Icons Reloaded

Position: Front-runner, at least for now. Since the first movie opened, a fan-boy cult has risen that must see, must buy, must be first at anything Matrix. No mystery. The inner geek in all of us wants to morph into Keanu Reeves as Neo. Once a lowly hacker, Neo is now the One chosen to save the world, wear great clothes, get into the latex pants of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and do the coolest stunts that filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski can dream up. For icing, The Matrix Revolutions, the third film in the trilogy, will open on November 7th. No waiting a year like you do with The Lord of the Rings or three years with Star Wars.
Trouble Spots: High expectations. Even with the evil Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) cloning himself into an army and the addition of a temptress (Monica Bellucci) for Neo and an old flame (Jada Pinkett Smith) for Morpheus, the visual punch of the first Matrix will be a bitch to upgrade. But if anyone can do it, it's the Wachowskis, despite a contract that says they never have to tell the press how they did it.
Critical Chances: Better than before. Some wags will still dis Reeves as "a monotone mook," but repeat viewings of the original show the film's mix of FX with Zen may be cannier than some of us thought.
Box-office Potential: Short of record-breaking. The first Matrix took in $171 million. Chump change when you consider that last summer's Spider-Man spun more than $400 million and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones passed $300 million. Why? They were rated PG-13 and PG. True to its dark heart, Reloaded is rated R. That means no families, no Happy Meals and no TV ads before 9 p.m. to drive sales. Variety reports that only four R-rated films have ever crested $200 million. I predict Reloaded will be the fifth. But not by as much as it should. The under-seventeens know how to buy a ticket to a PG-13 movie and sneak into an R movie, but it's the PG-13 movie that gets their dollars. Sucks, huh?