I went to see The Matrix Reloaded this afternoon. My first thought on leaving the cinema? 'There's two and a half hours of my life I'll never get back.'
I never really swallowed the hype about the first movie. I thought it was a pretty good action movie with some excellent special effects but the 'deep and meaningful' script seemed to me like it had been written by someone who'd just read Existentialism for Dummies and half a Philip K Dick book then bashed out a few over-wordy scenes that could eat up some screen time while the special effects team recovered between sequences. My only question about what was real and what was not was wondering if Keanu Reeves really was that bad an actor.
I can only think that the sequel was written after consulting with a sarcastic focus group: 'What we really want to see in a sequel is more scenes where people reel off pseduo-philosophical dialogue at each other. Oh, and by the way, we really love all those scenes in the Star Wars movies where Councils sit around discussing things for ages.' Or maybe the Wachowski brothers are just in a competition with George Lucas to see who can stick in the most pointless scenes inbetween all the action sequences. They also had a pretty good go at beating Attack of the Clones' records for 'most nonsensical plot' and 'least convincing romantic subplot', but Lucas was just too good for them.
To be fair, the action sequences are pretty good (especially the car chase) but even then, there's very little sense of danger to the heroes just a lot of 'wow, see how much money we can throw at this sequence!' I have the feeling that being able to spot the parts that are animated is going to be the 21st century's equivalent of spotting the wires holding up the models in 20th century films.
One last thought: the conflict between Neo and Agent Smith is clearly based on the conflict between the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote. Lots of elaborate plans and property damage, but he never really gets close to catching him.
Knew I should have gone and seen X-Men 2 instead.
I never really swallowed the hype about the first movie. I thought it was a pretty good action movie with some excellent special effects but the 'deep and meaningful' script seemed to me like it had been written by someone who'd just read Existentialism for Dummies and half a Philip K Dick book then bashed out a few over-wordy scenes that could eat up some screen time while the special effects team recovered between sequences. My only question about what was real and what was not was wondering if Keanu Reeves really was that bad an actor.
I can only think that the sequel was written after consulting with a sarcastic focus group: 'What we really want to see in a sequel is more scenes where people reel off pseduo-philosophical dialogue at each other. Oh, and by the way, we really love all those scenes in the Star Wars movies where Councils sit around discussing things for ages.' Or maybe the Wachowski brothers are just in a competition with George Lucas to see who can stick in the most pointless scenes inbetween all the action sequences. They also had a pretty good go at beating Attack of the Clones' records for 'most nonsensical plot' and 'least convincing romantic subplot', but Lucas was just too good for them.
To be fair, the action sequences are pretty good (especially the car chase) but even then, there's very little sense of danger to the heroes just a lot of 'wow, see how much money we can throw at this sequence!' I have the feeling that being able to spot the parts that are animated is going to be the 21st century's equivalent of spotting the wires holding up the models in 20th century films.
One last thought: the conflict between Neo and Agent Smith is clearly based on the conflict between the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote. Lots of elaborate plans and property damage, but he never really gets close to catching him.
Knew I should have gone and seen X-Men 2 instead.
Nick got away with this at 8:56 PM
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