hugo Weaving as Smith. Several new players, including Jada Pickett Smith as Niobe, Anthony Wong as Ghost, Lambert Wilson as the Merovingian, Monica Belluci as Persephone, Harry Lennix as Lock, and Collin Chou as Seraph were all terrific new additions to the Matrix series. 

      Overall, while not as good as the original both sequels are fun to watch, and are definitely an enjoyable part of the Matrix franchise. So, I'm giving The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions a collective rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.