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Author Topic: Matrix Reloaded Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-17-2003 02:13 PM                     This movie should have been 20-30 minutes shorter. There was just too many parts in the first hour that dragged. Personally I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the first one, but maybe I was expecting too much from it. Regardless, even if you don't really get into the story, the sound alone is worth the price of admission. Definitely seek out a theater with a GOOD sound system to screen this in. This is one of those mixes that customers feel in the parking lot.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 05-18-2003 10:24 AM                     Then I think that we have a pretty good idea as to just what parts are going to get cut for the Imax version. Like SW:EP2 the story is probably going to flow better in this version.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-18-2003 11:09 AM                        I liked it....alot I also thought the sound a little soft at the theater I saw it at, but I don't know what format it was playing in. **********Spoilers?************ If I had to complain about something it would be the semicomic relief of the new "operator". My question is.... Why would Neo take "the architect's" word for anything? Surely being a program, it would have a last line of defense built in (lies). Neo should have kicked his ass, like he did Mr Smith in Matix 1.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 05-18-2003 11:56 AM                     --------------------------WARNING SPOILERS------------------------ Ah I was wondering when someone was going to bring up plot points for discussion. In fact I have been tempted to open up a thread in Yak just for Matrix discussion. But for Greg, Neo didn't have time to kick the Architect's ass because he had to save Trinity. Also Neo believed the Architect because the war didn't end when he went through the door. Thus the prophecy was proven to be false. Now obviously events in the third movie are going to prove that the Architect was lying (otherwise there wouldn't be much left for a third movie), but at least right now at the end of the second movie, it is believed that the prophecy was just a lie in order to get the "Anomaly" to start the cycle all over again and keep the inperfections in the Matrix program from destroying itself.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-18-2003 07:27 PM                        Saw Reloaded again today, Regal Cinema World 8 in Eugene. Turned out to be auditorium #3, same as X-2 last week, and the audio is still not right there (probably SR-D). No subwoofer at all, muted surrounds, and overall level is not satisfying. I talked to Usher Dude, who checked it out and agreed with me that something was wrong. He went to the booth and got whoever was up there to look into it, but they couldn't figure it out. At least they tried. He offered to let us switch theatres for another showing but we elected to stay put. However the image quality on the screen was excellent. I really like this film. It's a candidate for purchase when the DVD comes out. Did anyone notice that a lot of the closeup head shots seem oddly framed? Tops of heads are frequently cut off. EDIT: Just commenting on Brad's comment about framing headshots. Clearly an artistic decision was made to frame some shots this way. It just seemed to stand out unnaturally. Also, I forgot to mention that they put in a cue to drop the lights all the way down for the Matrix 3 preview after the end credits. That was a nice touch.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-18-2003 07:48 PM                     quote: Did anyone notice that a lot of the closeup head shots seem oddly framed? Tops of heads are frequently cut off. The eyeline is generally more important than cutting off people's heads. Once you get closer than shoulders, the top of the head needs to be cut off to maintain proper composition. As a general guideline, imagine two horizontal lines across the screen, one being 1/4 of the way down, the other being 1/3 of the way down. *Most* shots will be properly framed when the actor's eyes are between these two lines. Obviously this basic rule does not apply at all to landscapes and such. (Please open up a new thread if there are further comments.) A quick example:  |  IP: Logged Aldo Baez Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: USA Registered: Mar 2001 posted 05-18-2003 10:59 PM                    SPOILERS I agree with Brad that it should have been 20-30 minutes shorter. They could have taken out the rave scene and Morpheus talking and the love scene and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference. At first I thought these scenes were pointless, but after running it all weekend I've tried to figure out why exactly they did put these scenes in. I dunno if they want to portray some wierd freudian procreation type of thing for humans to survive or something? As for the rest of the movie, it was good, not great. It seemed really forced in some parts like if they were trying so damn hard to outdo themselves. For example the 100 Agent Smith fight, it starts and you're like wow awesome cool how's he gonna get out of this one... then... then.... he just flies away. Huh??? What was the whole point of that scene (besides to show off some ok cgi and an update on Agent Smith.) The big brouhaha about the freeway chase was underwhelming (there's no way a police cruiser would keep up with a ducati) but I was amazed by the weapons staircase room fight. And about the framing, I was gonna ask because I have had the same frame setting for awhile now but when the warner bros and village roadshow come up there are black bars on the bottom making it seem like the framing is way too high, I adjusted but even with the adjustment the characters seemed framed too high in the beginning.