Matrix Refilled

[jazzfish]

Can't sleep, Smith will get me.
Short spoiler-free form: second half better than first half; first movie found a better balance between the philosophizing and the kicking of butt. FX, of course, r0x0r3d, but there was nothing as subtly cool as Smith's disintegration from the first film, or even a shot as superkeen as the down shot of spent shells ejecting from the automatics. I prefer my fight scenes to have guns, as opposed to Keanu Reeves. Eagerly awaiting the third film. Second half gets 3.5 stars, first half gets 2.5, average of three stars.

The fact that the presence of The One is a glitch disappoints me greatly. I was really hoping everyone would be able to transcend and control the Matrix. On the other hand, the fact that this is Matrix Number Six is quite the cool idea.

Basically, my problem with the film is that the script just wasn't as good as the first one. In M1, things are gradually revealed, and you're on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what's going on. M2 starts out without secrets. It's got the way cool opening with Trinity and Agent *mumble*son kicking butt, but then the first half-hour or so is ... just another movie. There's plot exposition and it drags. Keanu Reeves beats up a couple Agents, and it ... not quite drags, but a lot of the fun of the first movie was the tension in the fights; here you know for a fact that Keanu will pound the tar out of them.

(I recognised Commander Lock because he was Aaron in Titus. Between him and Saturninus/Nightcrawler, that movie's just everywhere.)

The Merovingian was a doofus. The Locksmith was a neat idea but not really much of a character; ditto Seraph. The twins are cool. Persephone was ... interesting, and I hope she gets more developed in M3. They get coolness points for including the Architect at all; he's neat. There wasn't really anyone as cool as Switch, though. ("Not like this... not like this.") Or even Apoc.

Hugo Weaving (Agent Elrond) continues to rock my world. The trailer at the end implies that he'll be a big part of the conclusion, which is fine by me. Gloria Foster (the Oracle) is also way cool; I don't know what they're going to do for her part in the conclusion, as it's sort of necessary.

See you in November.

Comments

[laughin.livejournal.com]

What is the star rating? 5 stars the highest?

BTW, want me to bring your cello to Patrick's or do you want to get it? I want to know the best way to transport it without harming it.

[jazzfish]

Four stars the highest, zero the lowest, in 0.5-star increments. So it's very like a basic ten-point scale. (It's the scale that Roger Ebert, and probably others, use.)

If you want to bring it I won't object. Best way to transport is pretty much either on its back or sitting it in the front seat of a car. Just make sure not to put much pressure on the bridge (the pointy part on the front). If you don't want to mess with it I'll get it at some point.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite fx were Neo flying out of the building, flames trailing, building exploding, and trailing shock wave obliterating his trail as he flew through town. :)

The start didn't do much for me--some exciting scenes with no explanation, some gratuitous One/Three lovin', and then it got interesting. Later in the movie when the opening scenes showed up, well, that rocked. :)

The Arthitect's diatribe was excellent, too.

[yubbie.livejournal.com]

The keymaker has a much more signifcant role in the game. The game covers all the screen time before and during the movie that niobe *isn't* getting; from her ship intercepting the transmission from the osiris, (covered in the animatrix "final flight of the osiris" short), the retrieval of the data the osiris dumped in the matrix, their meeting up with the keymaker (and I believe the keymaker (I keep trying to call him the keymaster) being captured by the merovingian), etc... A lot of footage was shot during filming just for the game, and the wachowski's wrote the plot and largely directed it.

Don't abandon the "everyone can become the one" thing... After all don't forget the orphans, who *could* do all sorts of tricks with reality. And morpheus and trinity can do amazing things. But, and I think this is the key, they don't believe they're the one. So they can't do the things neo can, otherwise there wouldn't be a one; there'd be a three, or a ten, or whatever... But then, Trinity is named Trinity... I think the oracle is playing her own game - some of those AI's in the system have developed an extreme sense of self, and she likes people too much. The architect can't comprehend her ultimate goals because it views her through its own concept of striving for mathematical perfection, instead of perfection of spirit.

Speaking of Smith. Smith was beloved of the source and one with the Word... Plugged in, and head of the holy host. Until he met Neo, and fell from grace. After all, when you have a christ figure, you need a Lucifer...

And I see aspects of both the obvious female divine in the Oracle, and possibly the snake. For Neo ate of the chocolate chip cookie of good and evil, and gained the knowledge of the one. And in this movie he ate of the jujube of good and evil and gained the knowledge of himself...

And the concept that all the myths of our world, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, the greek gods (persephone anyone?), the meroviginian dynasty, all did exist in a previous version of the world that still echos in this one, is pretty cool...

