Double Feature: The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” Thank you, Mr. Jonathan Nolan, yours truly always have a fondness for your bullshit. Though I can only see the part after that comma applying to Hollywood. After the Matrix became a surprise hit in 1999, how would its benefactor Warner handle its sequel(s)? The budget skyrocketing was a given, more merchandising is not too unreasonable (Though I’m bias since the “first pair of sunglasses for ‘baby’” I wore got a sticker says “Terminator 2 Judgement Day” on it.).

The real villainy, however, laid in making the sequels into a multimedia extravaganza in 2003. Not only there were 2 feature length movies released within 6 months from each other, a CG short and a tie-in video game are also part of this long war. However, as the title said, this piece is only about a Mr. Cyberpunk’s part in it.

During the last big boy E3 back in 2019, Keanu Reeves was on the stage of Microsoft announcing his casting as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. As far as stunt casting goes, it is a fitting one since Reeves can be seen as Hollywood’s Mr. Cyberpunk. After all, he had gone through high (1999’s Matrix), low (1995’s Johnny Mnemonic, up to that point, and afterwards 2021’s Matrix Resurrections for many but not for me.) and something between.

This “something between” is where this piece comes in: 2003’s Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. Despite a combined runtime of more than 5 hours, Last Flight of Osiris, live action cut scenes of Enter the Matrix and those 2 movies cover a much shorter period of time. 36 hours give or take, compared to the at least a week in the 1999 and the least a couple of days in Resurrections. The Machines decide that they are done with meat bags so they send an army to wipe humanity out. Morpheus is sure that it would be the Chosen One’s moment to shine and achieve salvation. He is right in conclusion but some zigzag is needed to get there, as the Wachowskis like to do with their Matrix stories. But first, translations.

The Matrix Reloaded was translated as “hei ke di guo er chong zhuang shang zhen” in my neck of wood. The “er” there is number 2 and the four characters after it do mean “Reloaded and ready to fight”. It is a fitting translation given the stop Nebuchadnezzar and her crew make at the city Zion. The hovercraft Morpheus, Neo and Trinity serve on needs to be recharged and the audience need to be shown the stack. Zion is booked as the last city for humanity in the 1999 original and the machines are gunning for it in the sequels.

The Matrix Revolutions was translated as “hei ke di guo san ju zhen ge ming” and I laughed my ass off at this one even as a thirteen-year-old. The “san” there is the number 3 as people who watched Netiflix’s “castrated” adaption of Three-body Problem would know (Oh, how the GOT duo managed to do the Woman Who Sold the World dirtier than Cersi Lannister!). Then the four characters after this number simply repeat Matrix Revolutions all over again. “Ju zhen” is simply how matrix the math jargoning is translated in Chinese.

This One fucks

Reloaded opens similarly enough to the 1999 original, with Trinity whacking dudes. The much bigger budget can be seen on the screen since she did so after causing an explosion with some motorbike stun. The “dudes” here are a downgrade though since they are security guards with batons rather than uniformed cops with guns. Then the time skipped a bit ahead and Trinity is running from an Agent. The bigger budget put to use again, she is dual wielding Uzis while falling down a building. The Agent falls in pursuit and manages to shoot her rather fatally in the torso. Shocker, the leading lady is killed merely minutes into the sequel. Or is she since this is just a dream of Neo played by Reeves.

1969’s Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert will be mentioned here since the Wachowskis and George Lucas were both shamelessly stealing from this book in the aughts. Neo’s blinding in Revolutions sure is from it so is Anakin Skywalker foreseeing Padme dies giving birth in Star War Episode 3. This business in Reloaded is bit more complicated.

Allow me to first let the cat out of the bag, the Chosen One in the Matrix story would not bring salvation for all humanity. Neo himself feels it. The Oracle, who is revealed to be a machine program in Reloaded, more or less confirms it. This is the merits of the 2003 movies, under the simple “men versus machine” premise, the machines do not march on locked in goosestep, they have different ideas about controlling humanity. Something the 2 running 3 Body Problem on Netflix had learned this.

After trading words and blows with some other rogue machine programs called Exiled, Neo meets the leading machine program called Architect. There the truth of Chosen One among humans is revealed: the major of humanity would be wiped out and the One would lead a tiny group of survivors to multiple yet again. It would be the seventh time in those movies. As Neo himself put it, it’s “another form of control” with the Oracle being part of this control. However, Neo does break this circle in Revolutions with the reason that he is the One who fucks.

