nic / May 27, 2003 9:34 AM

Its worth seeing for the choreography and fighting alone - aswell as the car chase!

However, the thin story (with its gaping holes) and horribly contrived love affair between Neo and Trinity really brings the atmosphere of the movie down.

I would recommend people see it - if only to make their own minds up...but the 10 minute stupid dance scene and Morpheus' horrible self-righteous speech really set tone for the movie when they weren't fighting or blowing things up...

5/10 - Must try harder!

Alex / May 27, 2003 9:56 AM

What a piece of poop! I was so disappointed. It went from being a sleek, smart film (in the first one), to a Hollywood run-of-the-mill action flick without heart or soul.

Hopefully the next one will be better.

Naz / May 27, 2003 10:14 AM

The thing is this: after watching it twice now and spending some time on other sites reading rabid discussions, my mild disappointment turned into a much greater curiosity as I started listening to the doublespeak. I liked Reloaded more so for the dialogue and potential story arcs than the fight scenes this time round.

The questions to be asked now are: is there a matrix within a matrix? (ie. Is Zion the .1% matrix created for the .1% population that reject the 'real world' matrix)

What is Neo now? Man, machine, both? And Smith?

Is the Architect lying or the Oracle, who's fighting for whom and who's really leading the way?

Who is the mother of the Matrix? While it may be apparently clear from what the Architect says, is it really?

And did you stay past the lengthy credits to see the trailer for Revolutions?

kegz / May 27, 2003 10:21 AM

I know I'm supposed to care about what's really going on, but if the writers don't, why should I? There is no tension in watching Neo do anything that is super human. It's fine for characters to be bulletproof, but they have to create some empathy so that we care. In the first Matrix, we connected with Neo, because we saw him transformed from a robot-like-us into a freed mind. He made choices and overcame the lies of the Matrix. In Reloaded, he's like Arnold the Cyborg-Terminator without the clever lines. Trinity is the hero we care about. She even has the best action scene, riding the motorcycle against the grain on the freeway.

I squirmed in my seat watching Morpheus' speech and the ensuing Zion orgy-rave. I was embarrassed for the actors and the audience. Let the machines destroy them all.

What did I make of the convoluted story? I guess that Zion is just another part of the Matrix, a matrix within the Matrix. Agent Smith is the one anomaly that is totally unaccounted for. He is a virus in the system that the Architect didn't plan and has no contingency for. Whatever happens in Revolutions will hinge on how Smith interacts with Neo.

I'll see Revolutions but I won't look forward to it like I did Reloaded.

Naz / May 27, 2003 10:32 AM

The anomaly is not actually unaccounted for if you're speaking of what the Architect says:

Neo: Why am I here?

Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent in the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden deciduously avoided it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you inexcerably here.

The Architect knows that there is an anomaly and thus has provided for the scenario of the "One". Agent Smith/Bain is indeed a new development, one that I think no one really knows about though when you watch the trailer for Revolutions you hear the Oracle saying something along the lines of "He is the only thing that stands in your way" or such.

Another interesting thing is that scene in the trailer for Rev., is the blankness/darkness of the backdrop that Neo and Smith are fighting in the showdown (I presume perhaps), it seems like both the scorched skies of the 'real world' and yet it seems like nothing's filled in thus hinting at the possibility of the new matrix, or new real world?

(Yes, I am having complete ridiulous fun geeking out about this. Makes the film interesting.)

kegz / May 27, 2003 11:00 AM

I disagree that Smith is the same anomaly to which the Architect is referring. In the words of the Architect, as you have provided, that would make Neo the eventuality of Smith? I think that the Architect is referring to the anomaly that a "One" is part of his system (as he's seen it happen 5 or 6 times before). This has nothing to do with Smith, who I believe, the Architect has no knowledge of.

You could be right, but I really didn't get the sense that the Architect was aware of Smith.

jima / May 27, 2003 12:53 PM

What do I make of it? Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl....

