Warner Bros has dubbed 2003 the Year of the Matrix, but it could just have easily called it the Season of the Cash Cow.

Not only will the coming months see the release of two new "Matrix" movies - "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" - but there will also be a collection of nine animated shorts called "The Animatrix", as well as computer game Enter the Matrix to part you from your money.

While sci-fi and fantasy nerds will lap this stuff up, it is questionable whether "The Matrix" really has the substance that these off-shoots suggest.

Certainly, the Wachowskis' deployment of religious themes, allusions to "Alice in Wonderland", and numerous other reference points convinced some people that there was more to "The Matrix" than met the eye.

But can it really lay claim to being anything more than just a visually dazzling, smarter-than-average action movie?

We will soon find out because "The Animatrix" (released on DVD on 2nd June) promises to take us deeper into the Matrix than ever before.

That said, there is not much depth to the CGI short, "The Final Flight of the Osiris", which kicks off the collection (and plays in cinemas alongside "Dreamcatcher" from 25th April).

It starts as an erotically-charged samurai swordfight, between an athletic man and woman, and ends up by blurring different realities à la the movie. We learn that CGI chicks can look pretty sexy, but little else.

Perhaps the computer game, Enter the Matrix (launched 15th May), will open new doors. Based on 600 pages of material written by the Wachowskis and containing an hour of extra footage, it features two of the actors from the movie and, we are told, the most advanced fight sequences of any video game.

Some sections will elaborate on scenes in "Reloaded", begging the question: Did the Wachowskis deliberately leave threads dangling in order to create demand for the game?

Ultimately, this is hype and marketing gone mad. Watch the movies, enjoy them for what they are, but don't imagine that they will change your life.

If there is a philosophy driving all of this, it is surely that greed is good and there's a sucker born every minute. Of course, I could be wrong...

"The Matrix Reloaded" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 23rd May 2003.

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