VCDQuality Forums (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/index.php)
- Movie, movies and more movies! (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=14)
-- Review: (2003) The Matrix Reloaded (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=19310)

Review: (2003) The Matrix Reloaded

Yeah, another review. I just caught the ESOTERiC release. It's by no means a bad movie, but I thought it suffered from "Look at me! I have an effects budget!" syndrome.

Review summary: Not as good as the first Matrix movie, but a pretty impressive action movie nonetheless. 8/10.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
.
.
.
.

First, the mile-high view of the plot.

The first third of the movie is rather content-free. Quite a few characters are introduced, but only Tank^WLink (the new ship's operator, after Tank was presumably killed between the movies) and Zion Councillor Hamann are developed notably; Morpheus's ex, Captain Niobe, is a cardboard cutout throughout the movie. Basically, two of the three major plot points of the entire movie (the sentinels are drilling to Zion, and Agent Smith is alive, rogue, and cloned) are introduced in the first ten minutes, and the next thirty are filled mostly with predictable exposition (ooh, General Hein^W^WCaptain Lock isn't a True Believer and wants a brute force solution, isn't that original?) and 5 minutes of gratuitous tribal-rave music, dirty dancing, and nudity. Strangely, the Neo/Trinity love scene didn't feel as completely gratuitous as the rest of the crap (*pout* prophetic dream angst *sniffle*), yet the chemistry between the two was... off. It should have been a good character scene. Dunno the precise cause, but neither of the actors seemed to have their hearts in it. Oh, one subplot point somehow got thrown in, where we find out that Agent Smith copies himself by overwriting other people, including those freed from The Matrix (unlike standard-issue Agents). He now has a clone on the inside of Zion named Bane.

The movie picks up in the next third when Neo finally visits The Oracle. When he confronts her, she readily admits that she's (a) an AI program, and (b) quite possibly an untrustworthy and deceptive component of The Matrix. She tells Neo to look for The Source (described both as the machines' mainframe and as the place where programs in The Matrix go when they die) and The Keymaker (who can get him to The Source) before strolling off. After running into Agent Smith and a few hundred of his favorite clones in the most-hyped scene of the movie, Neo and company visit a rogue program living in The Matrix, who holds The Keymaker prisoner. The scene drags a bit, with rogue-program-guy expounding on the philosophy of cause-and-effect versus choice, followed by more gratuitous sex (making me briefly wonder if I'd stumbled onto a copy of The Amazing Goth-Man: Adventures in the Sexual Underworld by accident -- I was half-expecting a pizza delivery boy and 70's porn music by the next scene). Rogue-program-guy's wife then offers to bring them to The Keymaker if Neo will kiss her (making me stare suspiciously at the screen and double-check IMDb that Keanu Reeves has never done a porno in case this VCD surreptitiously spliced it in). Moving on, Neo fights rogue-program-guy's lackeys, while Morpheus and Trinity escape with The Keymaker in tow and the poltergeist twin lackeys in pursuit.

The final third of the movie opens with the second-most-hyped scene of the movie, the highway chase. I really don't understand why the highway chase was so hyped. Yes, the scale of it (15 solid minutes of things going crash and boom) was very unique, but the actual content was a distinctly unimpressive mixture of bullet-fu (bullet-time plus wire-fu, obviously) and a circa-1980 car chase (complete with period music), ending with Goth-Man^WNeo swooping out of the sky for the last-minute save. After that comes The Most Confusing Scene In The Movie; basically, exposition from different conversations taking place hours apart is interwoven with the action of the plans coming into play, and you have no idea that that's what's happening until about halfway through this 5 minute lump of scene. The scene resumes real-time (and the viewers' sanity) when a power plant explodes so that Neo, Morpheus, and The Keymaker can head for The Source. More stuff happens, another hovership blows up, Trinity dives into The Matrix to pick up the slack, Agent Smith reappears, The Keymaker imparts his final instructions and dies, yadda. Neo then meets The Architect, the AI program that designed The Matrix. Rather interesting conversation ensues, revealing the third major plot point of the movie (The Oracle helped create The Matrix, and The Prophesy and The One were just part of the programming to make The Matrix be self-resetting and get better with each try). Neo dooms Zion (and possibly the inhabitants of The Matrix) by running off to save Trinity in the nick'o'time, pulls out the bullet by reaching non-corporeally into her chest, and restarts her heart by reaching into her ribcage and squeezing it. Foreshadowing occurs that perhaps Morpheus will die and be brought back to life in the third movie. Anyway, they pop out of The Matrix and sentinels are bombing Morpheus's ship, so they all hotfoot it on the ground outside for a last-minute save. The sentinels come to inspect the wreckage and find the crew running away. Suddenly, Neo mutters something about feeling the sentinels, turns around, and emits an EMP burst from his hands and kills a swarm of them, then suddenly collapses (presumably waking up from the "real" world and into the real real world). Exposition, exposition, a surviving ship shows up, Zion was destroyed, possibly sabotage, one survivor, it's the guy that Agent Smith took over waaay earlier in the movie, yadda. Neo and Bane-Smith are both unconscious in the medlab. The end. What, you wanted a conclusion? This is 2003, Year of the Rings.

