Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Matrix Reloaded

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-14-2003, 12:24 AM:

[what? no one else has watched it yet?]

Great action/popcorn/eye-candy/ear-candy flick. I enjoyed it more than the first (which was decent, but highly overrated). Reel 5 alone is worth the price of admission. Stay through the end credits for the trailer for the third installment. It isn't destined to become a "classic of world cinema," but it is lots of fun and should do very good business.

Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 05-14-2003, 01:33 AM:

I watched it last night, but I was still under the impression that the rules of the forum were that we couldn't post a review until after it has been released to the general public?

Posted by Brian Zeisler (Member # 1333) on 05-14-2003, 05:50 AM:

thought y'all would like to know, this movie is already out on the internet, so much for that ad saying not to tape the movie [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Andrew Lee (Member # 1330) on 05-14-2003, 09:55 AM:

Brian, are you serious? Unbelievable!

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-14-2003, 01:26 PM:

I saw an Exhibitor's screening on May 2nd. I enjoyed it but it didn't have the impact on me that the first one did. There were two things missing from the sequel.

1. There was no element of surprise. The first one had you being surprised along with Neo. In this one Neo wasn't surprised and neither was the audience.

2. The first Matrix had all kinds of sly and not so subtle historical movie references in it. This one didn't have any homage to other films. That's part of what made the first one special.

Monica Bellucci sure looked nice! [Smile]

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-14-2003, 04:43 PM:

First off - I was wondering about the rule too. Anyways - I liked the movie. It really gives your brain some excercise, something that a lot of movies do not do. I will have to see it again to let the entire thing sink in.

As far as the movie being out on the net:

<RANT ON>
The film companies really need to wake up and look to their own people to blame. I have a friend who informed me that the copy of "Matrix: Reloaded" out on the net is the actual .DAT files from the film companie's (WB) computers. It is extremely obvious that the quality of these 'downloads' could not have come from a movie theatre but from someone on the 'inside' the film companies themselves.
<RANT OFF>

I will continue to honor all copyright laws and policies set forth from the film companies. But they really need to wake up.

"Matrix:Reloaded" is a great film!

Posted by Kelsey Black (Member # 126) on 05-14-2003, 05:01 PM:

I'm just happy that I screened this last night(Tuesday night) so I could find that I needed to replace reel 4. Of course, I'm not happy to replace it, but I'm happy that I can get the replacement ordered now rather than later. (I had to drive 6 hours round-trip to pick up my print a day early, but I was making the trip anyhow, so I didn't mind.)

About the movie...
Overall I really enjoyed it. Of course, since it is a sequel I wasn't left with the whole "whoa" [Cool]

feeling like after I saw the orignal, but Reloaded compensated quite nicely for it. It added inmoreof an emotional aspect to everyone's lives, and of course, plenty of new eye candy [eyes]

. If you're expecting to watch Reloaded and see the same angle on the story that you saw in Matrix(1), then you'll be disappointed. However, if you have been keeping up with The Animatrix releases to date, as well as the synopsis that have been released for those that can't be viewed yet, you will likely enjoy the movie even more than if you hadn't kept "in the loop."

Also, for those of you who don't know yet, after the credits, there is a "preview" of sorts for The Matrix Revolutions... Some stuff I've heard is incorrect, stating that there are 9 minutes of bonus footage, when it is more like 9 minutes of credits and 1 minute of "bonus footage".

Oh, and I did notice on the tail of Reel 7 that it is in SRD-EX.

Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 05-15-2003, 01:49 AM:

Screened it this morning, and it didn't live up to my expectations, might have been because I started feeling sick right before I started the movie. I've had time to think about it more since then, and watched about an hour or so of the end at our 10pm showing, and it became a completely different movie. I now really liked it, and I think that once the 3rd part is released, the 2nd will be much better, seeing as how both the 2nd and 3rd parts were filmed to be much like a 5 hour movie, rather than 2 seperate movies; whereas, the 1st was released as a standalone flick.

