The Matrix II - better known as 'The Matrix Reloaded' - has begun filming. Will Keanu Reeves be returning as Neo once again to save the world from the treachery of computers or will this techno-drama take a new and interesting turn? What about the love story between Trinity and Neo will that be pursued this time around? This and more inside...

Remaking The Matrix
Reprint courtesy of: SF Crowsnest

What do you get when you cross the Bible with The Hobbit, Das Boat, Snow White and the works of Aristotle?

Apparently, just some of the many influences that went into influencing Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, the brothers and the director's behind the film The Matrix.

For those that missed this classic ... watch it NOW! It is a must-see on the reading list (or should that be viewing list) of any serious SF auteur.

A brief capsule of the first flick would be Neo, a frustrated computer hacker in the 20th century, discovers that he is actually being used as a human battery by AIs in the far future who have seized control of most of the Earth. They are farming humanity like factory chickens, and keeping them docile with a group virtual reality existence of the late 20th century.

Neo is broken out of this spell by a small group of human renegades who are fighting the AIs, and enters a broken, world so bleak and terrifying that it makes the dystopia of Bladerunner look like a holiday in Corfu.

Matrix viewed like a Woo Kung-Fu flick scripted by Philip K. Dick at the height of his paranoia, with SFX provided by George Lucas. Brilliant action combined with a fab script and lots of philosophy about the human relationship within an industrial and information society.

Fans of the film will be overjoyed to hear that the Wachowski siblings are currently in Australia finishing off the 'trilogy' by shooting 'The Matrix Reloaded' and The 'Matrix Revolutions' back-to-back.

The down-under production habit and release drip-feeding (Reloaded hits the streets 2003) isn't the only thing that they share with Lord of the Rings, albeit that was more of a Kiwi affair. Tolkien is regularly trotted out by the brothers as one of the big influences on The Matrix ... in fact, they have compared the first movie to The Hobbit, in how it sets the world up for the next two films.

If that's the case, then wow. Phantom Menace was how Lucas 'set up' his trilogy, and let's face it, that sucked compared to The Matrix.

The MIB-like AI avatars are back in Matrix Reloaded, including the main baddie, Agent Smith - who has learnt to replicate himself so that Neo has to fight a platoon of Smiths at the same time.

As Neo, Keanu Reeves is continuing his biblical quest to convince the AIs to set his people free from their VR bondage. He's aided in this battle by the inhabitants of the Free City of Zion - this underground fortress, said to be the remnants of some Pentagon survival bunker, now vastly expanded by refugees from the machine-led pogroms against mankind, features heavily in the two movies.

Neo's girlfriend Trinity is back - at least for most of the second movie, as she dies in heroic fashion at the climax. She is also meant to be bought back to life in the third movie, possibly as a reanimated tool of the AIs.

Laurence Fishburne again reprises his roll as the Gandalf-analogue, Morpheus, which should please the ranks of fandom. The wise old Oracle, played by actress Gloria Foster will be seen in Reloaded - but this proved to be her last screen role, as she passed away before shooting on 'Revolutions' got underway.

The singer/actress Aaliyah was meant to star in the second movie as a Zionite who sells the city out, leading to its destruction at the end of Reloaded, but her sad untimely death scuppered this.

Marvin Gaye's daughter, Nona, has now replaced Aaliyah, but the part has been substantially rewritten to accommodate the new actress's different thespian style (e.g. she may not now get trotted out for a Judas moment when Zion falls).

Revolutions - the third film- is said to continue as the biblical subtext, as Neo leads the remnants of humanity Moses-like across the wilderness of a shattered and abandoned Earth in search of the promised land and an ultimate resolution of their persecution by the machines.

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