Hey folks, Harry here... Well, lest I leave you this weekend with only the soiled panties of Neill Cumpston's crotchmuffin... I'd never do that to you. Instead I've got two new reviews of MATRIX RELOADED to fry that brain of yours. Now, while Neill was apparently made a 3 foot indentation in a brick wall with his skull while writing his review, both of these reviews are far more sober than his. In fact, both are a let-down a bit. The first is a link to Ronald Epstein and his HomeTheaterForum.com. Now you may recall that Ron ends up giving the near the first review of just about every Hollywood spectacle down the pike over the years. He seems really put off that the story seemed to take such a radical back door to action. For example:
"The story is no longer thought-provoking. You no longer care for its characters and the thus, the film no longer reaches out to your emotions. The film just seems to drag on for the entire first hour, looking more like a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome entry than a sci-fi flick, with long stretches of dialogue that seem to go on forever."
For the rest of his review, click on that link above, meanwhile our own pirate of the silver screen, Captain Morgan got in, and while his jaw was cracked on the ground, he said the experience of seeing this one was... well, just not up the the standard of that first MATRIX experience. The following is spoiler-free....
Hello,
I imagine that your site will be innundated with RELOADED reviews over the course of the next few weeks (exhibitor screenings are proliferating across the country). I figured I'd drop you a line before the overkill settles in. I will keep my views concerning this badass extravaganza relatively succinct (and spoiler-free) due to the fact that I have to meet some pals for an X2 matinee in a little bit.
In a nutshell, THE MATRIX RELOADED delivers on pretty much every level. Everything you could want in an ass-kicking summer juggernaut is on display. It is the proverbial exception to the rule that all Hollywood event movies that are released between May and August have to be safe, routine, formulaic, derivative, and bastardized. It really is a thing of beauty to witness the aesthetic evolution of the Wachowski brothers. With RELOADED, they've turned badass cinema into an art form.
That being said, I'd like to state for the record that as jaw-droppingly cool as the middle installment is, seeing the original MATRIX for the first time was a more memorable experience. We were all stoked to see the first one in 1999 after the succession of cool promotional materials came out, but I think I speak for the majority when I say that we were blindsided by how imaginatively kickass it was to experience the phenomenon for the first time. The thrill in discovering that filmwas something special indeed. It was inevitable that sequels would follow and that expectations would be astronomical. Even though RELOADED's visual effects and action sequences are light years ahead of what we saw in part one, the first one is adorned with a magic and an essence that is nearly impossible to duplicate. That's merely my personal opinion; I'm sure there will be an innumerable amount of people who feel that this is above and beyond what was introduced in the first installment.
RELOADED is an absolute blast from beginning to end, but there are two segments of it in particular that are the apotheosis of badass filmmaking: the burly brawl and the freeway chase. It boggles the mind to think about the amount of time, energy, and resources that were dedicated toward crafting these two scenes into the brilliant spectacles that they are. The glimpses of these two scenes in the trailers don't even scratch the surface of how mickey frickin' amazing they are to witness on the big screen. The visual ingenuity of these scenes are the stuff of badass legend.
Neo? Fucking untouchable. When the WB finally makes the new SUPERMAN, the creative team will find that they have a tough act to follow (re: flying). Keanu is the shit, no question about it. Morpheus? Stoic, insightful, idealistic...with a genuine pair of cojones; Fishburne is a god. Trinity? Arguably the best kick-ass female character since Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. The beautiful Moss also brings a lot of depth and emotion to the milieu. The supporting characters are all fine as well, with Jada being the standout. The action scenes are exhilirating and polished, but in the respites between the carnage a lot of philosophical and metaphysical topics are pondered.
A few reservations: a lot of stuff is left intentionally vague and/or convoluted, presumably because RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS are basically a continuum. Also, the cliffhanger ending was a little anticlimactic (it didn't induce goose bumps, a la Neo soaring into the sky after giving the Matrix the admonition). And, as much as I relished the evil coolness of the twins, their role in the grand scheme of the film is brief and maybe a little inconsequential. By the same token, as cool as it was to see Hugo Weaving back as Agent Smith, the character didn't have a whole lot to do other than initiate the burly brawl and set up some hinted-at developments in REVOLUTIONS. Minor gripes, mind you, that are predicated due to the astronomical expectations.
