Heading to see Matrix Reloaded tonight :)

Thorbar

I managed to get my hands on a pair of tickets to the preview showing of The Matrix Reloaded so my mate and I will be heading off to see it. Thought I'd just let all you poor bastards in Ireland who have to wait another week to see it know. Anyway I'll be sure to post to the board

the ending

when I've seen it.

Rabies

B@STARD :mad:

Pugsley

Remember, the ninja is watching you (but he will be too busy watching the matrix, so make your escape at the start of the movie and dont return to watch it!) and he shall kill you! with death!

Jim

Originally posted by Rabies
B@STARD :mad:

nono, i think ull find we are the poor bastards

GUI

its around if u really wanna get ur hands on it

Jim

Originally posted by GUI_XP
its around if u really wanna get ur hands on it

sadist, away away bad man......

ObeyGiant

I managed to blag a ticket to the media screening of the Matrix Reloaded in the Savoy last night. I've been to a couple of big-name media screenings and premieres, and I have never seen a cinema as packed as this.

I'm having mixed feelings about the movie.. on the one hand, the action scenes _were_ incredibly kick ass. For all of these, I had a giant, moronic grin on my face, lapping it all up. On the other hand, at times, these got so unbelievable and hard to follow that it kinda lost the point of having them.

The non-action bits (the 'filler') wasn't quite as good as the first one. There was definitely too much exposition, with Neo having way too many of the same conversations with people - him on one side staying quiet, the other guy doing all the talking and occasionally delivering some head-fuck explaination about how Neo doesn't understand what's going on. These were fine, I guess, but they appear with clockwork frequency, and after about the fifth one of these conversations, they start to run out of new things to shock Neo with, so there's a lot of overlap. But on the positive side, the characters are a lot more "fleshed out" than the first one - I actually found myself caring about whether or not the characters lived or died.

The movie ends on a downer, aping (I assume) Empire Strikes Back. This isn't a bad thing, I guess. But having never seen Empire during its original release, I can't really compare what I'm feeling now - am I disappointed because I have to wait 6 months for the next part? I'll have forgotten, and stopped caring by then. Or am I disappointed because the film didn't deliver what I was expecting it to?

I guess it's only fair that people who weren't blown away by the entire film hold 'full' judgement on Reloaded until Revolutions comes out in six months (it is six, isn't it?), so they can see how it actually fits in the scheme of things. Until then, they can always just sit back and enjoy the action scenes.

Also - if you check out the film, sit through the 9 (nine!) minutes of credits, and enjoy a trailer for Revolutions.

fisty

9 minutes?
can't we just download it?
can't wait to see this film.

Space Coyote

I gots me a ticket for Wednesday nite. Can't friggin wait. But I gotta i guess.

GUI

same as that
got me tickets for wednesday

i guess all the boards reviews of it will be online wednesday night :-)

rachel

I'm not going to write a huge indepth review because I'm fairly bad at that sort of thing but I doubt anyone will be too disappointed with this film.
I also got a ticket to the press preview on Friday and it was so slick. It's worth the price of a ticket for the car chase alone.
But I shall say no more and let you make your own minds up but I doubt many people will come out complaining.
I also agree with ObeyGiant about caring about the fate of the characters, found myself actually worried about anyone dying.

Rew

Have my tickets for wednesday aswell, gonna watch the orignal DVD using a data projector on tuesday.

Had to loan my ripped copy to someone to avoid the temptation to watch it...

fisty

I am 35% of the way to seeing this film.

GUI

rachel..
how did u find the film overall?

fisty

73%

yankinlk

In the states on holiday so I caught it last night. Can I just say that the theater I saw it in had no @pure@ Matrix fans, only people who were told, "you should see this movie" by friends...very very annoying (evidence: people walking out too pee, get snacks, asking dumb questions through the whole movie)

This was very much a "Part 2" of a trilogy...not a stand alone film.
I dare anyone to NOT watch this film untill November! You will be rewarded if you watch the two at the same time back to back.

Action scenes = pants wetting stuff. incredible.

Explanation scenes were long and very very very good, but not the kind of stuff your girlfriend/wife wants to sit through. This is truly a nerd movie. Normal Humans will be bored, and some may "gasp" yawn during this film!

Buy it rocks nerds! it rocks!!!

BLITZ_Molloy

I still cant believe Agent Smith is Neo's father.

Horsefumbler

is it out on the 21st over here?

deckie27

I have to wait till Friday Compliments of Microsoft with drinks thrown in after ---Sweet----

Spock

I've tickets for Tuesday, Yes!!!!!!!!!!.

weemcd

that spoiler ruined the whole film for me- i can't not look at spoilers:) the matrix is on ch5 this wednesday followed by animatrix-ffoto and a making of reloaded kick ass!

rachel

GUI_XP : rachel....how did you find the film overall?

I found it excellent and well worth a trip to the cinema although I regret not watching the original matrix the night before to brush up on the whole plot. But even without that I wasn't sitting there lost...
I read today that one of the main fight scenes took either 1 or 2 years to film and i have to say, it was worth every second of the creation time...

GUI

that spoiler ruined the whole film for me- i can't not look at spoilers the matrix is on ch5 this wednesday followed by animatrix-ffoto and a making of reloaded kick ass!

how does one get ch5?

daveg

Originally posted by GUI_XP
how does one get ch5?

