*** Official "THE MATRIX RELOADED" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Joshua_Y]

My Matrix Reloaded Review (SPOILERS AHEAD!):

Well...I just got back from the Employee Showing...and well...how do I put this...it wasnt as bad has I was thinking it would be...in fact some parts I downright dug...but first the parts that irk me:

Zion...it looks just stupid...plain and simple...and theres a 4 minute rave sequence like something out of STOMP that is just stupid and pointless and could have easily been cut...and how the hell did people make this city...I realize that over 100 years...but still...this place is just HUGE...and looks like a big matte painting...I thought it looked silly and was sooo glad when the story went past Zion and onto the story...

Niobe is a pointless character and just takes up space pretty much...

The Action: Man o man do the fights suck! I know your thinkin "what?" But they do...they get in the way of the story and are rather pointless and lack any kind of energy and are full of absolutely some of the most horrendous CGI characters I have ever seen...the Burly Brawl especially is one of the lowpoints of the film...sure its kinda neat...but it doesnt make sense...if Neo can stop Agents and destroy them...and fly...and all this stuff...why does he even bother fighting them...when after the fight he just flies off...and all the Agents just casually walk away...pointless scene...basically any scene with Neo kung-fu fighting is useless...because he doesnt need to...when he resurrects Trinity at the end...ya gotta wonder..."Damn this dude is seriously powerful...he can bring people back from the dead...and kill Agents...but yet he still sees some need to kung-fu fight" Pointless...The Car Chase is pretty neat...but again...I was distracted by the horrid computer FX and it just didnt have any energy...I mean with this kinda film we have limitless possiblilties almost and the best we get is more shitty Wire-Fu and a car chase...pretty dull...I mean...at one point The Orace says that there are programs or something that can produce anything...like Werewolves...Vampires...Zombies...and the film never delivers once on that...whats the point of mentioning it if your not gonna show it later...maybe they will in Revolutions...but I doubt it...more wasted screentime on something were not gonna see...but there is a small hint at it when Monica Belluci kills two men with Silver Bullets...guess that was it...pretty dull though...

Slow-Mo: They go WAAAAY overboard on Slow-Mo...the 4min Rave scene in Zion...its 4min of slow-mo nothing but slow-mo...and its the most boring piece of film I have ever seen...

The Kid: Useless character...not needed at all...

The First 30min or so of the film are very very very slow...I'm talkin DEAD! The Zion scenes are just so boring...

The Twins: Just cheesey all around...and I just couldnt stop thinking..."White Milli Vinilli" And they just look real cheesey when they transport...

Agent Smith: I like the idea that he has become more than the Matrix and that he is actually a real person...which is very cool...but it seems that they have turned Mr. Smith into a one-liner character...but that is a minor gripe because he owns so much ass...but again whats the point of Neo even fighting him when he can simply destroy them...

The Ending: Feels like this is a TV series and gives the previous 2 hours a very cheesey feel...

Morpheus's Speeches: God-awlful...we get the point that you believe in The One...get over it...stop telling everyone every 5min that Neo is the One...

The Music: Pure and utter shite! Whatever happened to a score...I liked the traditional score from the first and its hardly even heard here...all we get is "Hmph! Hmph! Hmph!"

What I liked:

Anything that has to deal with the Origin of the Matrix...The Oracle...The Architect...I loved that shit...the Architect scene is just damned cool and I really dug it...the scene with the Oracle is very well presented...but its a shame...cause thats when I started to really get into the movie and then all of a sudden the film goes into the Neo VS. 100 Smith's scene and I was like "Crap that sucks...I wanted more Oracle."
I just dug the whole History of The Matrix and the philosophy thing about Choices and such...I dug that so much...its just a shame that there had to be so much pointless action...action without a story...is a pretty boring thing...

Trinity: I thought she just kicked ass in this flick...from beginning to end shes just cool...

Agent Smith is a Real Person: I was hoping that this would be true and my hopes were answered...Smith is such a great character...and the ending is pretty cool...but the To Be Concluded bit is just too cheesey...they could have learned a thing or two from Peter Jackson or Lucas on how to close a chapter of a bigger story...

The preview for Revolutions is pretty cool and looks more promising than Reloaded...

Overall...it was a decent film...I might go so far as to call it good maybe...but theres a lot that I didnt care for and found to be just illogical and boring...

See my new thoughts on page 3! This movie owns!

 

[Kevin M]

This is a review, it always was but I will flesh it out in a more review friendly format if you wish.

Let me start by saying that I had no problem with the plot whatsoever, it made perfect sense to me & was a nice continuation from the first film and was far from boring IMO.
The main problem that I had with this film was in it's technical execution, I knew I was in trouble when in the first 10 minutes I leaned over and asked my friend "what's up with all the James Bond Music?", it was mostly downhill from there.



Morpheus' speeches.....JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING WHEN THEY WROTE THAT PRETENTIOUS GARBAGE??? COME ON GUYS, YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!


Zion....what can I say that hasn't been said already?


The Music..as I stated before it was a major disappointment, typical hollywood "007" action filler. A shame as the original film's score was rather good IMO.


The Freeway scene....was it an homage to T2 or was it just a lack of finding anything new to do with the old Hollywood Car Chase? I'm not absolutely sure yet but they did use some rather Brad Fidelish music when the easiest comparisons began.


The fights...uninspired video game repetitiveness.


You know for as much criticizing and self aggrandizing as John Gaeta did at the 2000 Oscars and on the DVD commentary he really seems to have lost his way here, the CGI was far from convincing in most of the areas that it was clearly intended to shine. The character CGI was painfully obvious but even if it had been perfect the action was just so damn uninspired....The Wachowski's apparently never learned the old axiom "Less Is More" because in lieu of inspired action sequences they just thru every thing at you that they could including the kitchen sink, however the problem with this technique is that it has the same effect as gallons of uninspired gore in a typical Friday The 13th slasher film...you become desensitized to it after awhile and it becomes rather cartoony...not a desired effect when you are wanting to elicit "Ooo's & Aaahh's" from the audience.


As I said, the story line was a nice extension of the first film and IMO every bit as interesting as the first Matrix with perhaps a little more ponderous pop-philosophy for the fans to gnaw on before the final installment in November.

In regards to the problems I felt the film had in the direction/technical area, I think if they had cut about $25 million off their budget they would have been forced to be a little more clever...as it is this film just reeks of "too much"...right down to Laurence Fishburne's pot belly. Damn Dude, you couldn't do a few sit-up's? It's the Matrix sequels for Neo's sake!

:star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

I'll go see the final installment but if it comes down to seeing this or Return of The King....well...