The Matrix:
Reloaded
okay, so i just got back from seeing The Matrix: Reloaded. definitely go and see this movie, but NOT if you haven’t already seen the first one. you’ll be a little confused if you haven’t seen that one before seeing this one. it would probably help if you’d seen The Animatrix, particularly “The Last Flight of the Osiris,” but as it doesn’t get released until June, tough shit.
if i happen to say anything that i think might just ruin it for you, i’ll put it into a box with the code from the Matrix scrolling down. if you have already seen the film, or want to know what i’m going to reveal (which won’t be too much), just swipe your mouse over the box and you’ll see the text.
i’ll rate the spoiler factor 1-9, with 9 being “don’t read this unless you insist.”
okay… on with the review…
don’t read any farther until the image is loaded in, or you might just accidentally read something you don’t want to know about just yet.
and 3…
2…
1…
sorry for making this long. i have to.
you could have swallowed The Blue Pill, you know.
oh, you might want to read this first: an excellent non-spoiler review from tyrsalvia.
this movie is phenomenal. but not the life-altering event that the first one was. it will blow your mind a little bit, but not enough to make you walk (like a leather-draped badass) out of the theatre thinking to yourself “I’m The One” like the first one did. having said that, whereas the original movie asked the question, ‘what is reality?’, this one asks,
‘what is choice? is there fate, or freewill?’
one other thing i noticed is that while the first one took its cues from comic books, this film
seems a lot more like a video game… particularly like an RPG, in fact.
the very first thing that i noticed, however, was that the first rule of movie quality is followed:
if you see a “party” scene, a “dance” scene, or a sex scene that lasts more than 5 seconds, the director(s) have nothing of any value to say, at least for the time being. and you actually get all three at once here.
…but luckily, it only lasted for five whole fucking minutes, and later scenes more than made up for this unfortunate lapse in directorial judgment.
the action was fast and furious, and more than once became a little too obviously digitally-enhanced. suspension of disbelief, however, was not a serious problem for me, and i’m a real zealot about that sort of stuff. unbelievable, yes, but in a really cool, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sort of way (the same team did the wire-work on both films).
about Agent Smith
why he is even in this one is beyond me, but he does more or less set up the next movie. the question, though, is why is he even bothering? (you’ll see what i mean by “bothering” when you see it – it makes no sense, unless you can believe that programs can have vendettas.)
Tank? Link?
fan-favorite (and gaydar exploder) Tank has been killed off between movies (there’s a 6 month lapse in the story). the actor who played him in the first movie demanded too much money, so instead we have a new character named Link, who seems to only serve as an applause-sign-made-flesh, because his only real role is to provide comical reactions to the action onscreen. still, he is pretty cool.
the traffic scene was mind-blowing.
the big scene where Neo saves the day, on the other hand, was trite and contrived. i almost laughed.
the crucial scene was where i got lost. i’ll have to see it again, because i missed something there. i got distracted from thinking too damn much about
the mind-warping implications that are suddenly forced on you almost all at once.
and that’s about all i’ll say about it for now.
definitely not quite as brain-melting as the last one; more visual, however, and well worth multiple viewings.
definitely stay past the credits (which span five songs!) after you hear the Dave Matthews song (yes, THAT Dave Matthews… it’s not his usual material), you get to see a trailer for Matrix: Revolutions, due out in six months. very, very cool!!