Like I said before, it delivers on pretty much every level and it does a great job of expanding the mythology that was introduced in the first one. Above everything else, RELOADED proves, beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt, that the Wachowskis are the real deal. As much as I can't wait to see REVOLUTIONS, I'm even more excited to see what they do post-MATRIX. We should all feel fortunate and appreciative that there are, in fact, some people in Hollywood who have the balls to make a cerebral, badass (ie R-rated) spectacle like this during the summer when the standard we've become accustomed to is lame, focus group-driven crap that opens huge and suffers 60% drops at the box office in each successive week before it vanishes. Thank you, Andy and Larry, and thank you Warner Bros.
Any doubt that you may have had about whether or not 2003 is the year of the Matrix should officially be jettisoned. After you see RELOADED, remind yourself that November is only six short months away.
-Captain Morgan \~/
Hey folks, honk honk, harry here with Rufus T Firefly, aoooogah... and he's got a real juicy and mainly spoiler free, though he tells more than the above review! Here ya go...
[Hey, guys, if you use this call me Rufus T. Firefly]
I got a chance to catch a little indie flick this morning at the beautiful Angelika in Dallas, called "The Matrix:Reloaded". If you don't care about plot or any details just know this:
*This movie kicks ass
*It will probably confuse the hell out of a lot of people
I read Neill's review and he pretty much nailed how I felt when I walked out of this one. This movie is a monster. I love movies like this: as soon as you walk out of it, you end up discussing it with your friends for the next three hours.
The plot is simple: In the real world, sentinels are approaching Zion. A lot of sentinels, like 250,000, "one for every man, woman and child in Zion". There's this commander with a real stick up his ass who thinks that every ship should be pulled back to defend this city. Morpheus, of course, thinks that this is not necessary, because Neo is the one who can save them all. There's this old council dude (oh yeah, apparently the city is governed by a council of elders) who allows Morpheus to take his ship to broadcast depth, because Neo has finally been contacted once again by the oracle. Morpheus believes that she will tell Neo how to end the war.
Of course, that would be waaaaay too easy. Once Neo meets with the oracle, he encounters Agent Smith, who has "been set free". In other words, he no longer is bound to follow any orders from the Matrix mainframe, or whatever. Apparently, when an agent fucks up or dies like Smith did in the first movie, he is supposed to be deleted. Instead of allowing this to happen, Smith "disobeyed orders" and ran off. Smith can also copy himself by sticking his hands into someone else, and out pops another Smith. His whole purpose now is to kill Neo, purely for revenge.
So, after Neo fights 100 agent Smiths and kicks their asses, he does what the oracle tells him: He must find the Key Maker, another former program of the Matrix who is being held by yet ANOTHER former program of the Matrix. It seems that there are a lot of programs that should have been deleted, but they managed to evade destruction by the agents.
Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo go to find this rogue program (I forgot his name, but he's the french dude) and suprise suprise, he doesn't want to give up the Key Maker. (By the way, what this guy can do with a slice of pie I can only dream of! You'll see.) So, this is where the big car chase ensues, with lots of bullets and swords and exploding 18 wheelers, as the three heroes try to get the Key Maker out of harm's way.
Then it gets complicated.
I don't want to spoil any suprises, but there is a point in the third act where Neo learns the answer to everything, and this is where I said FUUUUUUCK. This is a pretty shocking twist, but it will probably end up confusing people. Then there is yet another kick ass action sequence, and then the movie brings you to a jarring halt with "TO BE CONCLUDED".
The action scenes are better than anything you can imagine. I was a little sad to see the twins have so little screen time, but it's a minor gripe. They spend a lot of time setting up Zion, which was cool, because it really helps to expand the whole "Matrix" universe. Just when it seems there is too much exposition going on, we get jolted to another awesome fighting scene.
My only other gripe is that I sat through 5 minutes of closing credits to see 2 minutes of footage from Revolutions, but I still can't wait for November...
Rufus T. Firefly
