Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Good lord, from the way people are acting in our chat room and on the talkbacks, you’d think Harry went on a rampage, killing everyone’s mothers.
I understand to a degree... some of you guys have been waiting for these movies for a while now, and it’s really, really important to you that the films deliver the goods. Harry had problems with the scale of the imagination in the film. I’m probably not going to see the movie until Thursday afternoon, but I’m looking forward to it. I enjoy all of what I’ve seen so far, and I think I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. In the meantime, I’m going to keep reading all the reviews you guys send in, positive and negative, because I’m curious to see how it sits with you.
Besides, as Morpheus said, “No one can be told what the Matrix is.” You’ll all end up seeing it for yourselves, just like I will tonight. For one of our regular chatters (who has actually seen it twice already, rotten bastard), the film more than delivered, and I thought I’d share his review with you, since he seems to have liked it quite a bit:
QTN's Review for "The Matrix Reloaded"
I'm a fan of the first MATRIX. Wait, let me rephrase that. I'm a FANATIC of that movie. So after I saw the original movie on the saturday night of the film's opening weekend in April 1999, and learned a few weeks and months later that a sequel was being made, I becamed more pumped than Mark McGwire with steroids.
Anyhow, from that first moment I saw the MATRIX to four years later now, I read every report and other data that came to AICN and other movie sites, just digesting it and waiting for it. Of course when the news came that not one, but TWO sequels were being made, I became more estatic. I so remember the waiting, because I remember in summer 2001 when the bad news(to me) came when the sequels were delayed from summer/fall 2002 to 2003, I got pissed, but eventually got over it. I even remember the deaths of Aaliyah and Gloria Foster, which both seemed to have come out of nowwhere, and I even remember when the titles of the sequels were announced...and I honestly felt they were LAME, but now I dig 'em. I mean people, do you all remember the other *supposedly* considered title, MATRIX 2.0? Believe it or not I thought that was a good title back then....I was very dumb back then.
Getting to the point, while I can't say how, I was able to see RELOADED last friday in Tennessee. Yes, in TENNESSEE. Anyway, with a friend that got access to the reel while working at a film distribution center. So I saw RELOADED, and here is what I think.
It SUCKED. It Disapointed me. I hope The Wachowski Brothers will burn in hell for making me waste 4 years of my life geeking over this!
By the way, did you know I lie alot?
Actually, I loved it.
But some things to point out.
If you didn't like the first MATRIX, and/or didn't get it, you won't get RELOADED. I think thats the problem over some of these online reviews that cite their confusion about RELOADED.
I mean, does anyone remember all the MATRIX reviews that were sent to AICN back in 1999? They were all over the place like they are so far for RELOADED, and like back then, many cited confusion.
Anyway, fuck 'em.
Moving on, I loved all the fights and stunts, of course the 14 MINUTE car chase sequence, which....just....kicked my fat ass.
While many cite that the so called "Burly Brawl" was too CGI fake, I hate to say this but.....DUH how would they have done something like this? I mean many geeks at AICN still moan about how HULK looks fake...yet I know 5 months from now they will bitch and waste time by saying how it kicked ass, blah blah blah.
Point is, the "Brawl" was INDEED amazing shit. And to think that many of the parts of the sequence were totally CGI......amazing.
The Twins....man they were great...amazing...too bad they had shorter screen time than they deserved. Kinda like Darth Maul....except the Twins would mop the floor with that dufus.
While I was amazed by all the highly technical stunts and fights, what I really wanted to see in the sequels, for all those 4 years that I could have made more friends and maybe gotten laid more, I wanted to see the last free city for mankind...ZION, and well Neo as the One....becoming the badass mother fucker the ending of the first MATRIX promised.
And yes RELOADED does all this.
Zion was amazing...the part about the caverns though I wasn't super impressed about, but alot of Zion mixed with the caverns and the inner metal center of the city was cool. Especially how all the ships of Zion land and dock there.
As for Neo...wow. I mean, that soundbite in the RELOADED tv spot saying "he's doing his Superman thing" is dead on. I was amazed by all the things he was able to do, like his flying at full speed, him stopping all the thousands of bullets being fired at him with ease(done by FX by the way that has improved DRAMATICALLY from the same type of sequence in the first MATRIX). I especially dug how he "launched" himself into flight mode, as seen in the trailer.
