Unlocking The Matrix

(6 of 6)
Hesse, Homer--Wachowski films contain multitudes. But not everyone goes to The Matrix for the articles. A few like the glossy pictures--the vivid color schemes, the pirouetting camera and, most of all, the special effects. The first Matrix introduced Bullet Time, the process that allowed us to see Neo outfoxing his opponents in super-slow motion. In Reloaded, which has some 1,000 virtual-effects shots (compared with 412 in the first film), special-effects supervisor John Gaeta trumped that effect with such devices as Universal Capture (putting five high-definition cameras on an actor so he can be duplicated or, in Agent Smith's case, centiplicated, and shown from any angle, as in the Burly Brawl) and Virtual Cinema (which can give emotion, in the anime style, to elements like fire and water). The idea was to make the effects so dauntingly sophisticated, says Silver, "that people can't just rip us off again."

That's the problem with being instant superstar auteurs. Hollywood has become a cult of Zion, and for just this moment the Wachowskis are a Neo duo: saviors of the intellectual action film. Now everybody expects everything--in box office (if it's less than a smash, it's a disaster), in artistic achievement (if it's less than a masterpiece, it stinks). Silver is already trying to deflect expectations: at the TIME screening last week, he said, "Remember, it's only half a movie." (But you will pay full price.)

Already audiences are in a show-me mood. At a screening for exhibitors, the courtyard fight and the big car chase raised the room temperature but didn't earn the spontaneous gasps and applause that mark a movie sensation. The reaction was less "Wow!" than "Huh?" Some thought it was half a terrific action movie--the second half--with a sluggish buildup. A few compared the film unfavorably to X-Men 2.

That's unfair for a film as ambitious and demanding as this one. Reloaded is a six-month cliff-hanger: the plot points in its slower early scenes may pay off in Revolutions. But, hey, it's tough being an action hero. And it's even harder being two brothers who, we'll bet, just want to make terrific movies. --Reported by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles

For more action shots from the movie, visit time.com/matrix

With reporting by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles

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