Saturday, May 17, 2003
Obligatory Matrix Reloaded Review
At the last second, I decided to go with Spring and see Matrix Reloaded; I'm getting together with friends tomorrow and it's highly likely they've all seen the film and I'd hate to miss out on any conversations that we might have about the film. Overall, it was okay. I'm not as overwhelmed as some of my friends are (like Rob) but it was certainly better than say, Highlander II (another instance where the first film wasn't heavily advertised and gained a cult following) or even Phantom Menance (another instance where a sequel had been hyped so far beyond its ability to match said hype).
The major complaints I have about the film (and from reading many many reviews, are nearly universal): there's still no good reason for humans being mere batteries for the machines, the Zion sequence at the beginning (unlike most other reviews, I think the entire sequence, dull as it is, could be cut without hard to the rest of the film), the burly brawl was not well done (looked too much like watching a video game the effects were so badly done) and the other action sequences were too over the top thus obscuring the mind games going on (and between Neo's two critical conversations, there is some serious mind games going on).
And, because I knew to look for it, the slight greenish tint of the Matrix scenes was quite noticable; it was the same effect the Wachowski brothers did in the first film.
