Slashdot Mirror
Matrix Reloads to $42.5 Million Opening
Dante Alighieri writes "Box Office Mojo,
the Washington Post, E!, and others reports that The Matrix Reloaded opened with a record of $42.5 million in ticket sales."
I saw it yesterday and have a variety of opinions on it, but the short review is that it isn't the original, but it's pretty damn cool, and I'm first in line for Revolution.
that a ceratin scene in zion where lots of skin is shown along with partying was completely uncessary and detrcted form the theme of the movie?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
I don't know about everyone else but, Reloaded basically told everyone that the first movie was bullshit.
I was disappointed with the villain development (there wasn't any.)Some of the fight scenes were totally unecessary, especially the replication scene. Neo just supermans his ass out of there after exploiting all of the latest filming techniques.
Revolutions better fix things up or I'm going to be a very sad panda.
My two cents,
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
Not trying to troll here, but the problem with it, IMO, is that the Wachowskis (who wrote and directed it) received so much praise for the first Matrix movie, that they were under the impression the whole world wanted to hear them babble on and on about it.
Characters will talk for what seems like hours and never actually say anything. In the first movie, the language was simple (Morpheus holds up a battery and proclaims that the machines: "Turn humans... into this."), and you just had to wrap your head around the concepts. In RELOADED, you have to wade through all the tech talk before you can even start to understand what you're being told... by then it's time for the next scene already.
Also a problem was the overabundance of subplots (Agent Smith, the Morpheus love-triangle, the operator of the Nebachadneza(sp?) and his wife, etc) that they're all underdeveloped and hard to care about.
Great action though. The Wachowskis obviously care about developing their mythology quite a bit, and that's commendable (and for some, this will demand repeated viewing), but they just need to make it a little more accessible IMO.
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
One second, we were watching Neo and the other dude on the table, and then all of a sudden the movie abruptly said "To be continued", and went straight switched to the credits!
Where's the conclusion? I'm out here hanging in the wind! Half the audience was booing...
** WARNING! SPOILERS! WARNING! SPOILERS! **
That's known as a "blatant cliffhanger"... and I have to agree it really sucks that they do that, any movie should wrap things up and start a new part of the plot in the next movie, instead of just cutting it off in the middle like that.
Overall I thought that the movie was really slow to get started... Some of the scenes seemed really drawn out and nothing important really happened. Then, when it was starting to get really good with some plot twists, it was suddenly over.
And for the record, it said "To be concluded."
Taking into consideration, it makes the death of all of those people at the end more real.
It is much easier to forget about the deaths of those you have never seen. This helps to lend credence to the fact that the number of dead was quite staggering.
-- Dan
I was listening to part of a program on NPR that was saying that the Matrix had to use violence to attract people in order to get its message through. As a sequel, the violence must be better than the previous movie. I was annoyed too, but maybe this says more about the kind of society we live in than what kind of judgement was used in making the movie. The second half of the movie made it well worth it.
.
So since this is a spoiler thread, do you think all we have seen so far has been inside the matrix? Instead of having 5 "rebirths" of "the one", the same Neo has had to go through the same story over and over again. We are told that everyone has to make a choice to accept the Matrix, at a certain level. Are the machines trying to crush Neo's hope and get him to accept the Matrix as reality by giving him false hope, over and over again? Was the Matrix fully "reloaded" this time around? I see a new Matrix game coming out that has the Matrix "reloaded" instead of you dying.
This movie has left me much more puzzled than the first one . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
No, because the matrix is meant to simulate the early 21st century, therefore having the unpactched SSH is accurate
Why patch when everyone who could possibly hack into the system or even bother to try is in a cozy little tank, giving you power?
A room full of coppertops hacks nothing. That is, of course, if you have them ALL under control. And as anyone in security knows, you never do.
SPOILER DO not READ further if you HAVE not SEEN and dont WANT to KNOW.
