Rate Matrix Reloaded

[Barendd Nobeard]

I gave it a 4.

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First, the trailer has ruined the film. All the good moments are highlighted in the trailer I saw before X2. How about just showing us Agent Smith copying himself, and not showing us the "100 Agents Smiths" fight? No, had to show that in the trailer.

The first "100 Agent Smiths" fight look too CGI-ish, and there were a few shots that looked like "here's 100 differents actors who are all supposed to be identical, but they're not so we'll just make sure none of them have a face pointing to the camera when they pile on Keanu."

Having a second "100 Agent Smiths" fight but only a dozen show up was just stupid (when they're in the hallway and the Key Maker eventually opens the final door). Where are the rest of them?

Neo zooming around--all I could think of was the car at the end of Repo Man. ("Plate. Shrimp. Plate of Shrimp" - get a Repo Man quotation in your head and it will ruin whatever film you are watching.)

Oh my god--all the AWFUL "long talky boring scenes" (as I called them). We were walking out, and I commented that there were mainly two scenes in the movie*--action sequence and then "long talky boring scene". My brother-in-law (a theater major who actually works in theatre) laughed and said, "Save the exposition for the stage! Film is a visual medium." Really. Don't explain the philosophy to me in long boring dialogue scenes. Show me. Or are we, the audience, too stupid to figure it out so you feel the need to explain it to me?

The operator (Link?) = "obligatory comic relief" Almost as bad as Gimli in LotR:TTT.

Boring shots that don't mean anything: The Neb. landing in Zion. More boring than that outside "tour" of the ship in Star Trek: The Motion Picture**--you know the one, that 20 minute shot of nothing. This one wasn't that long, but we don't see anything interesting while it lands.

And the teaser trailer at the end is not worth sitting through ten minutes of credits for.


On the whole, I was greatly disappointed. Probably just my high expectations being disappointed.

On the other hand, I see how it will work on Imax with the one hour limit for that format. Nothing vital has to be chopped to get the film down to that running time. And, well, there's almost nowhere to go but UP with the final film.


Unfortunately, I have to see this movie again this weekend, because I promised my daughter I'd take her to see it.


*except for the Rave / obligatory (not!) sex scene.

**a.k.a. Star Wreck: Commotion Sickness to con-goers in the early 1980s.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

But I agree withy ou, SamuraiY, that bodyguard and the dance in the temple was probably just to fill the time...

But it's 138 minutes long (2 hours and 18 minutes). They didn't need to "fill" any time!

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

You've aroused my inner voyeur. Where can I read about the guy playing Tank badmouthing the producer?

Right here. I don't thinks it's run by him or anything (looks like a fan site), but it shows a lot of internal documents regarding his negotiations to be in the sequels.

But be warned!

This site did some funky things to my computer (mouse was acting funny on these pages) so I don't plan on going back.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Going with a 7 here. I found some of the sences long and drawn out, the rave, the fights. KR still can't act but he does not have to.

Okay my rant, you don't fricking put 'to be continued' on the screen. This just rubbed me wrong, sure the movie was good but what if it was bad!

 

[mojo1701]

Going with a 7 here. I found some of the sences long and drawn out, the rave, the fights. KR still can't act but he does not have to.

Okay my rant, you don't fricking put 'to be continued' on the screen. This just rubbed me wrong, sure the movie was good but what if it was bad!

I agree with all of that 110%, Hand of Evil!

Anyone ever see that one episode of SNL, with Celebrity Jeopardy! with Keanu Reeves:

The category is "Colours that rhyme with 'urple':

Reeves: I will venture a guess: Who is Jaleel White?
Trebek: What?
Reeves: Is he not the loveable fellow, with glasses, who wears suspenders and loves cheese?
Trebek: That's Urkel!

 

[barsoomcore]

Well, lame. Cool sunglasses and cool clothes, of course, but otherwise, lame.

Let's take the basic premise, shall we?

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So the entire point of Neo's whole existence has been to get him to stand in front of the Architect and choose one of two doors.

Okay, so explain to me exactly why the machines were then trying to prevent him from getting there? Why keep him from getting the Keymaker? Why not just schedule an appointment with him?

Bad fight scenes.

Fight with Oracle's bodyguard: we have no idea who this guy is, what he wants or why he's fighting Neo. Ergo, no tension. The fight is long and the choreography, though skilled, offers very little eye-candy so we've really got nothing going on in this fight. Why is it here? Who cares?

