The Matrix Reloaded | | Cast : | Lambert Wilson, Harold Perrineau | | Director : | Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | May 15, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | September 14, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | The Matrix Downloads... | Content
 | After seeing THE MATRIX RELOADED, I am still enamored with Carrie-Anne Moss' "Trinity". More good news, many of the films set pieces are cool 'upgrades' from what was seen in the first film in the trilogy. From there, unfortunately, the good news begins to pale. Now, when the first MATRIX hit theatres, I missed the excitement, only catching it later on DVD. And with that first viewing I was hooked. After a few years, the first of 2 sequels is released. We are again reminded that we moviegoers live in the 'Matrix' and there are people out in the real world attempting to save us. (If you see one of our saviors on the street they will be wearing either form-fitting latex or floor length overcoats.)
That original film not only gave us great eye candy and technical advancements worth shouting about, but also left us intellectually stimulated as the story was 'revealed' rather than just told. What appeared to be a pot pourri of illogic and plot inconsistencies fell together into a cleverly cohesive event. But it appears the intellectual satisfaction ended with the first films credits. That's not to say there isn't a lot to think about, now you are forced to think about 'plot' contrivances rather then conceptual ideas. And those ideas are sorely missed, especially as RELOADED goes overboard in setting up the conflict that doesn't actually occur in the film. A large percentage involves the hidden city of "Zion" as it prepares for a big attack from the 'Sentinels.' And yet, the film ends before that attack begins. On a certain level, that is acceptable since we have the knowledge the filmmakers want to make the 2 sequels appear to be one long movie, it's just the many 'preparations' and 'discussions' about the battle are redundant, clichéd, boring and unnecessary to follow this particular film. Then again, the same people who hide behind the "it's one half of a longer movie" maligned the PHANTOM MENACE for pulling the same thing.
Zion itself starts out extremely promising as we see inside a stark white control room with extremely futuristic cognitive controls. But, we quickly learn that Zion is yet another Mad-Max world of decay and destruction seen in hundreds of Science Fiction Films from WATERWORLD back to PLANET OF THE APES. Reloaded's Zion society even seems to be in contrast with the crew we met in the first film. Instead of a rag-tag air force pooling their resources to protect the world, Zion resembles groupies at a love-fest.
Keanu Reeves is back as Neo and is thankfully limited to less acting. He works best as a man of actions, and that is where the film delivers. Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss are also back. She carries much larger stakes in this film while he has to deliver some of the hokiest dialogue this side of the Rabbit Hole. Beautiful Monica Bellucci is also in the film wearing a tight white dress. Bad Guy Smith (Hugo Weaving) is back but this time he is a rogue... no longer an Agent. This fact also seems irrelevant to this particular story, so the rogue references don't lead to a payoff. Hopefully, his status will have a bigger effect on the third film. The filmmakers successfully raise the stakes by duplicating Smith, which leads to some of the best moments in the film as Neo takes on the creepy army. There are a couple of scenes that are terrific including the pipe fight between Neo and the Smith army as well as portions of a car chase that takes place on a crowded highway where the camera takes you where no camera could possible be. But, when the fists are done flying, it feels like its unfortunately time to get back to the story.
I had a conversation with a friend two weeks before this movie came out when he said he thinks THE MATRIX trilogy is the most important, most influential film series ever. My initial reaction was thinking he suffered from fan-boy-it is. Now, I am sure of it. THE MATRIX RELOADED is sure a big, fun film - the volume goes to eleven - but it is by no means an important or even very effective film. Fortunately, we are only a few months before we find out if any of the hype was worth it. I give the film three stars because I really want to like it, but it's the low end of three stars.
|
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | War of the World(s) | Content
| There is no Spoon.
You remember that one, right? With the room of gifted child prodigies under the nanny-ship of The Oracle, particularly the little genius with the spoon-shaped head who was busy bending a spoon. How didja do that, son? Easy---
There is no Spoon.
Now, Larry Wachowski, months before Reloaded's massively anticipated release, got Matrix fanboys foaming in their droolcups when, asked about the reputedly eye-boggling new special effects in the new flick (shot back-to-back with Revolutions) and queried whether the Brothers Wachowski were about to Raise the Bar, replied: "there is no Bar".
Turns out he was just joking. "There is no Bar", get it?
The Audience didn't: Reloaded suffer the fate of everything that toys with the brutal, double-edged Sword of Hype. Given the cultic frenzy that surrounded the opening, given the peek the first Matrix provided into a world in which mankind had been played the fool by his Machines and shackled into an invisible bondage---given all of that, could anything deliver on such a Promise?
The answer, in true Matrix fashion: Revolutions is a Binary flick. You know, those little zeroes and ones that, taken together, represent The Holy Bible, or a storefront, or a superpowered cadillac sedan driven by two dredlocked razor-wielding monsters. The Desert of the Real; the World of Illusion.
With that in mind...
ONE: The Matrix Rating (the World of Illusion): 5 Stars. Reloaded is a technophile's fever-dream, and in this glossy, mechanistic, techno-sensual Real the Wachowskis entertain in spades.
Reloaded oozes style, just like its predecessor, and the supple combination of high-technology glossiness and urban grime that defined the unique visuals of the first movie have been delivered seamlessly into the sequel.
That's no surprise, since the Wachowskis wisely brought the entire team from the first movie along for the second ride. On hand for the sequel is Director of Photography Bill Pope and Costume Designer Kym Barrett, and both deliver the goods. Reloaded looks jaw-droppingly, drool-spatteringly delicious.