That being said, I still think that the first hour or so was really slow and dry, and the tribal dance/sex sequence went on way too long, and wasn't necessary. The final half is where the money is made, this part of the film is beautiful, and I really love the idea of exile programs and The Architect. Some of the CG was obvious if you were looking for it, namely when Neo is flying above the clouds at night, and also when he is fighting the goulag of Agent Smiths. The sound was great and the plot flowed smoothly, seeing as the first part had to be slow, and could not have worked any other way.

Overall 7.8/10

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 05-15-2003, 08:39 AM:

I have not watched the movie yet, but we ran a midnight showing this morning in two houses. One was a DTS house and the other an SDDS house. The SDDS mix blows the DTS one out of the water. There are many more "zings, zips and whooshes" in the SDDS version and our overall impression was much better. We weren't even taking full advantage of it, as this movie is set up in 8-channel SDDS and our system is only set up for 6 channels, but there was still a big difference in sound. I am waiting to see it until next week, because I will have company then that wants to see it too, and then I will give my opinion of the actual movie.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 05-15-2003, 11:15 AM:

Visual effects = A+
Storyline = D

There are at least two points in this movie that you can get up and leave for 10 minutes without missing anything but getting annoyed and bored. There are, however, at least two other chunks that are brilliant.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-15-2003, 11:26 AM:

quote:
The SDDS mix blows the DTS one out of the water.

I'm hoping Regal is running it in SDDS-8 here because, for whatever reason(s), the SDDS sound in that particular house does indeed blow DTS and SRD out of the water. [Big Grin]

Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 05-16-2003, 06:00 PM:

Maybe a question for the film handlers forum, but it has to do with the Matrix Reloaded so...

I was watching this movie tonight, and it's a great action flick. However I was somewhat irritated by the sound (in Dolby Digital). I was sitting on the outer edge of the row (near the surround speakers). It seemed to mee as if there was missing some sound from the front (gun explosions too soft, motor engine too quiet, voices had too low volume), while there came too loud sound from the surrounds (maybe because I was sitting approxiametly 3 meters away of it... There was also lots amounts of background music from the surrounds at times. I thought this wasn't good mixing practice... Anyone else noticed this?

[ 05-17-2003, 04:27 AM: Message edited by: Patrick de Groot ]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-16-2003, 06:11 PM:

I know I am in the minority when I say this but I was never impressed with the first "MATRIX" film. Despite it's agressive sound track and action on the screen, I was very bored by the film. I did make another effort to watch the film again when it was released on DVD because I might not have been in the proper mood when I saw it the fist time. Like the first time, I did find the film very boring and watched something else. I think I will save my money and catch the 2nd part when it comes out on DVD. I probably will see the IMAX version of the 3rd part just to get an idea how well the film look compared to the 35mm version.

-Claude

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-16-2003, 08:04 PM:

Allready on the net ??
Then our local hysteria could be cancelled.
Today, the reels 2=5 arrived in cardboard box with fake title, Next week reel 1,6 and 7 will be here - but don't put together until just before midnight opening next wednesday !!
It does not help, i'm afraid. What sort of yerks find it fun to make those copies to the net ? They're not earning on it - just spoiling. -And they've got to be in the business some way.
Only 3 danish prints are left of the first Matrix, circulating in big hurry to do a single show in as many theaters as possible. I'm having one of them saturday after the premiere to run a midnight double M 1 + M 2. -Not much pre-interest, though. Can last day of sale be earlier than 4 days from premiere ??

[Confused]

I second Claude's remarks on the first Matrix.
Just as the night, I screend "8 Mile", I was almost ready to resign. "I'm getting to old for this [bs]

"

Per

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-17-2003, 09:50 AM:

Saw it Friday afternoon, Cinemark 17 in Springfield. Very good presentation, no serious complaints. I liked it, will probably see it again. The action sequences are among the best ever put on film. Scott Norwood or somebody said "great eye/ear candy". Exactly. Maybe among the longest credit crawls ever?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 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.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 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.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 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.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 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. [Frown]

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. [Cool]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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:

Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 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.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 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! [Smile]

AJG

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 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. [Smile]

Here

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 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.

