Morpheus: [Morpheus addresses the people of Zion] Zion, hear me! It is true, what many of you have heard. The machines have gathered an army and as I speak, that army is drawing nearer to our home.

[the Zion crowd becomes louder]

Morpheus: Believe me when I say we have a difficult time ahead of us. But if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it. I stand here, before you now, truthfully unafraid. Why? Because I believe something you do not? No, I stand here without fear because I remember. I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me. I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines. I remember that for 100 years they have sent their armies to destroy us, and after a century of war I remember that which matters most… We are still here! Today, let us send a message to that army. Tonight, let us shake this cave. Tonight, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tonight, let us make them remember, THIS IS ZION AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID!

More Matrix! I love it!

Where The Matrix set up a quintessential cyberpunk dystopia and a rebellion against ’the machine’ it stayed surprisingly small scale. For the most part, one ship, one crew, one main baddie, and a relatively tight fight scenes. The Matrix Reloaded takes what the Matrix set out and really builds it into a larger world. We have bigger fights (Trinity in the beginning, the many Agents fight, the chateau, and the freeway all spectacular and much ‘bigger’ feeling), more philosophy (“Because you didn’t come here to make the choice, you’ve already made it” and that weirdness with the Architect), more humans (a fleet of hoverships and the entire city of Zion!), and more baddies (the system, but also the Agents, and the Merovingian).

All together, I don’t know if it would have worked without the tighter grounding of the original or without being concluded by the third (bit of a cliffhanger there…), but given that all three exist–I actually am probably in a minority in that I actually prefer it to the original! It’s just such a spectacle and well worth the watch to watch all three. I don’t really understand people that say ‘it’s a pity they never made any sequels’. They did and at the very least, they’re not bad. You don’t have to like things to admit that others can and do!

Random thoughts:

Whoa, that’s Harold Perrineau–Michael (from Lost)–and Gina Torres–Zoë (from Firefly)! How did I forget that / not notice it? The Matrix came out just before the former and just after the latter, so it’s interesting to see.