Naz / May 27, 2003 2:18 PM

Kegz: I think we're in agreeance over Neo being the known anomaly and no one really knowing about Smith at this point. I'm actually really looking forward to the next one, seeing how they will tie everything up and explain it all. Certainly not a great movie but a decent movie and one that after seeing a few times grows on me. Many questions left unanswered and for me, that makes for a good middle movie.

Aaron / May 28, 2003 9:53 AM

I thought the fight scenes were hella sweet. In some discussion groups, people were complaining that they looked fake. Nope; I thought they ruled.

During the Architect's speech, my friend who had seen the Reloaded multiple times notices that as the Architect said "the horrendous vulgarities of civilization" or something like that, a big picture of George W. flashed for a split second on the video screens. Did anyone else notice that? I think that's pretty cool.

Overall though, I'm getting a little bored with idea of the matrix and the extended Platonist-philosopher-cum-Christ metaphor. Maybe I'm a pretentious schmuck, but most people who have taken a philosophy course are pretty well aware of these existential questions.

I guess I think the movie needed to take itself less seriously. It needed better comic relief--that guy Neo saved who now follows the gang around, he's the worst comic relief since Jar Jar Binks. X2 (X-Men United) stands as a movie that has some serious themes, but doesn't take itself too seriously.

+mojan. / May 29, 2003 11:31 AM

Some of the action sequences were off-the-charts amazing, but I found myself laughing when the story was intended to be complicated, serious, or romantic. Let's face it: it was hokey.

brandoni / May 29, 2003 1:37 PM

Essentially, I didn't have a problem with Reloaded at all. It's a typical second act: granted, I'm not sure that it did as great a job with its narrative and foreshadowing as it could have, but I'm reserving final judgment until Revolutions. (Warning: Reloaded Spoilers follow, as do my thoughts on Revolutions... which could be spoilers if I'm right.)

The action was big and bombastic to cater to the people who liked the big and bombastic (and balletic) action of the first. The story details presented some fascinating lines of inquiry, in my opinion, not only for what's to come but for what's come previously.

Was it just me, or were the Oracle's eyes each a different color? If that's the case, does that symbolize a relationship with the Architect, whose eyes were each of a different color?

The biggest question, though, Matrix fans should be asking themselves is, "How are Neo and Co. going to free everyone still inside?" I mean, it's obvious that those in Zion are going to succeed against the machines, but will this be a story where 6 billion lives are sacrificed so that 200,000 (assuming 50,000 are slaughtered by the machines - a reasonable number, I think, considering the size and strength of the assault force) will live?

This is Hollywood, afterall, and, moreover, the bros. Wachowski are telling a comic book story. I have a very hard time believing that a mind blowing, ultra happy ending isn't in store for us all - one in which Neo saves both those plugged into the matrix and those in Zion. And I suspect that Agent Smith is the key to the solution.

My theory is a simple one: Morpheus said in the first movie that no mind can be freed from the consensus reality of the Matrix until it's ready. Agent Smith is a viral agent - capable of rapidly replication itself. Not only is Smith a threat to Neo, he is a threat to the individual constituents of the Matrix and, more importantly, to the Matrix itself. Afterall, if Smith were to, hypothetically, consume the entire population of the Matrix, his reality would overwhelm and subsume) the consensus reality established by the 6 billion individuals still plugged-in (of course, Smith would still probably be operating within the parameters that the Architect created).

But imagine the following scenario: Smith successfully consumes all. Neo merges with Smith as he did at the end of Film one and overwhelms Smith. Neo would become the defining consciousness - then, he could find a way to gradually ease the plugged-in population into the reality of the un-plugged world. (Afterall, freeing 6 Billion from their bio-static prisons would be a logistical nightmare for the 200,000+ of Zion...)

So, that's my theory as to how Revolutions will wrap up.

rebecca / May 30, 2003 1:00 PM

No. No. No, no, no, no, no.

No.

Naz / May 30, 2003 2:54 PM

No? No.