Matrix Reloaded

[dreamshark]

My first reaction was, "What an incoherent mess of a movie!" but after thinking it over for a while I decided it wasn't really THAT bad - it's just a much inferior movie to its predecessor. I am emphatically NOT a fan of action movies, but I loved The Matrix. Even saw it twice and liked it even more the second time. The pacing in that movie was so good that action movie fans were barely irritated by the complicated back-story and back-story fans had plenty of stuff to think about on the rare occasion when an action scene went on long enough to become boring. The W Bros. seem to have completely lost their sense of pacing in this second movie, resulting in irritation for all. I found the two extended action sequences so tedious after the first couple of minutes that I wished I'd brought a book. Apparently action junkies were equally bored by the "slow" first half of the movie, with all that time wasted introducing characters and background. Judging by the chatter on the forums I looked at, a surprising number of young action-fans were bored or grossed out by the *eww* sex and orgy scenes (I kinda liked them, myself). And I think pretty much everybody began to realize how stupid epigrammatic dialogue can sound when surrounded by too much time to think about it. ("We're here to do what we're here to do.") However, there were some intriguing new characters, some marvelous imagery, and a few new ideas. Maybe "ideas" is putting it too strongly. More like cryptic clues about what might REALLY be going on. We won't know until the third installment whether it all fits together into a coherent story. After seeing this movie, I have less faith in that happening than I did after the first one, unfortunately. But it still could happen.

Comments

[ssprince.livejournal.com]

I borrowed a tape of The Matrix from a friend, not knowing whether I really wanted to watch it. On your recommendation I will... real soon now... the decrepitude of my main computer led me to bring the new one out of the bedroom and put it where the TV is supposed to go....

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it and enjoyed, even more, discussing the back story and possibilities posed by this episode with geeky friends who have seen the film. I think, overall, that our ideas are probably cooler than what the writers have planned, but I hold out hope.

I agree that this movie was unevenly paced. The first film built to a nice pace that this film just didn't match. I also found myself more disoriented in this film: what was happening when? where was action taking place? I think the dream/flashback device contributed to that.