Is it just me or has everyone missed the fact NEO messed with the supposedly 'real' world at the end ? They are still in the Matrix. There is more than one. Zion is a Matrix, one built with different rules, a different purpose. It serves the needs of the phophecy. The question is if NEO can break the cycle.
I don't ask you to be me. I only ask you not expect me to be you.
Also, if pop-culture epic stories are supposed to summarize some glaring aspect of society as it exists at that time, as they all do, then The Matrix is pointing out to future generations our focus on just asking "Why?"
Dante's The Divine Commedy encouraged not simply faith, but blind faith -- a quest for understanding God's righteousness without understanding God's justice. The Wachowskis' The Matrix, on the other hand, encourages faith in self alone -- a quest for only provable truth and a healthy, skeptical mind to question that which can not be objectively understood.
The societies of classic literature such as Dante's epic poem were built on solid foundations -- there is God's truth and no other; any violation earns damnation. Thus, The Matrix also highlights our growing secularism or even atheism.
I'm going around my ass to get to this, but the point is simple: morality is as subjective as belief in God. The Wachowskis probably like "teaching" people this version of toleration, as well as their version of responsibility: "I can only show you the door; you're the one who has to walk through it."
Anyway, sorry for rambling. I like this stuff.
I saw the movie last night, and then read the disscusion on Matrix which featured on slashdot 2 days back. Without reiterating the reasons again, I think i agree with the whole concept of "Matrix within a Matrix". The question then is what could be the real purpose of machines if the idea of man being battary is also an illusion to blind humans from realising that Zion is also a matrix.
....
I think there are no machines. Infact the Matrix is built by Humans (and not machines), to develope AI. And all the characters we see in the movie are just computer programs (like Agent Smith, Oracle). Which means Neo is also a computer program.
Right now Neo is in version 6, and shown to be most promising candidate to being closest to being a human, and thus being the perfect AI. He is the only one to realise that Zion is also a Matrix, and thus becoming self-aware (which regular programs are not). Maybe Persephone (Monica Bellucci) is the only human in the Matrix, and when she asks Neo to kiss her, she is infact testing whether Neo can truely show humans emotion too. The architect is also there to test the program of Neo, by giving a few hints, and see if Neo realises that Zion is also a matrix.
I think in the 3rd part we will see what Morpheus said in the first movie, "In the beginning of 21st century, the mankind was celebrating the creating of AI" (or whatever). This AI is Neo.v6, and humans will be celebrating its successful creation in 3rd part.
But then, this is just what I think
So yes, she logs in as root using ssh and they have "back doors"... whoopy. Where is the artistry and the suspense. Where was the class of the subway scene. This one is just gratuitous fight scenes. And the superman bit made me want to cry. It gets even worse with the cake scene. Was this movie aimed at 12 year old boys?
There was no depth to Morphius or Neo... sigh
-k
Reloaded spent 95% of the time asking and answer precisely nothing. When Neo got to the Architect, suddenly there was an enormous amount to think about-- but it was dumped on you so quickly that you didn't have time to absorb it, or really mull the implications. Then you were running again, and then it was over.
The point is, anyone can come up with plot twists. Good moviemakers also have to keep you interested.
No, I didn't buy the matrix-in-a-matrix bit. What I gathered from the Architect was that the last 1% of humans that don't buy the illusion must have an out. A safety pressure valve for the matrix, as it were. Those who must escape can go to Zion. But Zion is a very real threat, so it has to be exterminated periodically. The holding pool must be emptied, lest it spill over and make a mess. But The One #6 didn't buy it. He risked both the death of Trinity and the extinction of the human race for the hope of saving both.
Just occured to me. The line from the first movie: "When the matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted. ... It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth." is actually true. The One #5 was present when the previous Zion got wiped and, as part of his deal with the Architect, chose the first 23 people to free and to build, yet again, the last human city on earth.
Dyolf Knip