My verdict on the Matrix Reloaded ensues. First, the bad stuff:
1. The easiest criticism to make: waaaaayyyy too many new characters. It's hard to care about someone when you've only seen them for a total of maybe five minutes. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever for Jada Pinkett's character to be in the movie (at least the way it's edited; I'm sure there's more on the cutting room floor), just for one example. This is, I think, the "Star Wars Prequel Syndrome" that people have occasionally mentioned. The only new character I felt *anything* at all for was Link; I liked his reaction shots that were intercut into the fight scenes. The Architect is a great idea but woefully underused; hopefully we'll see more of him in the next one. The Merovingian's accent is so thick I couldn't understand half of what he said. The ghost guys, while a neat idea, suffer from Darth Maul syndrome.....they're just not around long enough to actually be established as a menacing presence. But they sure do look cool.
2. The really major criticism: the exposition scenes are far too long and static. I watched the original matrix the night before I saw reloaded, and it's quite clever how the wachowskis make the exposition scenes visually interesting and explanatory. They completely fail to do this in reloaded. People standing around talking does not make for a compelling scene, *especially* when your senses have just been completely assaulted by incredibly intense action scenes. Frankly, the exposition is just spoken in reams of dialogue that goes by way too fast to understand. Compare the "desert of the real" scene in the first movie, where as Morpheus explains the true nature of the matrix and of the real world to Neo, the visuals help him along (the blackened skies, the fields of fetuses, the duracell battery), to the scene between Neo and the Architect in the video room at the end of reloaded. I'm fairly certain that what the Architect said is interesting and makes sense, but I'll probably have to go read the script to find out exactly what he said, because the dialogue just goes too fast and the visuals are static point of view closeups, back and forth, back and forth. *Nothing* interesting is going on here, and it's incredibly hard to concentrate on the words. This scene is so hard to understand, in fact, that if you read a review where the critic claims that the philosophy in the movie is half-baked, you know they're lying, because there's no way they could possibly know that after one screening. This also raises the question of just what this type of critic wants out of a movie: did he or she seriously expect to see a film version of Kant's critique of pure reason, or what?
Now for the good:
1. The action will turn your brain to jelly. Yes, if you've been raised in this digital age, you'll say that some of the cgi stuff looks really fake (Neo's CGI coat has noticeably much less texture than the real one, as an example). But the physics are quite good (unlike, for example, Spiderman), and you know what? The taun-taun in Empire looked real fake too, as did the snow beast, but they were still fucking cool. And the actors are much better fighters this time around (don't know if that's due to training or more use of body doubles, but I don't actually care), and the car chase is completely incredible, and the medieval weapons fight in the french chateau was just awesome. So there.
2. Agent Smith has solidified his place as my favorite movie villain of all time. I'm completely serious. Everytime he shows up on screen I am filled with evil glee. The cloning himself thing is both hilarious and incredibly creepy, which is a combination that I haven't really experienced much since the evil dead movies.
3. I'm positive that the movie will be much better the second time I see it, and better than that the third, and so forth. It just has that feel about it. Considering that the first movie relied on your complete bewilderment about what was really going on to generate much of its interest, it's remarkable that they've managed to give you a good bit of that again in a sequel. I have a theory that what the architect explains at the end of the movie and what Neo does at the very end both fit in with what I had guessed would be the relationship between the matrix and real world after watching the last one about a hundred times, but I'll have to see it a few more times to make sure.
One criticism that I've read in various places that I'd like to take issue with is the "orgy" scene. People say it's completely out of place and cheesy. To which I say: well, it does run way too long, but it both shows exactly what the humans are fighting for, and also meshes nicely with the communal mob psychology demonstrated in Morpheus's speech, which is creepily reminiscent of a Nazi rally. The abandonment of thought for sensation is also an obvious parallel to the matrix itself; maybe if there had been a few more orgies in Zion, Cypher wouldn't have done what he did in the first movie. Ponder that the next time you think about the supposed individualism of the humans as compared to the AIs they're fighting against.
Okay, that's it. I'm tired. More thoughts as they occur.