The original cast (minus, sadly, Tank & Apoc) are all back as well: Morpheus (an increasingly portly Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and Neo (an increasingly Zen Keanu Reeves) all turn in competent, if not outstanding, performances, and Hugo Weaving's nefarious Agent Smith tries not to steal the show (and mostly fails: Reloaded is at its best when Weaving is snarling and mincing onscreen).
The Wachowskis toss in some other intriguing characters to round out the ensemble, including the dastardly Merovingian (played suavely, but talkatively, by Lambert Wilson), his gorgeous mistress Persephone (played tastily by Monica Bellucci), his razor-wielding Twin henchmen (done not with CGI, but played by real-life twins Adrian and Neil Rayment and a real-life razorblade!), and Jada Pinkett Smith's understated Captain Niobe.
So it entertains. But...
ZERO: The Desert of the Real Rating: 3 Stars. Is this the flick you wanted to see, thought you would see, when the credits rolled at the end of "The Matrix"?
Me neither. Yes, "Reloaded" is anchored fore and aft and amidships with some eye-popping action setpieces, chiefly the Freeway chase and the mountain-top Chalet duel with the Merovingian's lackeys. Yes, it oozes style from its steel and CGI pores. If "Matrix: Reloaded" were a ship, it would have mighty pretty rigging and sails.
Yes, it was cool to see the big exo-skeleton walkers lumbering around in Zion. No, I didn't find the Zion Rave scene embarrassing (celebrate, party like it's 1999 chal, 'cause we're FREE! I can dig it).
But after the "Burn the Barricades!" coda of the first flick, I wanted something more. Neo can bend the "rules" of the Matrix now: he can tweak all those leetle zeroes and ones in his favor. So why stick around to fight Agent Smith in the tedious 'Burly Brawl'? Why not conjure up a few werewolves of his own to keep him busy?
Or, while we're at it---if 'waking up' those slave-minds is so critical to the Revolution, why not *really* shake things up a bit? You know, mebbe introduce a few square miles of the Kalihari Desert in the middle of the City?
Seen in the LED readout-afterburn of "Matrix: Revolutions", "Reloaded" makes considerably more sense: certainly it's operatic in its sleek, luxurious gloss and glamor.
But the real problem is this: the first "Matrix" was our very unauthorized glimpse into the Truth behind "Reality". It felt like finding out a very dangerous, dirty secret. It felt conspiratorial, which was half the fun.
It's pretty, true, and if you pick up the Ultimate collection and pop this baby in the hopper of your high-end system, you'll watch in amazement as the rafters shake, plaster cracks and falls, car alarms go off.
But at the end of the day, "Reloaded" is just another big action flick. Reloaded? Reheated---but still pretty tasty.
JSG |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | This Movie Hurts My Head | Content
| What started out as a great and imaginative idea gets totally lost in this messy sequel. This movie is best played with the volume turned off. Decent action segments here and there make it watchable but any and all dialogue should just be ignored...it makes little if any sense. This series really lost direction and seemed to become aimless, which is unfortunate because it seemed this could be a trilogy that could have stood alongside series like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but instead the second two need to be written off to still enjoy the original. It's hard to make a good sequel, when it happens it's a beautiful thing(Aliens, T2, Spiderman 2, X2, Empire Strikes Back)but more often than not, we just end up with something like Matrix Reloaded. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | Wake me when it's over. | Content
| I mentioned in another review that I think I may be psychic. I had one of my "moments" with this, the turgid sequel to the excellent Matrix.
I really did enjoy the original movie. It certainly brought something new to the table, even if we did have to endure Keanu Reeves. But it was worth it, raising the bar for action movies and making sure every lame-ass "parody" movie would have a Matrix-bullet-time sketch.
But then I KNEW they were gonna blow it, I KNEW it wasn't going to be good. But hooo boy, I didn't think it would be THIS bad.
If you haven't seen it, let me tell ya - it is AW-FUL. It's as if the Wachowski brothers went, "hmm. You know what? We don't really have much of a story this time. Let's just hide that fact behind a ton of pretentious psycho-babble and hope people think it's intelligent, and if that doesn't work, we'll just throw LOADS and LOADS and LOADS of effects at them. That'll work".
Not with The Curmudgeon it didn't. This really was one woeful movie. Avoid like a suicide bomber.
The_Curmudgeon_Hates_You@yahoo.co.uk |
| Rating | | | Date | July 22, 2005 | | Summary | is there anything they wont do for more money ??? | Content
|
Matrix was a great movie and that is ok but i cant believe anyone who cant easily understand that both this movie and the third episode are made just to earn more money from the name .
in matrix reloaded,every single character talks and talks for hours with silly expressions that can feel like phylosophy to highschool kids,but for anyone else most of it,except some good parts,will remind you joey-dawson talks of dawsons creek:))
there is no real storyline this time,except the silly "we all are a part of destiny" routine and some excuses to create action scenes,which will make you think why neo doesnt just fly off before fighting to the agents for about half an hour,or why is this highway so long and aimless :)
The action scenes in matrix was like a revolution in action movie industry , but this one simple uses over long kung fu scenes like a computer-made keanu reeves spins among lots of agents,it is so oblious that they are not fighting,they are just acting,cos no one gets hurt when they got hit,it is just an excuse to show another cool punching style.
This movie sucks.i mean really..i still feel for the money i gave to the ticket,and buying the dvd ? no way..
|
|
