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First Matrix Reloaded Review
EpsCylonB writes "The IMDB is reporting that the London Daily mirror has the first review of the Matrix Reloaded. Sounds like the Wachowski borthers have gone for an all out action movie which is a shame if true. What I liked most about the original was the way it blended stunning action with a subtle philosphical theme about how we percieve reality." I'll hold judgement until the closing credits myself.
It is our destiny.
I believe this review holds, for each and everyone of us, the greatest spoiler of our lives.
** By the way **, the site was already running a bit slow when I previewed this article, so just in case, the article text:
FIRST REVIEW OF STUNNING NEW MATRIX MOVIE
May 7 2003
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
From Jackie Winter In Los Angeles
AT THE start of The Matrix Reloaded, Laurence Fishburne turns to Keanu Reeves and says: "This is going to be difficult." How right he is.
The much-anticipated sequel to 1999's cult classic sees all manner of kung-fu warriors and evil machines thrown at Reeves in an orgy of highly-choreographed martial arts mayhem.
The Matrix Reloaded picks up where the original left off - but explodes the action and special effects by a factor of 10.
There are more fights, more crashes and more action in two hours than a hundred other sci-fi movies combined. But the highlight is a spectacular freeway demolition derby which takes car chases to a whole new level.
And the first film's groundbreaking slow-motion/freeze-frame effects have been further extended, tweaked and enhanced to make them even more eye-popping than before.
But if you're looking for something a little more than crash, bang, wallop then this second instalment will leave you cold. Reloaded is crammed full of the cod philosophy that fans of the original loved but which left me distinctly unimpressed.
The plot is even more convoluted than before and flits between everything from religion to quantum physics and mathematics.
When we last saw Neo (Keanu Reeves), he was preparing to lead a revolt against the machines that had enslaved all of humanity - and that were now threatening to attack the last human city of Zion.
Recognised by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) as The One, the potential saviour of mankind learned how to manipulate the computer program that is our world.
Now Neo has honed those skills until he can fly like Superman. It's a skill that comes in handy after he starts having dreams about his girlfriend Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) falling from a city skyscraper in a shower of glass.
The villain of the first film - Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) - is back with a few new tricks up his sleeve, not least the ability to replicate himself. In one of the key scenes, Neo battles it out with first just one Smith, then eight, then 24 and finally 100.
Dressed in his shades and robe, Reeves once again deadpans his way through the movie. It's a role made for him as he has to do little more than smoulder and high kick his way through the baddies.
At least he gets a sex scene with Moss before he heads off to the city of Zion. It's one of the few breaks from the relentless action and although it sounds ridiculous, it provides a welcome diversion from the non-stop effects.
There's also some new characters like Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), who captains one of the rebel ships. And Persephone (Monica Bellucci), a sexy bad-girl-turned-good who hooks Neo up with the all-important Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim).
Also making an appearance are evil twins played by brothers Adrian and Neil Rayment who have, bizarrely, made the leap from handymen on Carol Vorderman's Better Homes to Hollywood stardom.
If you're looking for a deep, meaningful cinematic experience then The Matrix Reloaded is not for you. But if it's a non-stop rollercoaster ride you're after, then this movie is light years ahead of anything that's gone before.
- THE Matrix Reloaded is released on May 23. The final chapter in the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, is out in November.
THE Matrix Reloaded and the next film, Matrix Revolutions, were shot simultaneously in Australia over 270 days from 2001 to 2002. Combined, they cost more than £200m - £160m more than the original.
MANY believe The Matrix is cursed. In A
The first film I saw drunk and was still able to shoot holes in the "plot".
Why use humans at all? If all you need is a powersource, stick in sheep? Less troublesome by half.
The caloric efficiency of using bodies as massive networked energy sources is a concept I don't buy. Cripes. Burning wood has to be more efficient.
Of course, if you choose that route then you don't have a story, my point exactly.
Moreover, who cares what people in the matrix think? If they revolt, so what? If I want a how do you perceive reality story, I'll take "Rosencratnz and Gildenstern are Dead" any day.
Lastly, this is a nitpick I know, but bullets travel at well over the speed of sound. I don't care how fast you pull the trigger, with the action of a semi-automatic, the bullets will likely be 100 feet apart between shots.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
It's odd that you chose to mention Plato's Cave in your rant, rather than the "Mad Scientist" / "Evil Demon" / or "Brain in a Jar" problem, each of which being essentially the actual premise of the movie.
:) :
A very very very quick summary for those who didn't waste time in Philosophy classes (like me
- Plato's Cave poses the idea of some people being bound in a cave in such a way that the only things they can see are shadows on the back of the wall. These people are in this situation for their whole lives, and so to them, the entire world consists of shadows on a wall. Anyone who tried to tell them that the shadows are being created by 3D beings in a whole big bright world out there would be immediately dismissed by them as a lunatic.
- The "Mad Scientist" / "Evil Demon" / "Brain in a Jar" problem are all the same question - how do you know "reality" as you know it really exists? How do you know you're not imagining everything? The "Mad Scientist" and "Brain in a Jar" are two names for the same variant - what if you're nothing but a brain in a jar being poked/prodded by a Mad Scientist such that he's making you THINK that your reality exists. The "Evil Demon" is the exact same idea, but posed way back in Plato's time - what if the entire world the way you know it is nothing but a trick being played on you by an Evil Demon?
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
Besides, it has some great pics of Jada Pinket-Smith in it. Yeeeeaaaaa baby.
