PANORAMA

For Northwest Indiana

  MATRIX: RELOADED         Rated R

     Picking up shortly after the first Matrix left off, Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves- Speed, Hardball) is in the real world. Haunted by a dream in which his lover, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss- Memento, Chocolat) is killed, he enters the virtual reality construct of the Matrix, to seek out the all-knowing Oracle (Gloria Foster). Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne- Pulp Fiction) is convinced Neo can save it, but to do so 'the One' has to locate the source of the Matrix, which proves a tricky business, with many enemies in the way.
     Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving- The Lord of the Rings), returns despite being deleted in part one. Other villains include: the seductive Persephone (Monica Bellucci- Brotherhood of the Wolf), albino twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment- Matrix 2 & 3), and Merovingian (Lambert Wilson- The Last September).
Zion, meanwhile, is in danger. A machine army of 250,000 sentinels (tentacle computer-beasties) head toward the underground city, which houses the remnants of humanity.
     Whether battling multiple Smiths or "doing his Superman thing", Neo often - ironically - appears computer-generated. There is a lot of action time, with a plot that trails off several times. This movie concentrated on special effects, and forgot to make a good story out of it. If you want to see a movie with high quality graphics, then make sure you see Matrix: Reloaded!