One criticism I've read in some of these reviews is that theres a plot hole about how Neo could have just flown off before getting into the fight with Agent Smith. That's silly. Actually, I understood why he didn't, I mean, if you were just like Superman, seemingly invincible, and having jumped into Agent Smith and blowing him up like some Troll doll at the end of first MATRIX, wouldn't you think you could handle him again?
Really, for the film itself, I can only really compare this to TWO TOWERS, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART 2, and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Why?
THE TWO TOWERS abd THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK were both, seperate from their brothers in their trilogies, independently GREAT.
BACK TO THE FUTURE 2, while decent and had an interesting idea about the downside of corruptly using time traveling, it really was not an independent member of the family, more like a 3rd arm or something, and really was more of a "set-up" for BACK TO THE FUTURE 3.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK really kinda turned on your head on what you had known from A NEW HOPE, everything from turning our perception that Luke Skywalker has got "it"(I guess) after blowing up the Deathstar to showing how little he knows, and much MORE he will have to learn and grasp to handle the Force, with this point of course pointed out by his scenes with Yoda and the climatic battle against Darth Vader. ESB also showed that while the Rebellion seemed to be on top of the Empire after destroying the Deathstar, they were still struggling in their fight for freedom, as shown with their defeat at Hoth.
THE MATRIX RELOADED is like all three points. While the movie on its own is independently good, it also seemed like really a set-up, or foreplay, to what seems to be the orgasmic climax that will be THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS,(I mean this is added by the "TO BE CONTINUED..." title card).
RELOADED is not, and really could not be, the same emotional impact as the first MATRIX was. That's almost impossible, and this really what BTTF 2 had to deal with.
One complaint, if any, is that RELOADED is slow in many places with exposition, but this really didn't bother me too bad.
However, problems aside, as a MATRIX fan, I dug RELOADED, and my friend, whos seen it twice including my screening, says RELOADED is better the 2nd time around.
I can NOT wait for MATRIX REVOLUTIONS...and that $40 million+ plus 17 minute climatic sequence.
By the way, here is some possible SPOILER stuff...
*The spoiler twist at the end of RELOADED is indeed true, and while I had known what the spoiler was, since my friend had seen RELOADED before he showed it to me and my other friendly citizens of Zion and told me about it, the twist still hit me like after drinking spoiled milk or something.
*My friend made an interesting discovery. In the back of the room of the Architect, with all the monitors, has been seen before. Remember those monitors that the camera zoomed through to see the Neo-Agent Smith interogation in the first MATRIX? Same monitors!
*If you happened to get a glimpse of all these robot-type people with guns....they actually are battle suits that the people of Zion wear to protect the city from the invading Sentinels, especially after all the ships protecting Zion were destroyed. Really groovy, and hopefully we will see more of them in REVOLUTIONS.
*Remember when I saw RELOADED was like EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in that both really turned on what you had learned from their previous installments? Well, in first MATRIX, Morpheus was shown as kinda as a John the Baptist, being correct with his beliefs and all. In RELOADED, this perception is indeed challenged. I mean, its not totally certain if Morpheus indeed sane or not. This same perception turning happens with the Oracle.
* The trailer for MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, shown after the credits of MATRIX RELOADED, is great. It's dark and amazing...and surely will be R rated. To give an idea of it, imagined if Ridley Scott had done some martial arts-involved sequences in BLADE RUNNER. It's that type of darkness, especially in what appears to be the club.
*Just to confirm, Neo does kiss that Persophone(spelled right?). Just FYI.
*By the way, the people at Coming Attractions by Corona had told their subscribers of their very-short lived e-mail newspaper the supposed "twist" of both RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS. I won't tell you, but lets just say that at least HALF of this "twist" actually turned out to be true. Will the other half be true? Stay tuned till November...and I repeat I WILL NOT tell what the other half of that spoiler is.
Thanks for your attention folks. Have a good day wasting your life one minute at a time.
--QTN
Nice one. I think between all the positives and all the negatives I’ve heard, I’m ready to walk into this one and just let it be whatever it is. I have no expectations one way or another. I'm seeing all nine ANIMATRIX shorts tonight at the Egyptian on the bigscreen at 9:00, and then I'm headed to the Vista Theater for the 12:30 show of RELOADED. I'll be back here with my take on things right after. Until then...
"Moriarty" out.