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 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.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 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 [Big Grin]

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.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 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.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 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.

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 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 [Confused]

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 [thumbsup]

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.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 05-20-2003, 03:47 AM:

The dance scene kicked ass! It was like getting to listen to Stomp yet again (except in sync both times).

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 05-20-2003, 10:39 AM:

Ah, leave it to the Internet geeks to find the most mundane things wrong with anything.

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film.php?filmid=3144

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-20-2003, 11:17 AM:

FWIW, one of my coworkers is a graphics artist (if you own or have used an XBox, you've seen his work). He was very impressed with the CGI in this film. Especially the freeway car chase. And yes, since it's a virtual reality world, it's easier to make allowances for CGI "discrepancies".

(Can anybody confirm or deny that Reloaded is in SDDS-8. ???? [Confused]

)

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-20-2003, 11:44 AM:

<RANT ON><SPOILERS ON>This movie is WAY too long. I'm sorry, but I don't know if 20-30 minutes would do it. I'd cut an hour. Half the dialog is worthless to the story. All the "I'm going to reveal what's going on here without telling you anything" double-speak gets old fast. Morpheus speaking to the masses is way over the top, and just seems silly.

The fight scenes are too long and repetitive. How many times can you watch someone throw a punch or a kick only to have the other guy block it??? And get rid of 90% of the slow motion already! OK, bullet time was cool, but to have the fight slow down 10 times while Neo hops around is over kill. Not to mention that watching the fight repeatedly slow down and speed up is distracting as all hell. Get rid of it... that should save five minutes right there!

One final note... if they made the movie shorter, then maybe the credits wouldn't be twelve minutes long, and people wouldn't have to wait so long to see the trailer for part 3.<SPOILERS OFF><RANT OFF>

Edit: I never noticed any LE or RE activity on my SDDS, so, I'm thinking SDDS 6, although I could be wrong.

[ 05-20-2003, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: Mark J. Marshall ]

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 05-22-2003, 06:10 PM:

Just got back from seeing it, and agree with most of the posts. Won´t see this one again, but I´ll see the nesxt one for sure. The sound wasn´t at all good, but that was probably the theatre. Not super sharp focus, but just enough for me to notice.
And I saw the CAP things for the first time. Looked for them before, but I figured not many would end up on the swedish copy of movies.
Me and my friends had the best laughs when Trinity hacked the server, using nmap (a portscanner) to discover that it ran ssh (secure shell) and then run an exploit to login as root (the super user). Some people at another site, for geeks, actually has her password figured out, but we laughed at our everyday life being shown in movies, and not too unrealistically for once...
Maybe I´ll see it one more time in a theatre with better sound, since you all say it´s a good mix, but that´s it...
//Gunnar

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 05-31-2003, 11:15 AM:

Saw it at Madstone Theaters in Atlanta(used to be GC cinemas, Sandy Springs). Only 10 people were in the theater for a friday night showing. Weird. The DTS mix was underwhelming. The image was sharp.

I think some of the critics(except David Edelstein) have been too kind to this movie. I loved Matrix 1 and waited for this movie to open. But after my friends seemed lukewarm about this movie, I lost my enthusiasm to catch the movie right away. Ended up seeing it two weeks alter. Even with lowered expectations, I was shocked at how STUPID and BORING the first half of this movie was . People, it's OK to hate the matrix sequel and admit it out loud. If you felt bored, it wasn't because you lack intelligence, it is because the movie was boring. I see some muted criticism from people I think are dying to say this movie blew it but can't get themselves to say it. All 10 people in my auditorium look flat out bored and restless during the movie. Yet they were giving it mild praise when they come out. I think it will take some time for the truth to sink in. I know because I was kind of like them when I came out. I sorta liked it and thought it was merely a half hour too long. But 12 hours later, I am hating parts of this movie even more. This movie was boring -plain and simple. You can debate forever about how meaningful some scenes really are, but there is no escaping the fact that this movie had many BORING scenes. I woke up(figuratively) when the french guy Wilson talks about the dessert creation and then we meet the keymaker.

