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.
When you have a somewhat accurate portrayal of hacking in movies?
heheh
Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
This post... TO BE CONCLUDED
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
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.
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
First I've heard of it.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
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
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."
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
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.
...is that the evil computers are running Unix?! :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
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
This reminds me of the time I was walking down the street, just minding my own business, when some nicely dressed gentlemen on bicycles were going around passing out Morman religious materials. Since I am proud of my religion, I find it somewhat offensive when these guys come up and offer theirs. They always like to ask questions, too. So these two guys come up and ask me if I'd like a Bible. (At least they cut to the chase this time.) Holding up my arms as if presenting a new reality, I say, "This... is the construct." The guys were like, uh, let's get out of here!!! On another occasion, I said, "Do you hear that?" (Hear what?) "That is the sound of inevitability."
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!
Did anyone else think 'Ghostbusters' when they started talking about the Keymaker?
"Are you the gatekeeper?"
"I am the Keymaster!"
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
Was I the only person who noticed that the implication of the Architect's speech is that Neo is not The One... ...he's Number Six?
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
uh... when was the last time a hot chick with super powers dropped a motorcycle on your server room?
Oh, about a month ago. I was going to ask for her url, but didn't have the guts since I'm a geek.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.