Fight with 100 Agent Smiths: Agent Smith attempts to take over Neo. He fails. They fight. Neo flies away. Question 1: since we've already established that Smith is unable to take over Neo, what are they fighting about, exactly? Question 2: since Neo can evidently FLY AWAY anytime he likes, why are they fighting, exactly? Watch the final fight sequence from Jackie Chan's Project A (or, even better the middle-of-the-film sequence in the private club) and ask yourself what makes a cool fight sequence.

Fight with Merovingian's dudes: First thing Neo does is stop about a thousand bullets without any effort. Do we at any point in this fight seriously wonder how it will end? And why doesn't Neo just kill these guys from the get-go? Why pin the one fellow to the wall with sai when he could just as easily stabbed him in the head? Does Neo have some aversion to deleting programs? Huh? Yawn.

Freeway chase: Two things worked great here: Morpheus applying the sword to the SUV, and Trinity driving the motorbike backwards through traffic. Both very cool. I wish, though, that they had given Larry Fishburne a fighting style that didn't involve him and his considerable girth hanging in mid-air for quite so long. I'd much rather see him pound his opponents with them big muscles he's got.

Basic overall problem with the Matrix films: the techniques used in these films are all pretty much used to "draw out" moments -- to extend audience tension by delaying the outcome of some action as long as possible. Will the bullet reach Trinity before Neo can save her? The problem is that the emotional story just doesn't live up to the technical one. Will the bullet reach her? Well, I don't really care, so making it take longer is only irritating me.

Compared with your average anime (which these films are I think best appreciated as -- live-action anime), the Matrix films are kind of startling for the coldness and sterility of the characters. These people have no bonds to each other, no families, no friends. It's all eerie and chilling and contributes to an overall atmosphere of nothing much mattering.

Okay, I'm done. It was worse than I expected. And I hadn't expected very much, to be sure.

 

[drnuncheon]

Spoilers excised.

Question 2: since Neo can evidently FLY AWAY anytime he likes, why are they fighting, exactly?

Man, people keep complaining about this, and it bugs the heck out of me. Maybe I had the benefit of hearing the complaint before I saw the film, so I was looking for an answer, but to me it was obvious:

Neo can't just take off into the air anytime he likes.

He's got to gather himself and concentrate for a couple of seconds, and then he can fly.

Now, try holding still and concentrating for a couple of seconds while a bunch of guys are either beating on you or doing their other little trick (consider that resisting that probably takes concentration too).

J

 

[John Crichton]

Re: Spoilers excised.

Man, people keep complaining about this, and it bugs the heck out of me. Maybe I had the benefit of hearing the complaint before I saw the film, so I was looking for an answer, but to me it was obvious:

Neo can't just take off into the air anytime he likes.

He's got to gather himself and concentrate for a couple of seconds, and then he can fly.

Now, try holding still and concentrating for a couple of seconds while a bunch of guys are either beating on you or doing their other little trick (consider that resisting that probably takes concentration too).

Just because we have the slowdown effect before he takes off doesn't mean that it takes a bit for him to take off. That slowdown was there for feel and effect, to me. Neo doesn't have to "charge up" to stop bullets which seems equally difficult to do. Even still, Beo can manipulate the laws of the Matrix at will (bringing folks back to life, etc) so the needing to concentrate thing doesn't fly all that well with me especially because he didn't have to do it with Morpheus there at the end nor when he escaped from the Architect...

 

[barsoomcore]

Re: Spoilers excised.

Neo can't just take off into the air anytime he likes.

He's got to gather himself and concentrate for a couple of seconds, and then he can fly.

Now, try holding still and concentrating for a couple of seconds while a bunch of guys are either beating on you or doing their other little trick (consider that resisting that probably takes concentration too).

Um, but wait a minute. Let's run through the sequence of events, shall we?

1. A million Agent Smiths pile on top of Neo.
2. Neo sends a million Agent Smiths flying through the air.
3. Neo flies away.

Okay, so he needs a few seconds to concentrate. Obviously, he gets those seconds by throwing his enemies around. Which is, unless I saw the wrong film, exactly what he'd been doing for the previous twenty minutes. At what point in the fight previously was he MORE troubled by Agent Smith? How does getting dog-piled provide him with a window of concentration that, say, standing facing half-a-dozen guys does not?

 

[Crothian]

I gave it a two. I thought it lacked in many, many areas. The plot was not that great and really seemed more of a set up for the next movie then anything. The new characters were uninspired and lacked depth. There was no wow factor like the first on had. It's been a long time since I walked out of a theather that disappointed.