Why is this movie so bad?
1) Lawrence Fishburne and Zion: Laughable in this movie. The dialogue was embarassing and rivaled some direct to cable sci fi movies. Morpheus was cool in Matrix 1. Here, he is a self parody. He reaches his nadir with that laughable delivery of a dumb speech at Zion. They should have reduced the entire Zion segment to 20 minutes and chopped off half of the oracle's boring talk. They should have just made Reloaded and Revolutions into one 2 and half hour movie.

2) Keanu Reeves: his dullness was not a problem in the first movie. But here, it was a liability. He also didn't look any better than the Charlies Angels during the wirefu stunts. His movements were too stiff in both action and non action scenes.

3)CGI and wirefu stunts: THe CGI was probably not an easy task. But the Wach Bros should have gone with quality over quantity. THey failed to learn from the Phantom Menace's problems. MAtrix beat TPM at the oscars for effects not because TPM shots were not as tough as Matrix. MAtrix got the most bang for their buck and used their FX resources more creatively than TPM. The lesson learned is that even if an FX sequence is a technological accomplishment for its time, unless it can wow an audience that they are seeing something real and not so arcade game like, you are better off using the footage as research for a future movie FX scene where it can be improved upon with time. THe many Hugo Weavings (Agent Smith) battling Neo in the courtyard was a freaking video game segment. The wirefu wasnt as smooth as I would have liked and the digital stunt doubles were way too obvious. More importantly, even if one thinks I am being too harsh on the techincal aspects of the fights, most people will probably agree that most of the fights were just pointless and went on and on (more than this longwinded review is going to).
When you have long fight sequences,there has to be some sort of progression instead of random cool looking moves being put together.

4) When Keanu Reeves removes the bullet from Carrie Ann Moss, I wanted shout " this is not the freaking titanic" . While I welcomed the inclusion of some badly needed emotion in the movie, I just felt the saving of Trinity in the way it was shown was just too much for me to take seriously.

5) Underusing the twins. Goddamit. You got some cool looking twins and you don't include them in any fights with Neo? For all their powers, the twins sure seemed easy to defeat in the freeway.

6) The Freeway scene. For many it was the highlight, and I enjoyed it too. Yet , there was something lacking in it. There comes a point in MissionImpossible movies where you say to yourself "enough already with the removable masks". I had that feeling with the agents poring into this action sequence. Also the agent jumping on the car scene looked a bit fake and lacked any big impact even if it looked like a cool scene in the trailer. That desperation of what would happen to each character was just flat out missing in most action sequences in this movie. Only when an old fashioned motorbike chase commences, does the freeway scene kick into high gear.

Overall a big disappointment. Even if Revolutions turns out to be good, I think Reloaded just dampened any possibility for opening week records for Revolutions.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 06-04-2003, 01:53 PM:

It's hard to say something about this movie that hasn't already been said, but I do have to agree with the length problem. I also checked my watch about three times during the film, never a good sign...

The fight sequences went on for way too long. After a couple of minutes of listening to the video game music during the fight scenes, and seeing the same punch/counterpunch moves repeatedly, it gets old quickly.

The freeway car chase was definitely the highlight of the movie for me. I liked it even more when it moved to the motorcycle chase.

When I watch movies, I watch the entire film, including the credit roll, so it was a nice treat to see the preview of the final chapter.

I gave it a "See Now!" rating, but that was probably a little generous in retrospect:

http://www.bigscreen.com/ReaderReview.php?movie=36967

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 06-16-2003, 11:51 AM:

I rate "Matrix Reloaded" 6 beers out of a 12 pack [beer]

I fianlly saw "Matrix 2". It was ok, not great like the first one. The story needed alot of work. I have a few questions:

=================Will ruin movie if kept reading spoilers

1.Where in the heck did all those people in Zion come from? There where over like 50,000 or higher. It makes no sense with the first one. The first made Zion seem like a few, 50 or so. Not an army.

2. The sex scene between Neo and Geo(trinity) was not good. No point. They where all over each other and Katherine Moss is not that hot. How bad would they of smelt with out showers? Dude come on....

