When you think The Matrix, certain unforgettable images come to mind. Maybe it’s Keanu Reeves in those black sunglasses and that black trench coat – you know, that high-collared one with the super cool, dramatic flare at the bottom. One hand is behind his back, and the palm of his other hand is raised in front of him. A deadpan expression on his face, he’s stopped a hail of bullets mid-air; they clatter harmlessly to the ground with a flick of his wrist.
So stylish, so iconic. But this scene isn’t from 1999’s The Matrix – it’s from the first of its much-maligned sequels, 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded. This week marks Reloaded’s 20th anniversary, and it’s high time to say it once and for all: being a Matrix sequel hater is choosing to be on the wrong side of history. If that’s you, we think you should plug back in and give them the re-evaluation they more than deserve. Reloaded was light years ahead of its time.
Story-wise, Reloaded is an assuredly expansive work of universe-building, taking us deeper into both the worlds of Zion (housing the last of humanity near the earth’s core) and the machine world, where we learn what drives rogue programs like the Oracle and the infamous Agent Smith. Aesthetically, it’s hard to think of another blockbuster film as unapologetically stylish and confident with its imagery as Reloaded, even twenty years later. As evidenced by the aforementioned floating bullets scene, so much of the ubiquitous iconography that we now look back and associate with the Wachowskis’ Matrix actually derives from Reloaded: this is the film that lets us get a good look at Neo, suited, booted, and slicked back, stepping fully into his role as The One.
While a popular criticism levied at the sequel was that its CGI looked ‘rubbery’, we say get a grip. Yes, there’s a computer-y, artificial feel to how the actors’ bodies are rendered as we pause mid-air and whizz 360 degrees around, watching Keanu Reeves kick Hugo Weavings (plural) in the teeth – but the Matrix is a computer simulation, no? Heightened artifice and an uneasy, too-smooth proto-realism is kind of the point. We’d take the endlessly inventive choreography of these fight scenes and their balletic sense of flow, weight and dynamism, over some grey-slop verisimilitude CGI any day. Plus, Reloaded undeniably contains some of the most baller and memorable action setpieces of the entire franchise: lest we forget that legendary highway sequence, for which a bespoke 1.5-mile long freeway was constructed and General Motors donated 300 cars to be destroyed in the name of great cinema? Carrie Anne Moss in a latex catsuit on a Ducati, you will always be famous.
Reloaded is one of the best sequels ever made, not only despite but because of the titanic footsteps it had to follow as the ridiculously anticipated sequel to one of the greatest sci-fi and action films of all time. The Matrix was a game-changer, so why would the minds behind such a visually, technologically, and thematically inventive film ever dial down their ambition for its sequel? It’s an unimpeachably bold piece of filmmaking – one that includes, for example, a confidently lengthy underground techno rave, seeing the sweaty, glistening bodies of humanity’s last survivors grind and dance on each other on the eve of the apocalypse, while somewhere upstairs, Neo and Trinity have incredibly steamy sex. This is a deeply sexy film, with a sensuality that feels transgressive and revolutionary in the context of a blockbuster sequel. Reloaded understands – even if its audience didn’t at the time – that aside from the world of the simulation and its jade-green, ultra-slick coldness, stakes have to be felt in human flesh: real bodies that dance, have sex, fall in love, fight for survival.
At the end of the day, Reloaded is so undeniably stylish it blows you away. And what’s the point if it isn’t stylish? The Wachowskis are mavericks – they don’t give the people what they want. At the risk of sounding like we too are adopting Morpheus-speak, they’ve always given us what we don’t even know we need. Reload those sequels, and enjoy the ride.