Neo and Trinity can be seen sharing bunker and bed at the very beginning of Reloaded. As soon as the two are alone in a lift of Zion, they start to make out. All on-screen language to say that they are an item. It would be awkward if they are not after what Trinity said to a dying Neo in the first movie. During the orgy like dancing party (another thing lifted from Dune Messiah I might add), those 2 sneak out of the party and play horizontal tennis in the privacy of a bedroom. Happy time except Trinity’s expression for orgasm reminds Neo of seeing her die in his dream.

In Dune Messiah, the Chosen One Paul foresees the love of his life Chani dies giving birth. Reason on print is more acceptable than the bullshit in Star Wars: Chani takes fatally dangerous treatment involving Spices to bear twins. While Trinity is not confirmed to be pregnant in Matrix sequels, the situation is not too different. The One meeting the Architect requires elaborate plan. One phase goes pear-shaped with everyone involved there dies, so Trinity goes in to get that part of job done, leading to the whole opening shocker. The Architect gives Neo a binary choice, and with Neo having a more personal attachment to Trinity, he goes down the save one in risk of all path. It would have been more triumph had Trinity not died in Revolutions anyway. Then again, had Neo not been blinded she would not have to accompany him to the parlor with machines. Why couldn’t you just leave the blinding from Dune Messiah out, Wachowskis?

What the fuck had they done to you, Smithy?

Neo in many ways is in a “make love not war” mindset in the 2003 movies. He does not use guns for starters. He is not on the offense in any of his action scenes: first he has to knock out the 3 Agents so his friends can leg it; then Seraph, the Oracle’s bodyguard, has a sparring with him as identification; soon after that he meets the legions of Smiths and goes medieval on some rouge programs. Then there are the 2 fights against Smith in Revolutions, first to save Trinity in the meat space then for sake of machine and humanity alike in the Matrix.

All in all, Neo fights Smith 4 times across the 2 sequels. Except the one in meat space with very different style from Yuen crew’s wire works, those in the Matrix are underwhelming. The inherent vice being: why the fuck is Smith still around? The Wachowskis claimed that Neo learning about the machines and Smith learning about the humans run parallel, but in many ways, the siblings did not have the chop to put it off in a satisfying way. Smith is a clown fuck in the sequels, without the convincing menace he put up in the 1999 original. The lines are gibberish and repetitive. The action relied heavily on CGI in ways not even 2021’s Resurrections did. Audience had hoped for the Chosen One of humanity having a better peace offering to the machine than wiping out a self-multifil clown-like virus, but the siblings clearly wrote themselves into a corner. At least on this front.

Those who do have to fight this war

“The path of the One is made by the many” said the Oracle in either of the movies. It’s a line in Enter the Matrix’s live action cut scene shot after the role had to be recast. Yours truly had never played the game, however the cut scenes are included in Matrix Reloaded’s home media release, the blu-ray menu rather cheekily calls those “additional footage”. According to those, Enter the Matrix has a similarly cliffhanging ending and Revolutions serves as the conclusion to the video game as well. Lana Wachowski kept Niobe played by “Mrs. Will Smith” in the 2021 movie for good reason.

Despite how underwhelming the Chosen One’s part is in Revolutions, I personally prefer the fall release than Reloaded. The main reason being how Revolutions pulls off the heavily industrialized future warfare, CGI swarm not withdrawn. It’s properly bloody given those are R-rated movie. It has the Pyrrhic Victory vibe. A shot of human’s heavy machine gun malfunctions and severely injures the crew is a detail highlighting the whole endeavor. It’s almost if that science fiction franchise with “war” in its name should have died in shame compared to this.

Zion, it’s over.

Thanks to Abnormal Mapping, this meme stays vividly alive in my mind, as they put it out after they suffered through Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and SAG’s more bark than bite strike. And if this is a retrospective for the Matrix’ 20^th anniversary, Revolutions would have been the end. However, a new movie did come out in the 5 years between and I do consider it a more fitting trilogy coda while the 2003 movies serve more like a robust middle chapter.

I was only 13 years old when I saw them first. Reloaded not ending with a climatic action piece somehow dampened my enjoyment of it and its long-to-my-13-year-old-self explanations did not help either. But that little shit was yet to see real snoozefest such as Neon Gensis Evangelion and things branded “A Hideo Kojima Game”. Watched it as a 29-year-old and 34-year-old, yours truly just see Reloaded as a summer blockbuster that was rightfully well-received. That highway chase without Neo is the shit! I watched Revolutions with my maternal grandmother, who had not watched the 2 before. But she did enjoy the war scenes as much as I did. I of course found the tragedy bit too much to swallow, and apparently at least one of the Wachowskis thought so as well.

(To be concluded in Holiday Special)