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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Matrix: Reloaded

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Matthew Fluxington

19:28 / 20.04.03

Oh come on. I was being awfully fair - would you rather me judge Tool by their music? That would be quite a lot more harsh, I can promise you.

14:25 / 21.04.03

Well, this thread seems to have gone a bit off-topic -- and all I can say about Matrix: RELOADED is that it looks really good, and Monica Bellucci guarantees my attendance even more than the promise of a great sequel to the original. That is all.

12:49 / 23.04.03

Agreed. It looks less dumb than the first, but dumb still. I noticed Bellucci in the last trailer... what's she supposed to be doing? Probably the fell-in-love-late-with-hero-and-then-die-heroically-protecting-him...

14:42 / 23.04.03

Bellucci plays an evil temptress, sort of a psychic/emotional vampire who fucks with Neo. Sexy gorgeous Italian model who's one of the most beautiful, sensual women in the world as a sexy temptress? Sounds good to me.

And yes, it might very well play out the way you predict, Seb. I get the idea that she starts evil, falls for Neo, and maybe turns good at the very end.

15:56 / 23.04.03

Belluci plays a psychic/emotional vampire who fucks with Neo

(Gasp! Choke!! Cough! Gasp! BUMP!!)

...

11:57 / 24.04.03

HA! A bit off-topic, but I dreamt las'night with a by now familiar couple of vampires. The vamp-girl was a perfect clone of Milla Jovovich. I was going to impregnate with fuel and then burn the fucking den which was making me restless, but in the end I let her go.

13:02 / 24.04.03

after reading the comments on the new matrix movies, i kinda feel like partof the minority because i really am looking foward to reloaded and revolutions. i'm a bit wary about having too large expectations, but any film that has had so much effort poured into it. with all the cast seemingly totally enthusiastic and genuinely excited, there has to be something good there!!!!

13:35 / 24.04.03

Bakewell, I don't agree with most of the negative opinions about the Matrix on this thread. You are not alone! Sure it's taken from many sources, but SO IS EVERY adventure/fantasy story ever done, practically. I don't think that's reason to get all nay-saying about the first movie (which I think is completely terrific) and the sequels (which look great, a damn sight better than shitty STAR WARS: EPISODES I, II and III). And I feel I have very discriminating tastes. Don't let the Matrix haters get you down!!!!

10:34 / 01.05.03

A review... of sorts.

Here

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

14:19 / 01.05.03

Read the script, and liked it a lot.

I reckon the Matrix is beautifully art directed and basic classic comic book action fare. Sorry i can't think of anything pithy or deconstructionist to say.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

14:33 / 01.05.03

Oh, hold on, I got something - what kind of fucking moron criticises a story for borrowing elements from various sources and rebranding them as its own??

Duh. Seven basic tales in the world and all that. Grow up, for Chrissakes. Having a contrary opinion doesn't make you seem intelligent to anyone past the age of eight.

21:34 / 01.05.03

My complaint isn't about the ripping of ideas. It's about the ripping of existing film techniques and claiming that you invented them. That's as bad as Lucas refusing to release the original Star Wars trilogy in its original form: it shows utter disrespect for the creative minds that came before.

10:02 / 02.05.03

My personal take on the Matrix and its children is that its sole and primary merit lies in its ability to communicate ideas to the masses. It is pretty obvious that there's nothing new thematically, philosophically, idea-lly in the movie that has not been explored since Plato and his cave, but what makes this piece of marketing, technical wizardry and flash-bang-woohoo piece of pop culture so valuable is that it brings complex ideas to the mainstream in a simple, digestible and enjoyable manner. 'McEnlightenment', if you please.

But the rest of it just sucks.

19:46 / 02.05.06

OMG, watching it on ITV, it really is awful. The dialogue is gobsmakingly appalling, and that bloody rave scene... fuckeye.

22:12 / 02.05.06

This about sums it up.

22:35 / 02.05.06

The highway sequence is about the only good thing in it. But for some reason, I quite like it...

23:57 / 02.05.06

I still really enjoy it. It's undermined somewhat by the fact that the third film utterly fails to address any of the interesting issue raised here, but any Invisibles fan who can't admit to enjoying the appearance of the architect is lying to themselves. That's the closest we'll get to John a Dreams on film.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:09 / 03.05.06

It's posts like that that make it hard for me to identify as an "Invisibles fan" without experiencing feelings of shame, guilt and disgust.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:20 / 03.05.06

Jason King is the closest thing we will see on screen to Mister Six, so unless you like Department S you are lying to yourself.

Jawsus-son Starship

08:16 / 03.05.06

Does anyone else pretend that the last two films never happened. It just ended with the first film and all was good.

