The Matrix Reloaded (2003) Retrospective/Review - The Matrix Retrospective, Part 2

Reloaded is definitely a weaker movie than the original, but the freeway scene is truly one of the best action scenes in a film ever. The fact that it’s nearly all practical is truly astonishing and your brain knowing it’s real makes it so much more compelling.

Something scary I realized is that I have never seen the actor for the Architect ever appear in anything else, it’s as if he is the Architect, for me at least

The Chateau fight is probably my favorite of all of them. The music and the pacing are just perfect. Also, no Burly Brawl style CGI showing here, it's all (at least looks) real.

I always enjoyed The Matrix sequels. You can't compare them to action/sci-fi films, but instead to Anime. They mirror Akira in tone almost exactly. Act 1 is mostly action, Act 2 is lots of weird science experiment stuff, and Act 3 is a big giant mutant threatening to destroy everything. The Matrix is mostly action/mystery, Reloaded is the world building/exposition, and Revolutions is the giant virus threatening to destroy everything.

I've come to deeply appreciate the Matrix Trilogy as a whole, as a grand and ambitions tale with an iconic stye and deep, meaningful themes. And I appreciate even more that the Watchowski's dared to do more with the concept than merely bring wire-fu to the west in a context that was more palatable in an age before Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was mainstream. The Matrix was doing top tier comic book world building on the big screen without a pre-existing fanbase to shore it up, almost 20 years before Marvel would try the same thing with some of the most well known character histories in comics. Ambitious indeed. And the Animatrix was wild as well, with the Second Renaissance being truly mind-blowing. I get why people were disappointed at the sequels after the wild novelty of the first film, but I wan't one of them.

I don't care what anyone says, I love both Reloaded and Revolutions, despite their flaws! Yes, they may have some weird and ungainly scenes, but I still find them supremely enjoyable. Another great video, Rowan! Are you planning to cover the Animatrix at all?

Don Davis' reloaded suite is a masterpiece, the music when trinity is resurrected is glorious

Some of my favorite scenes in cinema of all time are in this movie. Im so thankful they exist. When someone tells me we only have 5 minutes to do something, in my mind I hear Trinity saying “In five minutes, I'll tear that whole goddamn building down.” 😂😂

6:55 Keanu just sitting there kung-fuing during the interview like it's nothing. What an absolute legend! :)

The Agent Smith stuff, how he is the anomaly that ends up freeing the humans and ending the endless war, is my favourite aspect of these movies and I look forward to the third video where I bet you're going to talk about it. Amazing

I still remember hearing the theroy that the reason why the neo and multiple smith fight scence was so obviously CGI was because the matrix was having trouble rendering the fight scene. Which made sense in a weird way LOLz

Story wise, having the scene with the architect be the climax of this movie is problematic for Revolutions imo. It’s a phenomenal plot twist to find that The One is part of the system of control and Neo is the 6th one in a cycle. It’s truly a brilliant twist.

The chateau fight is my favourite of the whole saga. And the mtv matrix parody is the best mtv parody.

The introduction of the new concepts IMO isn't what harmed this film. Rather, it's the inability to reconcile some of those concepts with the established chain of events and resorting to handwaving the issues. Then we have also the lack of balance between action and intellectualism that the first movie is so well known and appreciated for. What we got here instead, is a movie that tries to be too much of both, without connecting the two and in the end resulting in actually feeling "dumber" for it. And this comes from a guy that actually found the architect scene to be his absolutely favorite one in the entire movie.

I loved Reloaded/Revolutions from release day and still do... possibly more than the first one. They only get better with time for me.

If you watch Matrix 2 and 3 back to back they both really build each movie up beyond watching them separately.

Watching that scene again where Neo resurrects Trinity makes the point of the 4th movie even stronger: Neo and Trinity together are so powerful and their connection is so important. I love that

6:00 Rowen: /showing a scene from deep within the earth, near the core where its still warm/ "Very little was shot on location"

I love the added element of the highway sequence where everyone comments on Morpheus' rule of staying off of highways.

On another note, I live just a stone's throw from Alameda, California where the freeway chase was filmed. The car chase leading into the freeway scene was filmed in downtown Oakland. I smile every time I see the AC Transit bus go by in the background.