Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 4/24/03 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Image taken from www.whatisthematrix.com

Two movies that have gathered a faithful, and often zealous, following are "The Matrix" and, for the comic junkies, "X-Men." These movies are highly anticipated by the film industry for their potential to earn lots of money, and by the fans, because they are bound to kick serious ass.

My job here is to tell you what I can about the movies without giving away any of the integral plot elements. I'll start with an overview of "The Matrix: Reloaded." The sequel begins where the first film left off, and if you don't know about the first film, then I suggest you crawl out from under your rock and rent it! Reloaded features Keanu Reeves (Neo), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) and Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus) who reprise their roles as freedom fighters as well as Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who returns in an interesting "upgrade" to his role in the first film. In addition to this cast of characters there is Naobi (Jada Pinkett-Smith), Morpheus's love interest who lives in Zion; a pair of new adversaries, the Twins (Adrian & Neil Rayment), who are basically upgraded agents; and Persephone(Monica Bellucci) who is an enigmatic "evil temptress."

The two Matrix sequels are actually one rather long movie about the same 24-hour period that has been cut in half in order to make it "viewable" by the general public (they wouldn't necessarily enjoy a six hour movie). Reloaded focuses mainly on the events in the Matrix itself, most of which revolve around Neo and his evolving superhero-type powers.

If you can't wait until May 15, 2003 to see it in the theaters, there are several very nifty trailers out , the most recent of which is in front of the movie Anger Management and available for download at the official site whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com.

The second movie that no comic nut or anyone else should miss is "X-Men 2." This flick should prove to be more action packed than the original, and contain a lot less of the "this is so-and-so" kind of dialogue, thus increasing the overall pace of the movie. Most of the characters from the first movie are reprising their roles in this one as well. There are also a bunch of prominent new comers to this film, including Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Lady Deathstrike a.k.a. Yuriko Oyama (Kelly Hu) and William Stryker (Brian Cox). Also appearing in the film are a bunch of cameos of other mutants who are well known to the comic world (I won't spoil the surprise here).

X2 picks up roughly after the events in the first movie. This film consists of a bunch of sub-plots that intertwine beneath the surface of the main plot. The main action of the movie centers on Stryker, who's an anti-mutant military leader. He's attempting to shut down Professor Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) School for the Gifted and recruit him to find other mutants. The sub-plots are as follows: a quasi-love triangle between Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) search to discover his path which crosses him with Stryker and Lady Deathstrike, and the constant tension between Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Xavier.

Just like the Matrix, if you can't wait until the May 2, 2003 release date, there are trailers to satiate your craving for all things X at www.x2-movie.com.

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