Loaded?
3.0
My personal enjoyment rating: 3,5 out of 6
My recommendation rating: 3 out of 6. Explanation of recommendation rating: "See this if you are a serious fan of the genre. Many casual genre fans will be disappointed. Has its share of flaws. Anyone who is not a fan of the genre should stay away from 3's and below."
Because I loved _The Matrix_ so much--there was little doubt in my mind that it was a solid 6 stars, and I even felt like I floated home from the theater--I was a bit hesitant about my reaction while watching _The Matrix Reloaded_. It was a strange feeling, and brought back unpleasant memories of an experience I had recently blocked out of my mind--watching the _Animatrix_ short, which played in theaters before the 2003 film version of Stephen King's _Dreamcatcher_. _The Animatrix_ was complete garbage, in my opinion, with horrible animation, little discernible plot, and was as engaging as a really cheesy PlayStation 2 commercial, so I just wrote it off as something like a bad nightmare. But now here I was, watching _The Matrix Reloaded_, finding problems with the film almost immediately, and although the thought bewildered me, for a short period of time I was almost going to give the film a 2 out of 6--my rating for bad films that are fun to watch. I was reluctant to write a review, thinking that maybe I should give the film a second chance on DVD first, but the more I think about it, the more I think that this film really deserves 3 stars.
The premise of _The Matrix Reloaded_ is a lot of convoluted mishmash, but briefly, for whatever reason, the Matrix--the computer simulation--is back to relative normality. There is a whole army of people from Zion, the remaining intentional human settlement, floating around in `spaceships' in the innards of The Matrix, but they are ordered back to Zion because The Matrix has sent robot war machines towards their city. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Neo (Keanu Reeves), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) head back to Zion, and await a message from The Oracle (Gloria Foster). When they receive this, they head back into The Matrix, get into predictable jams and kung-fu fights, The Oracle gives Neo some enigmatic mission, there is a lot of ostensibly philosophical gobbledy-gook, etc.
The first aspect that perplexed me was that the story begins as if the ending of the first film had never happened. Among the plethora of plot holes, why is The Matrix back to normal? Why do the robots heading towards Zion have to drill through the Earth when the rest of the `star fleet' can just fly there in no time at all? They just plow ahead as if all of this and much more _has_ been explained already, and we shouldn't be asking any questions, doing any thinking, etc.
But there were more serious problems that a mass of dangling threads and plot holes. Among the many problems:
* There are far too many characters in this film.
* For awhile the film dangerously resembles a bad Mad Max film. In fact, the ships are now starting to seem more Mad Max-ish, or even Waterworld-ish.
* At another point, the Zion folks are using technology that the Wachowski brothers bought at a clearance sale from Steven Spielberg after _Artificial Intelligence_ wrapped.
* There is an uncomfortable _Planet of the Apes_/_Island of Lost Souls_ speech given by Morpheus in Zion (I expected him to start yelling, `Are we not men?'), and this is quickly followed by a completely ridiculous disco sequence.
* Carrie-Anne Moss looks really butch in most of the film for some reason (it has something to do with the way they photographed her), and this makes her love scenes with Keanu Reeves a bit uncomfortable to watch.
* The film is boring in some sections.
* Some of the dialogue--for example, Neo's meeting with The Oracle--seems to be almost a direct lift from the first film.
* The army of Mr. Smiths was hilarious. I don't know if that was the intention, but I couldn't stop laughing.
* I'd have to listen to it again, but I'm pretty sure that almost none of the philosophical points made any sense with respect to the freedom versus strong determinism argument.
* Neo now flies around like Superman. This was another unintentionally funny aspect.
* Because all of the protagonists are virtual superheroes, and we have no idea what the rules of the game are, there is no tension in the fight scenes. Unlike the first film, it never seems like anyone is going to really be in danger, and they never are.
Since I'm running out of room, let me briefly talk about what I see as the only positives--namely, the surrealism and the technical aspects. The Wachowski brothers don't always go for surrealism, but when they do, it always works, and it's easy to forget about all of the unintentional humor and other nonsense. For example, the scenes, including the fight sequence, in the European-styled palace; the changing realities behind the doors; the endless hallway; and even the scene where Neo meets the God-like figure, despite the bad dialogue and unintentionally funny stuff on the video monitors, all work--maybe simply because they're so wacky. As for the technical aspects, the effects are impressive, the cinematography, set and production design, etc. are all excellent, and during the fight scenes, I kept thinking about, and was impressed with, the logistics of staging and stunt work.
However, without an intriguing, serious story to hang its hat on--like the first film had--this just doesn't cut it. Let's hope that _The Matrix Revolutions_ doesn't continue this trend.
