My curiosity got the better of me on Saturday afternoon, as i peeked on fandango.com to see if any showings of The Matrix Reloaded weren't sold out. Lo and behold, the evening shows were available, so i eagerly clicked "buy" and grabbed Veronica to head off to Boston Common. The ticket lines were horrendous, but as we had bought them online (i still don't understand why more people don't use the ticket kiosks instead of the tellers) we bypassed that atrocity and headed to the line to enter the theater.

I spent a while doubting the film. I watched The Matrix again a week ago, which deepened my appreciation of it even further. The original has a few scenes that i think are brilliant, particularly Neo's realization of his powers, thrashing Agent Smith while making it look like he could be reading TV Guide at the same time. About halfway through Reloaded i began to grasp the vision of the brothers Wachowski, and then the movie had me in the palm of its hand. The visuals were incredible ... the fight between Neo and the horde of clones of Agent Smith was awesome of course, as was the duel between Morpheus, several agents, and the twin albino assassins on the roofs of cars and trucks on the 101 outside downtown Los Angeles. But even the "mundane" martial arts scenes were breathtaking. In the opening of a battle between Neo and a rogue program's bodyguards, Neo throws one of his opponents against a Greek marble statue. The statue shatters as the bodyguard moves through it, and all fall in slow motion to the floor. I don't do it justice, but it had me tearing up. The movie is a large part philosophy, containing several extended rants on the paradox of free will. While slowing the initial acceleration of the film, these components serve to accentuate the suspense of the latter half and set the scene for November's The Matrix Revolutions.

I'll end my fanboy gushings at this point. It's a film i think i need to see a few more times to completely understand the magnitude of the story the Wachowskis are trying to convey.