by Paul Fischer

In the midst of LA's West Hollywood, lies one of the city's trendiest restaurants: Mortons. No, not the chain of steakhouses made famous throughout North America, but the famed site of the annual Vanity Fair Oscar bash in West Hollywood. It's the perfect place for the star-studded DVD launch of The Matrix Reloaded, coming to DVD shelves about a month prior to the theatrical release of the third instalment of the metaphysical sci-fi series, Matrix Revolutions. Cattle show or not, this is all about promotion. For Joel Silver, dressed in a ruby-red shirt and suit minus tie, it was all about defending the critical bashing of Reloaded and promising a major finale when the Revolution hits theatres in November. If he was concerned about the negative reviews heaped on Reloaded, he remained unconcerned, as we chatted in a back room at the restaurant. "We didn't really get a great critical response to the first one, so it's what I'm used to," Silver says smilingly. Insisting that Reloaded "was a huge success, as was Animatrix and the video game. We believe that Revolutions is the crowning glory of the three stories. This latest one is really an incredible resolution."

Comparing Reloaded to Revolutions, Silver wants to make one thing absolutely clear: "Reloaded was always the first half of the movie and people didn't really seem to get that. Revolutions is like one movie, cut in half, and unfortunately at the end of the first half, there were a lot of questions left unanswered, but in Revolutions, all those questions are answered," Silver insists, competing with the loud party music in the background. All three Matrix films "are all different movies. The first one was more about discovery; the second movie is about a Realisation while Revolutions is the end of the story. The final sequence, the defence of Zion is truly mind-boggling. I've said before that in terms of trying to raise the bar, there is no bar, and I think that sequence makes that very clear."

Of course if you want a refresher course in the world of Zion, then Silver hopes the Reloaded DVD will be huge, and talks up the DVD's myriad of extra features. "We go into great detail as to how we did certain things, like the car chase and some of the big fight sequences. There's also the parody from the MTV Movie Awards, which is very funny, so I think there are a lot of great added features." But he also adds that coolest feature of the DVD "is the movie itself, because the boys worked very hard in the transfer. I think the whole package is great in its totality."

On a side note, Silver produced 1987's Predator, which happened to have starred Arnold and Jesse Ventura, both of whom became governors. "It must have been something in the water," he quips. Perhaps that a former movie star now runs California, movie making in Los Angeles will become a whole lot easier. "I'd still rather work in Sydney". Joel Silver for Governor? "Absolutely not." He'd rather eat sushi at glitzy Hollywood parties than head to a governor's mansion. After all, here in Hollywood, making movies and promoting them is akin to a political campaign anyhow. Silver just smiles at the analogy.