Reload it? REWRITE IT! (The Matrix Reloaded (DVD))

Member Name: martial_loh

Product:	The Matrix Reloaded (DVD)
Date:	24/05/03 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Special Effects, Not too much bullet time, Great fighting

Disadvantages: Storyline? HAHAHA!, Talky talky and not shooty shooty..., AVERAGE.

Before you even start reading this, ask yourself - what are you expecting? Lots of action and special effects? Or a well thought out film?
I wouldn't say that I'm the biggest fan of the first Matrix film, but I was initially impressed by it. Its questioning of reality was something that I thought it dealt with excellently. It had style, excellent gun play and.... bullet time. Such a "phenomena" was quickly emulated badly in many other films released shortly after the first Matrix. Quickly my cynicisms kicked in and I became a firm hater of the usage of bullet time.

I went into the cinema, mainly out of curiosity and boredom, expecting a bullet time fest accompanied by a substandard storyline. One out of two isn't bad I suppose(there was actually a distinct lack of bullet time usage! YAY!).
The new gimmick in the latest installment of the Matrix is "virtual cinematography" - this is apparently shown in the huge multiple agent Smith vs Neo fight sequence. Honestly, its a good fight scene. Well choreographed and for lack of a better term, "cool". This virtual cinematography is basically a fully computer generated scene - or so I've been told. I personally believe that the money spent on this technology could have been to better use... why not just get lots of agent smith-sized men and have em wear sun glasses? the effect would have been just as..effective - especially with all that fast movement!

Lets get this review a little more structured ey?
Story (NO SPOILERS) - Lots of talking and pointless in between action bits. I read on one site "this new film raises the question - do french people ever shut up?!" - sorry to our neighbours across the sea, but its true. The french guy in the film does talk waaay too much.
The dialogue in the film is not cheesy - just boring. The speech Morpheus gives is annoying, as are most of the Zion scenes. I felt that they were totally unneeded.. r>
Sound - nice. The fight scene music was great - really complemented the onscreen action. The essential swishes and swooshes of fast movements worked well too. I guess the sounds are one of the only departments i don't have a gripe with!

Visuals - smooth. Despite my complaints about that fight scene, it did look nice. The whole film looked great (aside from the brief bullet time encounters). The only other part of the film I thought looked wrong was the highway scene - some of the compositing didnt quite work...sorry to those who think im being picky, but I study this stuff in university, so I tend to spot bad jobs quickly!

Acting - Keanu Reeves does his usual acting job....average. Lawrence Fishburne isn't bad as Morpheus - although he does seem to be a bit more of a poser in this film. And the fact that this film tries to be "clever" and "philosophical" doesnt help either! Lines like "I know because I have to know" and "it is because it should be" are far too wishy washy for any character - no matter how mystical they are. I won't comment on the rest of the cast's acting ability - I'll do a generalised summed up statement - AVERAGE!

To sum my opinion up, I'd say that Matrix Reloaded is about 65% pointless. The other 35% is action packed and worth watching. It took me about 40 minutes to "get into" the film, and for the remainder of the movie I wasn't totally impressed. This is probably the only negative-bound review of the film you'll read. But I'm just being honest and not clouding my judgement with hype. Wanna disagree ?- write a comment!


The bottom line is this - watch it for the effects and action scenes - they are great. Just don't watch it for a continuation of cool storytelling.