I had an idea for what they should have done with the Matrix. Every couple of years a film should be released and publicised as just a normal crime/action/horror - whatever film, except none of the reviews talk about the film much past the half hour mark. When you turn up to watch it, it's a pretty much standard say, Bank Robbery Hostage film until maybe you see an Agent in the crowd of police outside the bank. And then maybe one of the robbers uses flo-mo and takes out a whole swat team. And then Neo turns up. And we've got another Matrix film.

10:05 / 03.05.06

I always thought that they shot themselves in the foot by having machines vs humans being the key of it all. Neo's cracked the code, he can rewrite the matrix while inside, he can bend the reality of it all - it would have been loads better if it was humans vs humans - stay in the matrix, have a load of people inside equally up to the task, having all out war, one group to free the masses, one to keep the lie going, the machines sit back and don't get involved. To be honest the real world looks shiter with each film. 1. das boot silent running style fear and dredgery, 2. a place where Neo and Trinity have to wait to be alone before they can kiss, immenent death has to be announced before the people can relax, and a bunch of stuffy old men argue with military types with cod gravitas about religion and mechanics. 3. er, dead really, and then there's some sunlight.

Of the three films, there are moments I like a lot.
1. The first film is still very good
2. The higway scene in two is breathtaking, and the multi-smith fight is the closest that a film as got to a superhero fight.
3. The bit where they clear the clouds and see the sunlight was about the only good bit of the 3rd film IMO.

10:16 / 03.05.06

I hate that multi-Smith fight. It lacks any drama in that no-one ever seems to be actually fighting for their life and it looks just like a computer game. It's one the best examples of (bad) style over substance I can think of.

Another horrible thing about Reloaded (not more horrible than the rave scene, but then what is?) is the way the characters, especially Morpheus and Smith, become utter caricatures.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:27 / 03.05.06

The highway chase is rubbish as well. No sense that these vehicles are physical objects, no heft or weight to any of it. Of course, they're not physical objects, but I doubt that was deliberate.

Everything about 2nd film = shitty, and this shittiness feeds back into the first making it much harder to enjoy.

10:28 / 03.05.06

I don't know what you mean Miiiisssssssss-ttteeeerrr Boooooo Bossssssssssssssssssssssssssss

10:42 / 03.05.06

I reckon in a couple of years we can get the TRUE sequels where its revealed that the second two films all take place in Neo's mind when he gets shot in the corridor by Smmith in the first film.

Nwo can then get up and kick arse in a much more satisfying way.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:59 / 03.05.06

Funnily enough, I bought that completel box set thingy the other week, cos it was twenty quid and I figured it was worth it for a nice, box, a good film and a few good scenes (and the cartoons).

Strangely, I've watched the first one, and have yet to actually be arsed to watch the good scenes from the others.

11:25 / 03.05.06

Anyone who hasn´t seen Kung Fu Hustle yet, do so immediately. It´s a fun flick, hilarious and the action is over the top.

And they did a cool persiflage of the multi-Smith fight, that puts the original to shame. You have to see it to believe it.

11:58 / 03.05.06

or not - kung fu hussle = not as good as everyone says.

yawn - thing's buddy

12:30 / 03.05.06

well I watched it again last night - first time since the cinema three years ago - and thought it stood up very well indeed.

yeah - the key scenes are computer games writ large for hollywood - multiple smiths, sword fighting in halls, freeway chase . . .

. . .and that's what makes it for me.

It's still the best depiction of superman so far as well, as far as I'm concerned. The car chase/freeway chase/whatever is the best of its kind. better than bullit, better than french connection, better than blues...okay, equal with blues brothers (!) really, flyboy's comments are hard to take - regarding the quality of this portion of the film - I can't quite beleive he'd be so down on this.

also, the matrix - the virtual earth we're all supposed to be living in - well I love how in reloaded, it's been deadened, made lifeless, made green and dark and hollow. there's no pretence anymore regarding its veracity and it resembles a simulation more than ever. That's a nice touch by the production design team.

finally, the dance, rave, fuck party - surprisingly, cos i usually hate such scenes, this worked for me too. first up, I like the sentiment of morph's speech; 'fuck the robots, let's party'. secondly, it's well acted by morpheus - and not a bad speech for a pulp movie, really it hits the notes - thirdly - I like the music - a sly riff on Slam's positive education from back in the day . . . 1993.

and then I've got to say, I enjoyed the scenes with the councillor, the architect, the wise old white 'men' who've grabbed a place in the future. . .

and yeah - it's got a black science 2 vibe going down as well - apologies to fly if this sullies his membership of the invisibles fan club.

revolutions is pure shite tho.

ps. opening trinity jump n shoot scene is standout - still - too. really really beautiful.

19:52 / 03.05.06

half watching the last one - kind of interested as I can't remember it too well, but kind of not, because I remember it being crap.

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