[dasphios.livejournal.com]

My first question is to how, precisely, those programs of ghosts and werewolves and whatnot were simply earlier matrix programs if they were still referred to, even if only in whispers, in the current Matrix. Why would rumors of them persist- surely, there weren't that many of them spared, were there? Unless, of course, they were just another manifestation of the whole 'hostile world' the Matrix was supposed to project, in which case, my compliments to directors.
Also, one thing that didn't strike me until long after I'd left the theater- whatever happened to Smith had some pretty enormous effects- it actually enabled him to leave the matrix.
Another question- if the floor is one that 'no elevator can reach', then how do they get there?
But I have to say the best Q&A session came from the Architect's speech- he explained why the Matrix was created to simulate the 21st century and why the humans weren't killed as soon as they set foot inside it. Most importantly, though, was the fact that he mentioned that this was the Matrix 6.0- and that each previous time, Zion had been destroyed. This raised the question- What, then, is the purpose of the Matrix? It can't be just to hold the rest of humanity- Zion's been destroyed before- and rebuilt at the will of the machines (why?)- so what, then?
Also- the councilor mentions that he's been free since he was eleven. If Zion's been destroyed five times over the past century, wouldn't someone of his age remember it?
Most importantly, though, the Architect says that they will destroy Zion- "We've done it six times, we're getting quite good at it!". This makes me wonder- since Zion was still under siege in 6.0, when was the sixth time it was destroyed?

[yubbie.livejournal.com]

My first question is to how, precisely, those programs of ghosts and werewolves and whatnot were simply earlier matrix programs if they were still referred to, even if only in whispers, in the current Matrix. Why would rumors of them persist- surely, there weren't that many of them spared, were there? Unless, of course, they were just another manifestation of the whole 'hostile world' the Matrix was supposed to project, in which case, my compliments to directors.

Well, they were still there, working for the merovingian. So technically, they still exist in the world, and rumor of them could have spread over the years. I get the impression he rescued a few dozen each of the dobermen and vampires. (lead by cujo and vlad, respectively). Also, thining about it... They don't kill everyone in the matrix, and then restock it, everytime this happens. It'd take them decades to build the population back up again. They've already established they can wipe memories, and, presumably then, implant them too. Cypher was assured that he'd have no memory of not being in the matrix, and would have his dream life. But the human mind is a complicated thing - after all, they learned they couldn't just impose what they wanted, they had to trick us into staying, and give us a choice, even if we didn't know it. So I suspect we have deeply buried memories of the previous attempts. Hence the memories of the garden of eden. And memories of times when vampires, werewolves, and ghosts *did* roam the world. After a while, it'd just be a collective unconcious thing. People who were alive during a reset would have nightmares about the previous version, and it would get into the culture. So even though we weren't alive a hundred years ago during the last reset, the authors who wrote the books that spark the legends were, not that they knew it...

Also, one thing that didn't strike me until long after I'd left the theater- whatever happened to Smith had some pretty enormous effects- it actually enabled him to leave the matrix.

Yea. Smith, in a way, got what he wanted. Out of the matrix. Except he was thinking, back to the machine world.

Another question- if the floor is one that 'no elevator can reach', then how do they get there?

I figured the keymaker took them there through the programmers corridor off screen.

Also- the councilor mentions that he's been free since he was eleven. If Zion's been destroyed five times over the past century, wouldn't someone of his age remember it?

No, it's been much longer than a hundred years. It's been a hundred years since the last time.

Remember, they kill everyone not in the matrix, and destroy the city. Then free 23 people, who think, as Morpheus explained, that "a person arose who could control the matrix, and freed the first of us." They then "found" zion, not knowing about the previous attempts, and begin the rebellion, leading to the factors that create the prophesied next "One". It took a century this time. Hume has probably been alive for about half the time the current Zion has existed; might possible have even known some of the founders.

It adds irony to his little talk about co-existing with zion's machines. I bet the machine-world arranged for the previous 23 to stumble across caches of carefully selected technology that would allow them to survive in the wrecked world...

[dasphios.livejournal.com]

Also- the councilor mentions that he's been free since he was eleven. If Zion's been destroyed five times over the past century, wouldn't someone of his age remember it?

No, it's been much longer than a hundred years. It's been a hundred years since the last time.
No, it hasn't- it's only the mid- twenty-second century, remember? Morpheus's speech in the first movie?

[yubbie.livejournal.com]

He says they don't know what year it is, but that it's *at least* the mid 22nd century. They really have no idea. Given the hundred year comment, I believe they're guessing that because of the ships; they know zion has been around for a hundred years, and they know when the dedication plaque on the ships says, so they know it's at least 100 years after that. Given the "second rennaisance" episode of animatrix, I think it was well past that before the matrix was founded the *first* time. It's probably centuries later than that, but since they don't know about all the other matrix incarnations, they don't know for sure the date.

[sir-alf.livejournal.com]

My response to wyrdone's review is here.

The One I got wasn't supposed to be a glitch. The glitch were the disobedant souls who felt the need to escape the Matrix. The One was a control for that glitch, which is even more diobolical. The fact this is the One 6.0 is cool. I wasn't unhappy the Locksmith wasn't uberdevolped. I did care when he croaked.

I'm very intrested in where they go with Agent Smith. I'd wanted an Agent to escape the Matrix, I was intrested to see how they would pull it off. I wanted more werewolves and vampires, but I don't think they could have done it without being hokey (but wouldn't it have been cool if Neo had to collect all the bullets together and make a sword out of them? muhuhaha).

The Merovingian was kinda comic relief compared to the other villans in the movie. Persephone was cool. In general Reloaded wasn't as mind bending as the first one, which is okay with me. It is the Empire Strikes Back of this triolgy, and it's job was to whack me in the face with pretty pictures and leave me wanting for more.

And it succeeded.

Peace.