My recommendation rating: 3 out of 6. Explanation of recommendation rating: "See this if you are a serious fan of the genre. Many casual genre fans will be disappointed. Has its share of flaws. Anyone who is not a fan of the genre should stay away from 3's and below."
Because I loved _The Matrix_ so much--there was little doubt in my mind that it was a solid 6 stars, and I even felt like I floated home from the theater--I was a bit hesitant about my reaction while watching _The Matrix Reloaded_. It was a strange feeling, and brought back unpleasant memories of an experience I had recently blocked out of my mind--watching the _Animatrix_ short, which played in theaters before the 2003 film version of Stephen King's _Dreamcatcher_. _The Animatrix_ was complete garbage, in my opinion, with horrible animation, little discernible plot, and was as engaging as a really cheesy PlayStation 2 commercial, so I just wrote it off as something like a bad nightmare. But now here I was, watching _The Matrix Reloaded_, finding problems with the film almost immediately, and although the thought bewildered me, for a short period of time I was almost going to give the film a 2 out of 6--my rating for bad films that are fun to watch. I was reluctant to write a review, thinking that maybe I should give the film a second chance on DVD first, but the more I think about it, the more I think that this film really deserves 3 stars.
The premise of _The Matrix Reloaded_ is a lot of convoluted mishmash, but briefly, for whatever reason, the Matrix--the computer simulation--is back to relative normality. There is a whole army of people from Zion, the remaining intentional human settlement, floating around in `spaceships' in the innards of The Matrix, but they are ordered back to Zion because The Matrix has sent robot war machines towards their city. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Neo (Keanu Reeves), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) head back to Zion, and await a message from The Oracle (Gloria Foster). When they receive this, they head back into The Matrix, get into predictable jams and kung-fu fights, The Oracle gives Neo some enigmatic mission, there is a lot of ostensibly philosophical gobbledy-gook, etc.
The first aspect that perplexed me was that the story begins as if the ending of the first film had never happened. Among the plethora of plot holes, why is The Matrix back to normal? Why do the robots heading towards Zion have to drill through the Earth when the rest of the `star fleet' can just fly there in no time at all? They just plow ahead as if all of this and much more _has_ been explained already, and we shouldn't be asking any questions, doing any thinking, etc.
But there were more serious problems that a mass of dangling threads and plot holes. Among the many problems:
* There are far too many characters in this film.
* For awhile the film dangerously resembles a bad Mad Max film. In fact, the ships are now starting to seem more Mad Max-ish, or even Waterworld-ish.
* At another point, the Zion folks are using technology that the Wachowski brothers bought at a clearance sale from Steven Spielberg after _Artificial Intelligence_ wrapped.
* There is an uncomfortable _Planet of the Apes_/_Island of Lost Souls_ speech given by Morpheus in Zion (I expected him to start yelling, `Are we not men?'), and this is quickly followed by a completely ridiculous disco sequence.
* Carrie-Anne Moss looks really butch in most of the film for some reason (it has something to do with the way they photographed her), and this makes her love scenes with Keanu Reeves a bit uncomfortable to watch.
* The film is boring in some sections.
* Some of the dialogue--for example, Neo's meeting with The Oracle--seems to be almost a direct lift from the first film.
* The army of Mr. Smiths was hilarious. I don't know if that was the intention, but I couldn't stop laughing.
* I'd have to listen to it again, but I'm pretty sure that almost none of the philosophical points made any sense with respect to the freedom versus strong determinism argument.
* Neo now flies around like Superman. This was another unintentionally funny aspect.
* Because all of the protagonists are virtual superheroes, and we have no idea what the rules of the game are, there is no tension in the fight scenes. Unlike the first film, it never seems like anyone is going to really be in danger, and they never are.
Since I'm running out of room, let me briefly talk about what I see as the only positives--namely, the surrealism and the technical aspects. The Wachowski brothers don't always go for surrealism, but when they do, it always works, and it's easy to forget about all of the unintentional humor and other nonsense. For example, the scenes, including the fight sequence, in the European-styled palace; the changing realities behind the doors; the endless hallway; and even the scene where Neo meets the God-like figure, despite the bad dialogue and unintentionally funny stuff on the video monitors, all work--maybe simply because they're so wacky. As for the technical aspects, the effects are impressive, the cinematography, set and production design, etc. are all excellent, and during the fight scenes, I kept thinking about, and was impressed with, the logistics of staging and stunt work.
However, without an intriguing, serious story to hang its hat on--like the first film had--this just doesn't cut it. Let's hope that _The Matrix Revolutions_ doesn't continue this trend.
02/06-2003
