Some visual effect shots in The Matrix sequels were not as good as others, and one clever fan theory explains why. A sci-fi world born right as technology was beginning to develop at a rapid rate, The Matrix and its sequels perfectly captured the late ‘90s’ perception of how computers and machines could change peoples’ lives. The idea of a digital world and AIs that could outsmart humans set the stage for some of Hollywood’s best sci-fi movies, and those concepts were intrinsically tied with The Matrix’s plot. Similar to classics like James Cameron's Aliens and Terminator 2, The Matrix had to push visual effects to new limits to do its story justice.
Not many films were as impactful to modern blockbusters as The Matrix. Elements like wire work being incorporated into hand-to-hand fight sequences or the iconic “bullet time” redefined how action movies are made, which is why The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were expected to have even more ambitious shots. While the Matrix sequels were indeed far more ambitious than The Matrix when it comes to visual effects, some shots have aged better than others, which makes sense considering how groundbreaking the films were. Still, a fun fan theory (via Reddit) has an in-universe reason for that inconsistency, Agent Smith had become too powerful for the Matrix to render.
Matrix Reloaded & Revolutions Had Some Questionable Visual Effects
Compared to The Matrix, both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were way more complex when it comes to visual effects. To put things in perspective, The Matrix Reloaded had three times as many VFX shots as The Matrix (via Zion’s many ships and the machines’ sentinels. In of budget, The Matrix cost $63 million whereas The Matrix Reloaded cost $150 million. But, neither Reloaded nor Revolutions is as visually consistent as The Matrix.
Perhaps the best example of a Matrix sequel scene whose visual effects have not aged well is the Neo vs. Smith fight at the park in The Matrix Reloaded. It is important to that The Matrix Reloaded was released in 2003, meaning that elements like CG doubles used during a fight sequence were still very new. As a comparison, the first two Star Wars prequels, another landmark for visual effects, had just premiered. In the Neo vs. Smith fight, it is not difficult to notice when Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving are replaced with CG doubles. While the scene was remarkable for its time, it certainly revealed the technology’s limitations.
Theory: Smith & Neo Had Become Too Powerful For The Matrix To Render
Except for the scenes in Zion and the Machines City, everything else audiences see in The Matrix movies is part of the Matrix simulation, a virtual world programmed by the machines in which the consciousness of every imprisoned human is ed. While the debate brought up by Morpheus to Neo about what it means for something to be real gets very philosophical, it can be said that everything inside the Matrix simulation is a result of how the human mind interacts with the Matrix code. The One, who Morpheus believed to be humanity’s last hope, but was actually part of the Architect’s plans, was the only person who could bend that code, until Smith.
In The Matrix Reloaded, Smith was no longer an Agent working for the machines but rather a freed program with his own goals, a consequence of Smith briefly merging with Neo at the end of The Matrix. According to the previously mentioned fan theory, Smith had become way too powerful after The Matrix, to the point that the Matrix simulation could no longer render everything that was happening once Smith and The One met on the battlefield. While that is a fun fan theory, it also serves as an interesting in-universe explanation as to why the Neo vs. Smith fight in Reloaded has so many odd VFX shots.
Would The Matrix Simulation Really Struggle At Rendering Agent Smith’s Clones?
Perhaps the best comparison between the Matrix simulation and something in the real world would be video games. Considering that video games only have to render what the player is seeing at a given point, it would make sense for the Matrix to be “too slow” to process how fast things were changing in the Neo vs. Matrix fight. Neither Neo nor Agent Smith were playing by the rules of the Matrix, and having The One fighting countless versions of a rogue Agent is not something the Matrix simulation was prepared for. Glitches in the Matrix such as déjà vu exist in The Matrix movies, meaning that the slow rendering process theory could work too.
