Matrix Reloaded

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Rating</span>: **** <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Cast</span>: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Direction</span>: Andy and Larry Wachowski<br /><br />Ever since the futuristic fantasy The Matrix defied the law of gravity with its kinetic stunts, its sequel has been eagerly awaited by aficionados of the sci-fi genre.<br /><br />Obviously, the trick is to retain and better the bits that went down well in the original.So, the writer-director Wachowski brothers have crammed Matrix Reloaded with cutting-edge special effects, those leap-before-you-look camera tricks and computer- generated thrills aplenty.<br /><br />Once again, the convoluted storyline demands a total suspension of disbelief. As long as the viewer''s adrenalin is pumping, who cares about plausibility? At the end of the first film, a group of rebels was still battling with mean machines which had enslaved the human race in a virtual world.<br /><br />In the second edition, computer hacker-cum-kickbutt messiah (Reeves) continues his bid to combat the tyrannical machines. The baddie brigade is again led by a glib-talking automaton (Hugo Weaving) in a slick-chic suit. This arch-friend is endowed with mutating powers which enable him to replicate himself a hundred (or is it a thousand?) times over. Razor-wielding albino twins and a duplicitous seductress (the current Euro pin-up girl Monica Bellucci) add to the messiah''s workload.<br /><br />Unfazed, the poker-faced saviour finds time to share intimate moments and some more with his leap-o-suction girlfriend (the ever-nimble Moss). In one of the film''s most inventive sequences, the couple''s love-making is intercut with a ritualistic dance performed by the rebel `humans'' in a surreal cave city straight out of Fritz Lang''s Metropolis. Superb!<br /><br />Expectedly, the martial arts combats are dazzlingly choreographed in grey-black colours by the Hong Kong actionmeister Yuen Wo-ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) The extended climactic chase involving cars, trucks and a sports mobike is coordinated with astounding techno-finesse.<br /><br />However, the narrative is often impeded by dialogue strewn with mumbo-jumbo and hokum homilies. Hopefully, the concluding film of the series, Matrix Revolutions, scheduled for release at the end of this year, will spare the spectator such prosaic lapses. The Wachowskis continue to present Reeves as an expressionless rebel with a cause. Laurence Fishburne as the messiah''s pillar of support is noteworthy for his super-booming voice and authoritative demeanour.<br /><br />Matrix-2 has the requisite amount of zing and zap. Go ahead, have a blast. </div> </div>