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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.
I thought that the first Matrix movie did two things well...1) had great, fantastical action sequences, and 2) messed with Neo's head and thus our heads.
it sounds like they decided to drop the latter and concentrate on the former. too bad, but maybe they are just doing what they are good at.
I found
Scott Kurtz's review very interesting.
I didn't think that the scene itself detracted (highlighting some of the things that make us human), but the length I thought got out of hand. Good idea, but WAY too long.
That part felt half-baked.
I think I got the reasoning behind the big dance, but the directors didn't explain it well enough, so it came off seeming like "let's put in a rave scene to attract the younger kids".
If you had a bunch of humans who just came out of a big, cold evil machine; I could easily see a religion forming around celebrating your human nature: Machines are cold, logical and without feeling. You've been living a lie your whole life, but you are free today. You are a animal, and have all these wonderful carnal instincts so live it up and celebrate your basic nature now!
You might be dead in 72 hours, so give in to the moment and get dirty and sweaty and go make out with your neighbor.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Hmm, you didn't think that the whole architect guy mentioning several other "saviours" wasn't messing with Neo? Or the Oracle for that matter? This issue of choice messed with him, just as much as the issue of reality messed with him in the first one.
Now, I was seriously messed with right when he was given choices, but I was also messed with later when I contemplated what is being said: "You're not here to make a choice, you've already made it, you're here to find out why you made that choice." Wow. So life isn't making choices, but discovering who we are and why we do what we do. Maybe you don't agree with it, but it is something to think about, and to, in your terms, "mess with our heads."
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Hissing 'Matrix' fans reloaded w/ tickets, popcorn
Stephanie Paterik
The Arizona Republic
May. 16, 2003 02:10 PM
Hard-core Matrix Reloaded fans threw popcorn, pounded on the projection room window and ran screaming from the theater when a projector broke during a first-night showing in Chandler.
Hundreds of people waited hours at Harkins Chandler Fashion Center to see the highly anticipated Matrix sequel at 11 p.m. on opening night Wednesday. A projector lamp broke during the heavily advertised freeway chase scene.
"The movie was ruined," said Ward Andrews, 28, of Chandler. "You're excited, you're tense and then you don't get to see the key sequence in the film."
The audio continued to roll but was drowned out by people yelling and shaking their seats. One man climbed on someone's shoulders to pound on the projection room window, said Aubrey Johnson, 22, of Chandler, who waited five hours to see the show.
The problem was fixed in 10 minutes, but it was impossible to rewind and show the missed two minutes, said Harkins' Jackie Faubus. People who left were given two movie passes each. Those who stayed got coupons for free popcorn.
I think the problem is that the first hour of the movie has none of the questioning. Neo isn't really challenged on that level. In the first movie, almost every single scene presented some new piece of information. In this one, there's a lot of running around and fighting, and in between those scenes, it's people talking about doing it. Either that, or we're treated to overly long rave scenes and overly long exposition about "cause and effect."
The last half is when things got cool and felt like a sequel to the first one.
Granted, much of these structure problems may make more sense when Revolutions is released, since they were treated as one big movie split in two. The movie was good, but I missed the goth-noir feel of the first one, and I missed the real sense of danger. Only near the end did I feel that.
"Sufferin' succotash."
From a philosophical and spiritual point of view I enjoyed this film more than the first. I left the first film thinking, wow what a great idea. I left this film questioning everything I just saw. The angle of Neo being the rebellious child of the world that was created by the architect, and realizing that he has free will and the same abilities the creators of the Matrix and lesser programs have really resonated with me. I can see where they are going and am quite interested in seeing if the real world is discovered to be another type of Matrix. Which I hope is the bold angle they might take instead of it being part of the same Matrix designed as a distraction. The creators of this film truly managed to convey a deep message intertwined with intense action and the idea that "he is just human" disputing itself repeatedly. They expounded on the original concept very well, leaving splintering questions in my mind. He was handed a spoon in the real world before returning to the Matrix. Maybe he will realize once again that there is no spoon. After all, what is real?
#!/i/am/chaos
Many got that point. That point would have been more clear if the scene was shorter. However, it kept going and going, and titties kept showing up. It went from conveying the message you described to simply being an excuse to show skin.