3. The dude who tries to kill Neo, why did he cut himself 2 times? Are you really suprised he lived???no

4. The Nelson twins where cool, are they apart of the matrix? Are they humans that are "unplugged"??? The french dude was the worst part of the movie. His wife was hot, kissing Neo, no point.

5. The key master real or a light bulb, he should of shut the door without trying to slow down the bullets with his chest.

6. When Neo enters the "room" with the guy who is the matrix, he tells Neo that this has happened before, They let people leave the Matrix. So that means the machines created Neo and his powers? It makes no sense.

7. Agent Smith is not part of the Matrix, but yet has powers. No back story for him, we need more.

---------------------------spoilers over-------------------------

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I did enjoy this film. It needed some work in the back story. How long was it after the first one, even Lucas gives us a time line and some explination of what is going on.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 06-19-2003, 10:37 AM:

Attendance: 2003/06/18 18:45, Regal River Oaks Cinema 8, Decatur, AL, Auditorium 8, DTS

I'm not sure why I waited so long to see this one, but I intentionally avoided reading information about the movie before seeing it. So, after seeing it and then reading, in detail, all of the posts y'all have made about it, I can say that I agree with most of the assessments made in this thread.

Although this movie is no longer in the large auditorium at this theatre and is in a 28-foot-wide auditorium, the image quality and sound were incredible. The audio was in DTS, with no signs of distortion. The sound mix was excellent. The screen was approximately 26 feet by 11 feet (for scope) and I sat close to the front, in the front row. The focus was sharp and there was no noticeable print damage after this print has been run for nearly 5 weeks. This was the 23rd presentation in a row that I've attended at this theatre in which no points have been deducted for anything using my rating system.

So, I thought the movie was too long. I looked at my watch many times during the movie (a good sign of a movie being "too long"). The phrase "Warner Brothers Haircut" popped into my head too often during the movie. I wouldn't be too surprised if some scenes weren't composed to look better on 4:3 home video (or IMAX). I did enjoy the movie, though, and will buy the DVD when it comes out. This movie passes the threshold of what I call a "good movie", or "a movie worth seeing", but it's not one of the best ones.

By the way, many of our computers here at work had dumb names composed of a color followed by a number (like "blue6", "gold7", "red1", etc.) and about a month ago, the powers that be decided to let people name their machines in their office like we used to years ago. I chose "Neo" as my machine name, mainly because of the Matrix movies.

I'd like to get a hold of a font that has all of the characters used on the computer screens in these movies.

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 06-24-2003, 10:44 AM:

Saw this in Tulsa, OK on the Cinemark IMAX screen. It actually gave me quite a headache...literally. Way too much to take in. It felt 3-D in a way. Although, the movie to me was a little disappointing to say the least. Action, Psycho-Babble, Action, Psycho-Babble, Action, Action, Psycho-Babble. The end. To me, this one smacked of BACK TO THE FUTURE 2. A complete waste of time when all they really needed was one sequel instead of three. And they say they are losing money. [Razz]

Posted by Paul Howard (Member # 1706) on 06-24-2003, 12:31 PM:

Yet another waste of everyones time. Why the Blade style 10minute party/sex thing?
Why CGI everything?
Why that french guy?
If the Watchowskis can read this, your film blows. [puke]

To see "the badness" in IMAX would make me want to destroy things [Mad]

you know, like HULK does

Posted by Edwin Graf Diemer (Member # 545) on 07-15-2003, 07:30 PM:

Caught the IMAX version 7/12 at the UA King of Prussia 16, 3:30 showing. Talk about the emperor(s) having no clothes-the film was an over-long, pretentious mess that easily could have been cut by 20 minutes, as several have said. About the IMAX-nothing seemed to have been cut from the film, but several times I heard the sound race forward, as if it were trying to catch up. Very subtle, though-you would miss it if you were not watching for things. No heads were "cut" in the composition, but the IMAX screen made every poor effect stand out all the more. I noticed how contrasty things became (especially faces) during any effects shot. Wonder how they will handle the next installment?