1. The easiest criticism to make: waaaaayyyy too many new characters. It's hard to care about someone when you've only seen them for a total of maybe five minutes. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever for Jada Pinkett's character to be in the movie (at least the way it's edited; I'm sure there's more on the cutting room floor), just for one example. This is, I think, the "Star Wars Prequel Syndrome" that people have occasionally mentioned. The only new character I felt *anything* at all for was Link; I liked his reaction shots that were intercut into the fight scenes. The Architect is a great idea but woefully underused; hopefully we'll see more of him in the next one. The Merovingian's accent is so thick I couldn't understand half of what he said. The ghost guys, while a neat idea, suffer from Darth Maul syndrome.....they're just not around long enough to actually be established as a menacing presence. But they sure do look cool.
2. The really major criticism: the exposition scenes are far too long and static. I watched the original matrix the night before I saw reloaded, and it's quite clever how the wachowskis make the exposition scenes visually interesting and explanatory. They completely fail to do this in reloaded. People standing around talking does not make for a compelling scene, *especially* when your senses have just been completely assaulted by incredibly intense action scenes. Frankly, the exposition is just spoken in reams of dialogue that goes by way too fast to understand. Compare the "desert of the real" scene in the first movie, where as Morpheus explains the true nature of the matrix and of the real world to Neo, the visuals help him along (the blackened skies, the fields of fetuses, the duracell battery), to the scene between Neo and the Architect in the video room at the end of reloaded. I'm fairly certain that what the Architect said is interesting and makes sense, but I'll probably have to go read the script to find out exactly what he said, because the dialogue just goes too fast and the visuals are static point of view closeups, back and forth, back and forth. *Nothing* interesting is going on here, and it's incredibly hard to concentrate on the words. This scene is so hard to understand, in fact, that if you read a review where the critic claims that the philosophy in the movie is half-baked, you know they're lying, because there's no way they could possibly know that after one screening. This also raises the question of just what this type of critic wants out of a movie: did he or she seriously expect to see a film version of Kant's critique of pure reason, or what?
Now for the good:
1. The action will turn your brain to jelly. Yes, if you've been raised in this digital age, you'll say that some of the cgi stuff looks really fake (Neo's CGI coat has noticeably much less texture than the real one, as an example). But the physics are quite good (unlike, for example, Spiderman), and you know what? The taun-taun in Empire looked real fake too, as did the snow beast, but they were still fucking cool. And the actors are much better fighters this time around (don't know if that's due to training or more use of body doubles, but I don't actually care), and the car chase is completely incredible, and the medieval weapons fight in the french chateau was just awesome. So there.
2. Agent Smith has solidified his place as my favorite movie villain of all time. I'm completely serious. Everytime he shows up on screen I am filled with evil glee. The cloning himself thing is both hilarious and incredibly creepy, which is a combination that I haven't really experienced much since the evil dead movies.
3. I'm positive that the movie will be much better the second time I see it, and better than that the third, and so forth. It just has that feel about it. Considering that the first movie relied on your complete bewilderment about what was really going on to generate much of its interest, it's remarkable that they've managed to give you a good bit of that again in a sequel. I have a theory that what the architect explains at the end of the movie and what Neo does at the very end both fit in with what I had guessed would be the relationship between the matrix and real world after watching the last one about a hundred times, but I'll have to see it a few more times to make sure.
One criticism that I've read in various places that I'd like to take issue with is the "orgy" scene. People say it's completely out of place and cheesy. To which I say: well, it does run way too long, but it both shows exactly what the humans are fighting for, and also meshes nicely with the communal mob psychology demonstrated in Morpheus's speech, which is creepily reminiscent of a Nazi rally. The abandonment of thought for sensation is also an obvious parallel to the matrix itself; maybe if there had been a few more orgies in Zion, Cypher wouldn't have done what he did in the first movie. Ponder that the next time you think about the supposed individualism of the humans as compared to the AIs they're fighting against.
Okay, that's it. I'm tired. More thoughts as they occur.
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and awesome profile pic. get back to you later, dawg.