Reloaded and Revolutions were filmed at the same time, and are basically one movie. This is too bad, because the sophomore slump affects both. The surface aspects of The Matrix are exaggerated. Everyone wears sunglasses constantly. Everyone is wooden. Everyone talks in fortune cookie crap. Who is the Merovingian? What does he want? Nevermind, he's just an asshole. Smith? Asshole. Twins? Assholes, but well-dressed. Worst of all, the priorities of the movie have switched. I get that the sequels were designed to be opposite from the original, spending more time in the colorful Real World than the washed out Matrix. But nobody cares about the real world, that's why it's titled The Matrix. Furthermore, the whole addition of Zion seems crafted to build a "universe", full of weirdos who don't really matter,* unless you go buy the video game and MMO. Well, guess what. I've played both, and they still don't matter. Thankfully, we get Gloria Foster handling the technobabble with her usual Hepburn purr, but I just couldn't connect with the likes of Seraph or The Kid.
Animatrix was pretty good - but that was by people who knew that they were doing.
Revolutions, the second half, has some interesting twists. The Matrix is in upheaval. In a scary scene, we see the Matrix code flickering madly as Smith contaminates it, but we don't see his havoc. We're left to imagine it. The "Smithworld" finale is good. Unfortunately, we have to endure a really noisy, overlong battle in Zion, dividing our attention from scenes more critical to Neo's success.
The Matrix was probably not expected to succeed. I sure as hell wasn't interested in the original's trailer. What we didn't know back then, however, was that trailers often make a movie look worse than it is. To save money on costs, Joel Silver had it shot in Australia with a cast of mostly unknowns, resulting in a taut thriller with some interesting faces and boffo acting. And of course you've got the groundbreaking effects and kung-fu fights. The battles are choreographed, but the characters are supposed to react like machines, so you don't notice. By the end, the series simply got too big. The Matrix is not about philosophy or spaceships! It's about Robots versus Kung-fu!
The trilogy nobody wanted
Reloaded and Revolutions were filmed at the same time, and are basically one movie. This is too bad, because the sophomore slump affects both. The surface aspects of The Matrix are exaggerated. Everyone wears sunglasses constantly. Everyone is wooden. Everyone talks in fortune cookie crap. Who is the Merovingian? What does he want? Nevermind, he's just an asshole. Smith? Asshole. Twins? Assholes, but well-dressed. Worst of all, the priorities of the movie have switched. I get that the sequels were designed to be opposite from the original, spending more time in the colorful Real World than the washed out Matrix. But nobody cares about the real world, that's why it's titled The Matrix. Furthermore, the whole addition of Zion seems crafted to build a "universe", full of weirdos who don't really matter,* unless you go buy the video game and MMO. Well, guess what. I've played both, and they still don't matter. Thankfully, we get Gloria Foster handling the technobabble with her usual Hepburn purr, but I just couldn't connect with the likes of Seraph or The Kid.
Revolutions, the second half, has some interesting twists. The Matrix is in upheaval. In a scary scene, we see the Matrix code flickering madly as Smith contaminates it, but we don't see his havoc. We're left to imagine it. The "Smithworld" finale is good. Unfortunately, we have to endure a really noisy, overlong battle in Zion, dividing our attention from scenes more critical to Neo's success.
The Matrix was probably not expected to succeed. I sure as hell wasn't interested in the original's trailer. What we didn't know back then, however, was that trailers often make a movie look worse than it is. To save money on costs, Joel Silver had it shot in Australia with a cast of mostly unknowns, resulting in a taut thriller with some interesting faces and boffo acting. And of course you've got the groundbreaking effects and kung-fu fights. The battles are choreographed, but the characters are supposed to react like machines, so you don't notice. By the end, the series simply got too big. The Matrix is not about philosophy or spaceships! It's about Robots versus Kung-fu!