Now, effects and action. Basically, the movie follows the mantra of "More, more, more!" The bullet-fu is pretty much the same as in the first, but used in every action scene. The not-quite-real explosions are much more frequent, with 3 in-Matrix explosions doing the ripple effect and one of those also doing the liquid fire effect. The major new effect, the Agent Smith clones, is very seamless (as far as I can see on the cam-quality video) and looks like really good blue-screen work. The first half of the movie will be painful to action fans who want to see pretty CGI rather than lengthy philosophy debates, but the Agent Smith brawl looks very nice, Neo's fight for The Keymaster has rather impressive wire-fu, the highway scene never drags (despite the incredible duration) and is frequently cool, and the Goth fanboys will absolutely drool at Neo taking out the sentinels. *cough* wish fulfillment *cough* Oh, and the Trinity fanboys (who presumably overlap considerably with the Goth fanboys) will probably be both elated that Trinity gets naked on-screen and disappointed that Trinity never actually shows any of her naughty bits. Tasteful shoulder time.

Next, philosophy. Not bad. It goes a bit deeper than the first movie, but not enormously, discussing different views of fate, choice, and cause in addition to the usual Buddhism Lite. The two mindfucks at the end are nice; the first takes the fanboy fantasy (Neo is The One and will save the world) and shatters it, while the second takes the philosophy of both movies and applies it recursively (Not only is The Matrix an illusion pulled over your eyes, but so is the world outside The Matrix that you were "free" in).

Next, nitpicks. Numero uno, too much gratuitous sex. Yes, this is an action movie, and gratuitous sex is almost de rigueur, but the first movie did quite nicely without outright pandering to the 13-20 straight male demographic, and I'd like to think that this movie could have chosen the same path. The first movie got where it did by being deeper than your average Arnie movie, not T&A. Stick with that. Numero dos, too much exposition for too little effect. Seeing the Council of Zion in session was not exactly the highlight of the movie, nor was the Morpheus-Niobe-Lock love triangle. Numero tres, it makes no logical sense that Goth-Boy^WNeo would still be using kung-fu in The Matrix when he has the power to alter physical reality within it. I mean, the guy flys like Mighty Mouse by changing the laws of physics around him, stops bullets by thinking about it, and can telekinetically pull weapons off a wall. Why does he punch and kick when he could pull a Darth Vader and crush people's windpipes from afar?

In the end, though, the problems with the movie don't outweigh the parts that work, and the looong action scenes imprint themselves strongly enough into your memory that you forget some of the bad exposition scenes. Plus, alongside the action you get Philosophy In A Nutshell, and what's expounded upon is largely plot-relevant. Overall, not quite as good as the first Matrix, especially with the dragging first third, but still pretty damn entertaining.

Re: Review: (2003) The Matrix Reloaded

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chronos Tachyon
Yeah, another review. I just caught the ESOTERiC release. It's by no means a bad movie, but I thought it suffered from "Look at me! I have an effects budget!" syndrome.[/i], especially with the dragging first third, but still pretty damn entertaining.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by dc_man


How could you see the effects in that shiet release? Just curious, but if you never watched this movie in the theatre first you are retarded and missed out greatly.

