The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded
ok, so I know the title is supposed to mean "The Matrix, BAM, back for some more, BAM". The analogy to a reloaded gun is.. well, innappropriate. I'd say the gun was half loaded with bullets, half with blanks.
So it's been a while since I saw the movie. I thought maybe the residuals would settle in and make me want to see it again.. I was wrong. If it wasn't for this being a matrix film, I'd almost say it was B-a-d. And, by "matrix" film I mean light philosophy with overridingly in-your-face action. It's like socrates was born in asia, got punched one to many times as a kid, learned some kung fu, and spent the next twenty years of his life loosing brain cells and kicking proverbial butt. That doesn't really help explain the matrix, but I like that analogy, so I'm leaving it in. BAM
Ok, I'd summarize the matrix, but if you don't know it by now.. go watch some TLC or something. I heard they have some good interior design shows. I like the asian guy on Trading Spaces, myself.
Bada bing, so neo is back to kick, and punch, and listen to laurence fishburn spit epic lines like they were chewing tabacco. There's the first problem, everyone is "back". The movie spends no time getting us interested in these characters again. I was struggling to care about whether neo died or not. And when he's fighting all the rogue agents, it's like watching ants attack a christmas cookie. If I wanted to watch a fight scene like that I'd go outside and stare at the ground. That "heavily touted" action scene was a dissappointment.
Oh, and the rest were good. I'll give the movie the credit that the action was good. Maybe that's why I don't hate it, because the action is good.
But the action can't hide what I saw as a sore lack of epic-ness. After the first matrix revealing the world as naught, I expected more. In this movie, morpheus' lines just sound silly. He sounds like a street-corner crank rather than a prophet. "the end of the world is nigh! nigh! maybe tommorrow!"
Oh, and neo can fly. woopie. it's cool for a little while.
This is a very disconcerted review. I'll try and summarize. The first third fits into a category I call "boring". The character development is bland, the artistic attempts are laughable (c'mon, sex and dancing as parallels, duh. where'd that stupid music come from? and why are they jumping?). oh look, neo's butt.
The rest is alright, and I actually liked the ending sequence. But it's still no joy-fest on my part. In this instance, I'd say its true that they put most of the cool parts into the trailer. The car chase on the interstate was quite cool, but I was expecting it.
Maybe that's what ruined this movie, expectations. I had seen the matrix, I'd seen the trailers, I was expecting a rip-roaring actionfest with dark noir influences. The movie turned out to be a neato action movie that reveled in the "fun" effects (much like The One), and really only had a light spritual conversation with the original's atmosphere.
So what am I saying?... eh. That's my final verdict: eh.
Put together some guys who love flashy visuals on tight budgets with a couple extra millions, and they turn into arthouse wannabees with bruckheimer oozings. I'd almost say this movie was a ripoff of the original matrix if I hadn't known the directors and writers were the same.
Bah. Maybe revolutions will take the ending and make the whole duo worthwhile... eh
2.5 out of 4
A sidenote: if I hear one studio exec complaining that ticket sales were bad because of "internet downloads", I'm gonna take their well-fed butt to town. It seems that people are hiding mediocre sales in the wasteland of piracy, when in reality they just stem from half-knack product. Sure, I'll give them about 1,000 ticket sales lost to it, but that's nowhere near their estimates. Just think, if they say $50 million is lost to internet downloads, that means that the movie was pirated over 5 million times. c'mon, geeks see movies, they don't have much better to do. give them a movie worth seeing ten times, and they'll see it twenty (half at the theater, five times pirated, and five times on dvd).... end of rant |