BBC FTV card for satellite. Go to the satellite board FAQ for more info.

deezoid

I still can't decide if Reloaded was the most amazing film I've ever seen or just a great one. On one hand the fight scenes are amazing - but you can actually see the frame where it stops being live-action and becomes a souped-up PS2 beat 'em up. And on the other hand, I'd like to think I'm not dumb i.e. I understood Memento the first time I watched it - but could not for the life of me fathom what the fuk was going on in the Matrix (was the storyline too complex or just silly?)

deezoid

Lifted from www.comicon.com/pulse/ - Says exactly what I feltabout the movie in lots and lots of words.
WARNING: contains loads of spoilers - so read only if you've seen the movie!

Everything you need to know about THE MATRIX RELOADED is summed up by the fact that the role of the Wise Old Man is played by Anthony Zerbe. As one of the Councilors of Zion, the hidden underground city that is the last refuge of humanity, Zerbe must have felt right at home - he has a bit of experience with underground societies, if you recall THE OMEGA MAN. (He was also the leper colony leader in PAPILLION.) He's also one of the great underrated character actors and all around slimy villains of movies in the 70s and 80s.

And after watching MATRIX RELOADED, you realize that the Wachowski Brothers spent a LOT of time watching movies of the '70s and '80s. The first MATRIX contained so many homages and allusions to SF, HK and comic book movies that it was like a dictionary of visual literacy for the nerd crowd. MATRIX RELOADED (and surely MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, the sequel due in six months and made at the same time) changes the focus a bit -- this time the touchpoints are the Superman movies, the Star Trek movies, Star Wars, and, rather surprisingly THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

Is it any good? Dude, that is SO beside the point. MATRIX RELOADED may not be a great movie, but it contains much that is great movie making. After THE (Original Flavor) MATRIX opinion was divided: were the W. Bros great action directors with a great sense of story and an ability to spin profound ideas into a somewhat clumsy but genuinely affecting spiritual philosophy? Or were they great action directors who created a visual style that changed the face of moviemaking but surrounded it with a lot of pretentious claptrap?

MATRIX RELOADED proves that the second option is a bit closer to the truth, although the twaddle level isn't into the red zone. Every time something is happening on screen, it's riveting, and insanely beautiful. After watching the trailer a few times, I thought RELOADED looked kind of old hat...how wrong I was. The action - Trinity falling down a building surrounded by coiled silver bullet trails, like lethal slinkys; Neo blazing through the air, buildings and cars buckling in his wake; the twin albino henchmen who turn into electric blue ghosts with Medusa hair (actually a pretty direct lift from the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but they do it right here); people saved from certain death in the middle of roiling red explosions. I thought the Wachowskis couldn't top themselves for sheer spectacle.... but they did.

But the narrative is another matter. Every time someone opens their mouth, it becomes a 7-minute monolog on choice, fate, and destiny. and some other stuff that I tuned out on after the first few moments. The climax of the movie - Neo's being forced to choose in a lady or the tiger scenario - was so confusingly set-up that I still can't figure out what the two choices were. The most important speech of the whole movie is the most impenetrable scene in the whole movie. Keanu is forced to revert to Ted mode for this one. The most annoying person on screen is the Merovingian, a rogue computer program that has manifested itself as a character from a Milo Manara graphic novel. (Obviously, the choice of the French as the favored American enemy was obvious even before skullduggery in the UN.) You want to bash the Merovingian over the head with a merlot bottle when he goes on and on and on in an interminable soliloquy about power that stops the movie dead in its tracks.


But then you say, what is a Merovingian, anyway? First, a dynasty that ruled Gaul back around the Sixth Century, but most recently a Masonic order - oo, allusive! (Maybe the Wachowskis did steal this all from Grant Morrison!) There are so many echoes of Arthurian myth, classic SF and 19th century philosophy in this scene that you get a headache trying to figure it out. You find yourself praying the fighting will start again?

We do learn important things about the world of the Matrix this time out. Everyone guessed we'd see Zion, in RELOADED, and we do. What comes as a surprise is that after political rallies, the citizens of Zion get down, Cecil B. DeMille style, to funky beats and have a giant dance party orgy. When they are not busting a groove, the citizens of Zion are acting like a bad Star Trek movie, complete with meetings of the council, captains, scratchy costumes, and bizarre headpieces.

While THE MATRIX was set in a purposely dreamlike world to mirror the phony world constructed from a program by the evil machines who have enslaved the humans, RELOADED takes us to the REAL real world, a world of tedious bureaucracy, petty squabbles and wives who will not put out until you promise to behave. I'm not sure if it's a deliberate switch in tone, but it makes RELOADED a far more fragmented and uneven movie.

fisty

Matrix vs Matrix: Reloaded

Doesn't surpass it, have the impact the original had, or is as self contained as the original was.
However, has kick ass fight scenes and we learn more about how the matrix works.
All in all well worth going to see, you'll be blown away, especially when Neo is fighting all the Agent Smiths.
Just don't expect to leave the cinema as changed as you were when you first saw The Matrix.

Still funny seeing Trinity using real hacker tools to get into a system.
see the register for details:)