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 05-18-2003 11:10 PM                     Hello all. I've seen the film three times already, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do, however, feel as if the film was not nearly as good as the first one. It almost felt as if there was too much information being dealt with, as well as some major drag time at the beginning of the film. Each time I saw the film, it was in one of our best DTS houses. To my suprise, I was not impressed with the mix. I've seen other films in that house (Tears of the Sun, Attack of the Clones, and even the first Matrix) and the mix just didn't seem as good as it could have been. Over the weekend, I popped in and out of our two other houses it was in and noticed the same thing. I'm not saying the mix was bad, but it could have been much better. Check out X2 for a great sound mix. Anyhow, I digress. I too noticed the framing issue: it felt very crampped to me. I started one of the shows I watched, and all trailers were perfectly in frame, including the Warner Bros. logo. However, throughout the entire film, I felt as if the heads were getting cropped a little too much. Yet another reason why I do not like Super35! But alas, go check this film out if you loved the first and do stay for the Matrix Revolutions trailer. Oh, and out of our three prints, the two I built have cues to dim the lights for the trailer for Revolutions. In fact, it was my idea at our place to do that! AJG  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-19-2003 11:01 AM                        I'm gonna start a thread in, uh, I guess FHF, where we can discuss the sound mix and framing issues. Here  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 05-19-2003 08:13 PM                     Just a few short comments: OK, it IS about 20 minutes too long. Let's clear out that dance thing in the beginning. I liked the dance sequence in BLADE much better Some of the scenes during the dance reminded me of the musical basement sequence in 5000 FINGERS OF DR. T. Loved "1-Adam-12". Listen very closely during the very beginning of the film...the first minute or two. I heard something in there that sounded exactly like one of the spaceships in The Jetsons. Agent Smith IS the best thing in the film. No one says "Mr. Anderson" as well as Hugo Weaving. I'm really looking forward to seeing this in IMAX. I'm going to sit close just for fun. I agree the sound mix was not as good as the first film. The lobby sequence in THE MATRIX is one of the great sound sequences ever (only the best systems can separate the bass line from the gun shots) and nothing in this film comes close to that. Loved the car chase scene. Saw the first one 4 times...no reason to see this one again, other than it being in Imax.  |  IP: Logged Don Anderson Master Film Handler Posts: 312 From: West Bend, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 05-19-2003 08:49 PM                     I kept checking my watch during the movie. Not a good sign. Too long, boring, and overused fight scenes. Terrible cgi effects on the freeway. The zillion and one "smiths" was really too much. Too much hoopla on this one, the first Matrix was far better. Saw M2 in Chicago at Loews 9 plex. Trailers were scratched, poorly spliced together too. Matrix print was also damaged from start to finish. Too bad, it didn't add to the enjoyment. Nice sharp image, and very good sound at this location.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 05-19-2003 09:07 PM                     Well you know because The Matrix is an artifical enviroment created by machines, the bad cgi could be attributed to that enviroment and not the filmmakers Now in my opinion I actually thought that the cgi was some of the best I have ever seen espically considering the sheer number of shots that they had to have used. I think that only a couple of times during the car chase scene (the agent jumping from car to car and a couple of Morphus on the truck shots), and the pole that Neo used in the Agent Smiths fight scene kept bending, but other than that I really didn't noticed any other problems. And not at any time did any problems that I did notice, distract me from the movie. I will definatly be checking out the IMAX version.  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-19-2003 11:05 PM                     We don't have cues for the preview at the end, but if i'm standing nearby, i'll bring the lights down for it.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-20-2003 03:04 AM                        I liked the movie but I liked the first better. I wasn't bothered by technical aspects such as if a police car could keep up with a Ducati motorbike or if the wheels on the bike were spinning 2.6654 rpm too slow for the speed that they are actually being portrayed as going, I just sat back and enjoyed it. I really liked the freeway scene... it was just fun with cars flying and exploding with wild abondon and whatnot. The movie could have definitely been shorter. It should have been nothing but nonstop action scenes and naked women. Actually that's how ALL movies should be. Yes, ALL. Even movies like Amadeus, Trading Places, Never Ending Story, etc etc etc... When the movie first started, we were treated to the Dolby "Stomp" trailer I believe. Lots of dirt on a white background with homeless people banging on trash cans and even using them as shoes. Nobody in the audience appreciated this sound logo and a few people even tried to set the auditorium on fire because of it. Unimpressive. Then of course we notice that the sound is about 1/2 second ahead of the picture. That's cool. They went around an extra roller when threading. It happens, and usually people love it. But then they decided to stop the projector after one of the trailers and fix it. It restarted with the audio in sync. But the sound mix to this movie was not impressive or even memorable at all. It was in Dolby Digital. I saw X2 in this same auditorium in Dolby Digital and X2 sounded better. But I have already forgotten completely about the X2 movie except for the sound. I'll remember Matrix 2, but I'll forget the sound. Maybe if they had turned the volume up above 3.2 I would have enjoyed it more. This movie also didn't quite have the green tint as the first one did. I was pissed.  |  IP: Logged Daniel Fuentz Expert Film Handler Posts: 230 From: Fresno, CA, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 05-20-2003 03:20 AM                     I was wondering if anyone else caught the "1-Adam-12"!! (I saw this film with my 12 year old nephew. When I pointed out that bit, he just looked at me with a blank expression Sigh... I guess I'm the only one my age that watches TV Land!!!) I saw this at the Edwards 21, Fresno (Chinese Room) and was very impressed with the presentation. Picture was very sharp, no visible scratches or dirt, neatly done reel splices and very bright, clear Dolby digital sound. Absolutely the only "fault" was about 10-15 seconds of black between the last trailer and the policy trailer -- not a big deal in my book. (Seeing "Down With Love" at another theater last week there was a good 45 second chunk of black between trailers, but that's another thread!) I'll admit I was lost with a bit of the plot, not having seen anything having to do with the Matrix films prior to this evening. However, I thought the CG effects were good for the most part. I agree there were bits that dragged -- I got bored during the dance scene and went to the snack bar, apparently I'm not the only one who found that bit boring! I do agree that this film is better seen at a theater with a kick ass sound system. I can only imagine how weak it would sound in a mono or non-surround house.  |  IP: Logged

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