The Matrix Reloaded
For those of you who just can’t get enough of the Burly Brawl, your day has come: The Matrix Reloaded is finally on DVD. For those of you who wanted the depth of bonus features that made the original Matrix DVD a killer-app of the digital video medium, you’re just going to have to take a number and wait. Speaking only for myself, I was looking forward to learning a lot about how the movie was made, listening to the complete original score, and more. And hey, it was two discs! How could they help but have buttloads of features on two DVDs?
Easily, when they’re holding out for some super-duper trilogy-box-set expanded edition, darn ‘em all.
The first disc consists of the movie itself, period. Nothing else. Really.
Disc two contains a handful of featurettes, some of which are worth next to nothing. “Preload” and “Freeway Chase” are two nice features about the movie itself, the latter focused entirely on the daunting task of creating the extended car chase. (I was amazed at how much of that sequence turned out to be done with practical effects - i.e. no CGI.) “The Matrix Unfolds” is a fawning valentine to the franchise, with gobs of time spent praising the Wachowski Brothers and the studio for launching not only sequels, but The Animatrix and the Enter The Matrix video game. This featurette is billed as a look at how the phenomenon has grown, and to me, that entails talking to fans, inspired philosophy students who changed 
their courses of study after seeing the original movie, and educated observers, not kissing the asses of the brothers Warner and Wachowski for half an hour.
Enter The Matrix is also the subject of its own lengthy documentary, interesting enough in and of itself but not necessarily related to this movie where the entire audience is concerned.
I like The Matrix Reloaded just fine…but considering the high standard set by its predecessor on DVD, and even knowing that there’s undoubtedly some deluxe trilogy box set version waiting to happen in the next year or so, I was still expecting more from this release.