...of Karma.
Who do you believe? I'll wait and see myself.
Ron Epstein, the admin at Home Theater Forum has had a review up for a couple days. Just click on the Reloaded link on the left frame. sorry for no direct link.
I'm guessing you just skimmed it, since the reviewer actually complains that there is too much of the philisophical mumbo-jumbo.
The whole story was written from the beginning as a trilogy, so the 2nd part was the setup for the huge war. So whether it's an all-out action movie or not, it's exactly what the brothers intended it to be from the start.
I find it hard to believe that Descartes would find many similarities between matrix and his philosophy.
Descartes use of the Malicious Demon is used as a starting point to create a his philosphy unbiased by previous knowledge. He is concerend with the fact that he is biased by experience, that he could forseeably be mistaken about anything. So what he does is set up a bunch of proofs based on doubting everything. To build a base for the cogito to be a matter of fact. Forumulated simply 1) the malicious decieves me into thinking that i exist 2) If the malicious demon is decieving me i have to exist.
This has very little to do with the matrix at all. In fact it completely contradicts Cartesian themes, things in the Matrix are not extended. And the themes in the matrix are rarely about object but rather the mind.
The main problem in the matrix is known as the "mind body problem." How does the mind connect to the body, if there is a mind at all. The matrix is more of a tiered system. When morpheus asks neo "what is reality." He mentions that its only electric impulses goign through our brains. In other words, All we are are electrical impulses. This is materialist thought by philosphers such as sartre and segelberg. In the real world they are constrained to what the material rules are. But inside the matrix it is no longer material, but sensations which they can bend. This is very imperialistic i.e. berkeley and hume. Which leads to buddhism, why neo and the gang can fly and bend rules etcetra. All in all there are elements of all kidns of different philosophies and relgions combined at different levels. Examples are: There is a big element of the Plato's Allegory (Morpheus and others). The Garden of Eden, or in other words ignorance is bliss (blue pill red pill) and more.
AICN had the first review of Matrix Reloaded online quite a while ago. I don't know who Slashdot is trying to fool.
AICN has been running reviews all week, in fact. Sigh.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Film Review: the Matrix Reloaded
No western philosophy discusses in too great of detail whether this world is real or not.
Er, not quite - that was exactly what Descartes (rationalism) and Berkeley/Lock (empiricism) were all about (as well as nutbars like Heidegger and Kant to a degree).
This was probably the most significant development in "western" (i.e., european) philosophy at the time, and arguably a lot more profound than Nietzsche's semi-sociological leanings (which are more about his obsession with control than anything else - "if you're going to see a woman, remember to take a whip!", etc).
If the Matrix takes anything from philosophy, it's the Cartesian method - how do you know that what you perceive is real, and not just put there to trick you? Descarte's answer was that you can't, and the only thing you can ever know for sure is that you, the individual doing the questioning, exists.
Neo takes it for granted that the reality shown to him by Morpheus is really real, but of course he has no more way of testing that than he did in the original simulation. Ultimately he takes the route of Empiricism, and choses to act in a way that seems appropriate to what he perceives - which of course is exactly what he was doing before.
Nae bother
I got to see a exhibitor screening last friday, and, to put it simply, The Matrix Reloded was the first movie that I wanted to watch again immediatly after it ended. The other people I was with also agreed that it was an increadibly good movie, not only for the action (which it seems nobody is debating) but I thought the story was really good also, and brought up some interesting points of discussion. And that alone is light years more than most summer blockbuster films. /. crowd will catch on some of the stuff.
The reviewer seems to be saying that reloaded would be a terrible movie if it were not for its action, I can only think that the reviewer is an idiot, or maybe he just didnt understand the film.
As I was talking to one of my boss, after the movie, he didnt seem to think that it would do very well (boxoffice wise) because most people would not understand some of the more complex issues that the film touched on.
There was a lot of reference to the inner workings of computer systems, very vauge references - but they were there none the less. I cannot really elaborate without giving too much away, but I am sure that a lot of the
I must say though, do not get discouraged- this is an awesome film! there are also a number of reviews on aint-it-cool-news.com
"Alcohol, cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" -Homer Simpson
I always liked the fact that Keanu was so flat in the first movie. My take on it is that he's sort of an idiot-savant: a perfect weapon for the simplified world of The Matrix, but real people would find him rather -- limited.
I'm sure Ewan would have given more depth to the role, but considering all of the schlock philosophy, the extra depth would have been out of place.
As a side note, that guy with the sideburns (was his character's name Dozer?) who always stayed on the ship was such a ridiculous hack that, next to him, Keanu looked like Olivier.
This is for those of you who're sitting in front of your computer screens waxing eloquent about the profound subtleties (or lack thereof) that may or may not, according to the hallowed body of work left behind by such intellectual titans as Nitschze, Kierkegaard, Descartes, and Plato (hint: namedropping "The Cave" doesn't make you sound cool or particularly educated) be embodied in The Matrix: please, for the love of God, get over yourselves. It's a fucking movie. If The Matrix is so intellectually beneath you, then don't see it. Go read "The Birth of Tragedy" or something in a coffeehouse, smoke some cloves, and wear a beret or something. Because, and I can't stress this enough:
THE MATRIX IS JUST A MOVIE.
Thank you and good night.
"Cut word lines. Cut music lines. Smash the control images. Smash the control machine." - William S. Burroughs