Opinions on The Matrix Reloaded [SPOILERS]

(NERD Studios) Arturo · Post by **(NERD Studios) Arturo** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:54 am

Ok, so the day was fairly trivial until this evening. Nick, Trenity, Stephen, Mike, and I show up at the theater around 8:30 for the 10:00 showing of The Matrix Reloaded. Props to the Galaxy 9 for having the theater open for seating even before we got there.

General Review: First off, the movie was great. It's easily one of, if not the best movies to come out this year. It was very impressive and I quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately it suffered from one major flaw, that being that it must be compared to the first movie, which it didn't quite measure up to.

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The movie's problems can easily be summed up in a single word: excessiveness. The big speeches were to long. The fight scenes used to much CG. And the random dancing/softcore porno scene was way to long by a factor of roughly ten.

On the fights: Admittedly, this was something that would have been very difficult to do perfectly. Neo is so powerful that you have to put him in pretty much impossible situations to give the audience some feeling of suspense, which means that all his fights have to be mostly CG. Add to this that there weren't really any opponents that Morpheus or Trinity could just duke it out with and you end up with a bunch of fights that just aren't as good as the ones in the first movie. The "twins" fights were the worst by far. They pretty much do the translucent-medusa thing and fire off an automatic weapon. Occasionally they use some sort of small knife which gets held to various people's necks, and that's about it. I can't remember who said it, but I think the best summation of the problem here was "CG was originally used as a new tool to improve movies. These days it seems almost like a crutch."

On the other effects: The non-fight related effects were excellent with all the explosions, flying cars, and whatnot. Thankfully they avoided excessive use of bullet-time, which has become rather cliche.

The music: It was the only area that I feel topped the first movie. It was suspenseful at the right moments, haunting at others, and wonderful overall. The only part that I felt didn't fit was at the very very end when the camera pans up to the guy on the other table. The music there was way to much for such a simple visual, and was grand when it should have been terrifying.

The story: Very good overall, but I fear the whole thing with the architect came across as a little to complex. A lot of what he said about the purpose and destiny of Neo could have been stated much more clearly, I think. And the whole purpose/destiny/choice thing suffered from being reinterpreted by to many characters. It kinda reminded me of Gundam Wing and everyone spouting off about the what it means to be a soldier ^_^. On the other hand we have the entire scene with Merovingian, who had an extremely cool name but whose speech the movie could have done without completely. The orgasm cake was cute, but likewise unnecessary and pointless.

When it's all said and done I still really liked the movie, but it certainly wasn't as good as the first one.

Chaos Angel · Post by **Chaos Angel** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:57 am

Ain't seen it yet, but I do wanna say this:

DAMN ALL OF YER MIDNIGHT-SHOW VIEWIN' HIDES!!

That is all. I shall see it... eventually.

...says the guy who has yet to see Two Towers and X-2...

shadow-the-hedgehog · Post by **shadow-the-hedgehog** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:58 am

Haven't seen it yet. Gonna see it in about 8 1/2 hrs from now. I walked in on one part where the trailers collide, it was kinda cool. Also in case anyone don't know THERE IS A TRAILER AT THE END O' DA MOVIE. It is fer Revoultions.

KungPaoChicken · Post by **KungPaoChicken** » Thu May 15, 2003 4:39 am

I think that people expected way too much out of this movie.

Still, there is a fair amount of excessiveness in the film, but would we have it any other way? Any less and we would be crying for more. It's a queer paradox. They took what worked and ran with it, can we fault them for that? It's a very human thing to do, and hard to criticize especially when we know we would probably make the same decisions if it were up to us.

I enjoyed it. My far more cynical friends didn't.

SSJVegita0609 · Post by **SSJVegita0609** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:20 am

Well, I haven't seen it yet, but I wasn't a fan of the first one. But here's what some other people seem to think of it...

Critics' Reviews

Report Card Overall Grade: C+

Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert "It is an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure, combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts, chases and explosions, romance and oratory." Full Review A-

Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro "Although the technical aspects don't disappoint, the human ones do. Action scenes can't be heart-stopping if the story hasn't gotten your ticker going to begin with." Full Review C-

Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan "If a concept is to sustain itself over a multipart story, it must make an emotional connection, and this 'Reloaded,' especially with stars cast for their lack of affect and affinity for blankness, cannot do that." Full Review C

MSNBC
Kirk Honeycutt "The Wachowskis may have… started to believe in their own semimythological status, for the brothers seem to be taking themselves way too seriously." Full Review C-

New York Times
Elvis Mitchell "[The Wachowski brothers] relentless love of movies, junk-food mythology and thoughtful reimagining of a future endangered by mass consumption and proliferation of pleasure to the point of soullessness makes for a heady and unusual mix." Full Review B-

Slate
David Edelstein "'The Matrix Reloaded' is as messy and flat-footed as its predecessor is nimble and shapely. It's an ugly, bloated, repetitive movie that builds to a punch line that should have come an hour earlier (at least)." Full Review

Somehow I think I'm going to dislike this movie.

SSJVegita0609 · Post by **SSJVegita0609** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:21 am

Whoops, forgot to add Slate's letter score, it was a D.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Thu May 15, 2003 11:12 am

I've learned that the best way to take reviews from movie critics is to read them and then bring them to the toilet to use as toilet paper.

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Thu May 15, 2003 11:38 am

It rocked... "You told me Never to use the freeway! ... Ok. The freeway it is then." Best scene in the whole damn movie... the car chase was wicked... I think they did a damn good job of balancing Neo between God and boring, making him a semi-believable character. Plus, what some of these Critics percieve as bloat, is the same reason many thought the Two Towers was bloated... the film makers were doing what has been nearly lost in the american movie genere, something called Character Development. Sure the massive dance/sex thing lasted a little long, but you knew it was gonna show up sooner or later, What, you though Trinity and Neo were gonna stay pristine through the whole trilogy? The only thing that really bothered me about the movie were the twins... they were... How can I say this.... ummm... Pussified. But yes, Morpheus with a katana does = Fukin Secks.

(NERD Studios) Arturo · Post by **(NERD Studios) Arturo** » Thu May 15, 2003 12:00 pm

I agree the sex scene was unavoidable, but it should have been two minutes instead of twenty.

Lyrs · Post by **Lyrs** » Thu May 15, 2003 12:15 pm

a friend said X-2 was better...don't know though, never seen neither yet.

she also said that the beginning was akward really slow.

/end