# Review: The Matrix Reloaded

Last night, as I shopped for oranges and pears, the greengrocer asked me
where I was from, as if it couldn’t possibly be Australia. (This was
partly because I’d never heard of some type of Australia pear but
whatever.) Why is this? I get this quite a lot. Do I speak funny?

I saw [The Matrix
Reloaded](http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/matrixreloaded/)
yesterday afternoon. (In the afternoon because it was part of a work
“team building” exercise. It was really weird to come out of the cinema
and have it still be daylight, let me just say.) Anyway, it’s quite
good! Visually, it’s not as strong or cohesive as the first, and Neo is
way too powerful, but there’s an amazing amount of interesting
philosophy of the traditional sci-fi sort (i.e. the topics of free will
(most of the characters who have an opinion about it insist there is no
such thing), the nature of time, multiple universes, perceived reality
versus reality, and so on) as well as the nature and implications of
belief, _and_ the possibilities of love. (Actually, it occurs to me now
that the whole thing could turn out very religious in the end. Which I
wouldn’t mind.)

Other notes: (1) there’s an incredibly long wordless rave scene that
fortunately stops at about the same time you realise that no-one has
said anything for quite a long time, and begin to wonder why the
Wachowskis have inserted a music video into the middle of a movie; (2)
there’s a trailer to the next Matrix movie after the credits; (3) the
power-station hacking scene is [surprisingly
realistic](http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/202104.html); (4)
Morpheus’s speech desperately needed a rewrite; (5) the Oracle died
[almost two years ago](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Foster,+Gloria)!