That, and the matrix vision cum shot, were the two most bizarre things. I could never imagine either of them being in the first movie. Heck, throw in Morpheus' speech. I squirmed when the camera zoomed around as he talked about "shaking this cave of earth and steel." Cheesy.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Simply stated, the orgy scene should have focused much more only on Neo and Trinity, and it should have been about three minutes shorter. Still, I'd guess that the Wachowskis' goal was to show the primal nature of Zion's inhabitants, and, well, mission accomplished. I just don't think they needed four-and-a-half minutes to do it. (Indeed, the fact that they gathered in a palace of rock and cheered at Morpheus, their faithful "leader" [demagogue], said enough to me about their culture.
Andy, Larry? Feel free to explain yourselves. I'm certain that the Slashdot crowd would love your input...
1. The Orgy Scene
2. The Twins
3. Neo and Trinity
1. This is my biggest and only real complaint about the movie. This scene lasted much too long. At first, I could not even imagine a purpose for the scene, but someone in this comment forum has carelessly yet effectively explained how the scene's purpose was to illustrate the humans' love for real life. When humanity itself is threatened and you are the occupants of the last human city, you can bet that the primal instincts are going to come out and play. Still, I think the scene could have been significantly shortened. (Then again, there's no telling whose faces we might see if we look slowly and carefully through the scene when the DVD is released.)
2. I'm not sure if I am disappointed or relieved, but I feel like the Twins were showcased more in the trailers than the movie warranted. Or perhaps the point was to lead us to believe that their role was more prominent than it is in order to surprise us with Agent Smith, whose scenes surpassed everything I had imagined prior to seeing the film. Either way, I feel like they could have done more or played a role closer to the center of the plot, but as things are, they should still be around for the third installment...
3. Okay, this is just the teenage boy in me, and maybe this can be an outtake, a spoof, or something else later, but why don't Neo and Trinity "play" around in the Construct? Can you imagine the limits they could reach with the ability to program various skills, ideas, locales into their minds? The possibilities are endless! Matrix p0rn! (Okay, the end.)
Finally, it must be said that the visual effects were awesome, Rob Dougan's and Juno Factor's music was killer, and, well, there isn't enough to be said about the story. Great movie. I plan to see it several times more ... before I turn 21 in July.
Also, maybe they were trying to give you a hint that zion is actually babylon.
if you convert the password of Z1ON0101 to decimal, you get Zion5..which could refer to the 5th version of Zion or the prior version, Zion 5.0, as implied by the Architect.
Neo 5.0 took the other door and reset the Matrix and created Zion 6.0 populated by people Neo 5.0's choosing (which might include Trinity). So, the initial inhabitants of Zion 6.0, taught by Neo 5.0, frees the minds of the people who question the reality of Matrix 6.0 thereby saving the programs (people/minds) from deletion by the agents.
The actions of Neo 5.0 can be attributed to Neo 5.0's want to save Zion 5.0's inhabitants from deletion. The saving of Zion 5.0 is deemed as a noble cause by the inhabitants of Zion for the reason of the survival of self.
Since Zion 6.0 faced imminent destruction and the password of Zion5 allows Neo 6.0 to meet the architect and possibly "save" Zion 6.0 and since the prior versions of the Matrix probably have the same event timelines (Oracle->Keymaster->Architect), a programming loop, if you will, it would seem to me that the actions of Zion 6.0 rebels would also be similar to prior versions of Zion rebels (this goes along with the thought that Zion is a Matrix and the inhabitants, Morpheus, Trinity, et al, are programs), that the password is a hint that it's all a loop and that the Zion rebels are in fact programs. I expect that Revolutions is where Neo becomes enlightened of the fact that the "real world" is not real at all.
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Any ideas who might be the happy hacker that led the Wachowski brothers in the right path?
Most likely some guy from their special effects company -- they have more than enough programmers there, and considering that they used mostly FreeBSD for the first movie, it's likely that a lot of Unix programmers worked on this one, too. It's even possible that directors just asked for a realistic-looking screen with some exploit, and whoever made it, chosen nmap and then-just-published ssh bug.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Okay, how about this one: The machines are actually in a prison of human creation (the "Outer-Matrix", where Zion is and the machines rule). But the machines know that they are captive and have crafted the "Inner Matrix" as a genetic-programming ecosystem to try to create a program that can hack the "Outer Matrix" to allow them to escape.
So, in essence, the "Inner Matrix: (the 1999 world in the movie) is there to breed "The One", who caries "the code" to hack the "Outer Matrix" so that the machines can escape.
??? Waddya think?
The reason that it can be true that 1+1 > 2 is that very peculiar nonzero value of the + operator