---

Re: Re: Review: (2003) The Matrix Reloaded

quote:

---

Originally posted by dc_man


How could you see the effects in that shiet release? Just curious, but if you never watched this movie in the theatre first you are retarded and missed out greatly.

---

__________________
"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

dude, i went and seen this movie and just about creamed myself... 10/10

I have been a great fan of the Matrix and have been waiting for this film just as much as anyone. THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW.

My review here is on the plot... not the special effects. It wouldnt be right for me to comment on the effects as I have only seen the TS release, 3 times, but not the cinema screening yet cos its not out for another week here.

To keep it brief:

1. Too much focus on the love story between Trinity and Neo.
2. I felt the film was fragmented - and there was a long period between action sequences for the movie.
3. Not much gun play - yes I know its a martial art kinda thing.... but a thing I liked about the original Matrix was all the gunplay.
4. I felt Agent Smith was the best character in this film, mainly because he was funny, and no one else was. That includes the new operator who was just so unfunny and exceptionally annoying that I felt sorry for the actor who played his role.

Dont get me wrong - It is most definatly not a bad film, but I think the film's story line could of focused a bit more on the aspect in the film which was raised about the oracle - and more to the point why she didnt explain to neo that he was the 6th one. I guess its because they wanted to save that punch for the end with the meeting with the architect, and to drum up interest for the next matrix movie in November.

The camera work and the special effects in the film ARE however some of the best I have seen, and most definatly carry the film at points. But as someone else said.... "look we have a special effects budget" that is so true and I could not agree more.

Final point - the end phase of this movie, with the attack on the three seperate targets seems rushed to me, why talk about it - AS they did it...and not plan it then execute it. Also we never saw any of the part of the film where agent smith (i presume) detonates the emp early causing the massacre of the ships at the counter attack from Zion. This again added to the feeling that this film was wrapped up a bit too quickly.

Overall I would say this is a great movie and will be enjoyed by all, but if you are a massive fan of the Matrix like me.... I cant help but suggest that maybe you will be a bit dissapointed. I know I was.

__________________
[3:57am] <@mystic-s> every person in the usa is gay and loves men. they also like putting bicycles up their bottom <--- hehehehe

9.5/10..

Cant nag about loose ends.. Unless they dont close them in Revolutions

Because they've said millions of times over that Reloaded and Revolutions were supposed to be considered one movie :P

I just... loved this Certainly not dissapointed, at all..

P.S. Smith was so great

__________________



i have sigs off

quote:

---

Anyway, they pop out of The Matrix and sentinels are bombing Morpheus's ship, so they all hotfoot it on the ground outside for a last-minute save. The sentinels come to inspect the wreckage and find the crew running away. Suddenly, Neo mutters something about feeling the sentinels, turns around, and emits an EMP burst from his hands and kills a swarm of them, then suddenly collapses (presumably waking up from the "real" world and into the real real world). Exposition, exposition, a surviving ship shows up, Zion was destroyed, possibly sabotage, one survivor, it's the guy that Agent Smith took over waaay earlier in the movie, yadda. Neo and Bane-Smith are both unconscious in the medlab. The end. What, you wanted a conclusion? This is 2003, Year of the Rings.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ZackS

Just a speck of nitpicking in the review.

Zion doesn't fall in the movie, only a small group of ships sent to make a dent in the sentinal fleets digging towards Zion as they intersected certain pipelines. As you remember, the li'l critters continued digging after the "slaughter." If Zion were destroyed, that wouldn't make sense.

As for Neo, Smith, and the EMP wave, there is another decent theory out there to explain the whole thing. When Neo dove into Smith in the first movie, Smith gains a part of Neo that allows him to inhabit a human body and Neo gains agent powers as well as the ability to sense and control things from the machine world. The reason behind this is that sentinals can be controlled from the Matrix world, why not from the real one by the only two people who have the power? The ability to produce an EMP from one's body due to mental power is a bit strange but the ability to utilize Smith's former control over robots to deactivate them is another thing. As for the coma, I think Neo and Smith were just physically and mentally drained under the stress of attempting to use this power in the real world. Call me crazy but I think the Matrix in Matrix idea is way too cliché. The Wachowski brothers are better than that.

But whatever happens in Revolutions, we're sure to be thrilled.

---