Perhaps More detailed personal review later (I’d give it 8 out of 10 — or maybe 7), but I thought I’d just ask this (for those who have seen it):
All below is the opinion of Craig:
So was I the only one who was completely bored with Zion?
Government/cutlure of Zion? Couldn’t care.
New operator’s family/wife? Yawn
dance at temple: BOOOOOORing
love triangle tween Morpheus, and the commander whose name I don’t remember: Who gives a shit?
Seriously – when I get the DVD, I’ll be doing much fast-forwarding.
Hello, Pacing?
Ugh. Good fodder for myst3king in the theatre quietly though.
Once we hit the Matrix and the meaty storyline, things were MUCH better.
I HOPE Zion gets destroyed. Filthy Hippies. 😉
8 or 7? Hrm….
I’d give it a 1. I have a very active imagination and can easily suspend my disbelief – but this was like, painful. There is not one single compelling character line throughout the entire movie! I didn’t *care* when Trinity died (and I loved that character in the original!), I didn’t care when when Zion was destroyed, or anything else that occurred for that matter. And who the fuck is that french guy? He has got to go. The only thing that had potential where his two albino henchmen, and their demise just seems stupid in a movie like this with the capabilities they were given.
The action scenes would have been better had they not slow-mo’d them through the totally mundane moments. Bullet time has been raped. We don’t know (nor care) why Smith has this “connection” with Neo and is hell bent on destroying him apparently because he is as bored with Keanu Reeves as we are. Why didn’t Neo just SHOOT the architect? The bit about vampires and ghosts being wayward programs and anomalies was painful, I cringed in the scene where Neo received the spoon (from a character who’s sole purpose is annoying and then supposedly just ends up dying in Zion anyway). The keymaker bit and the back doors, while I know this idea is based on programming practices, ended up being just lame. In addition to the points you raised in this entry I could go on much much longer.
It is probably the worst movie I’ve seen in quite some time. At least the original is still good.
I certainly see your critiques, and I happen to share them (though not as strongly, since I feel similarly about problems in the 1st film – Just happen to enjoy the look and feel and spirit of the story enough not to mind.)
I don’t think Zion is destroyed yet — the guy was from the counter-attack where they were all destroyed.
I also think the Twins are still around. At the top of the explosion you could see them going into their “astral/desolid” forms.
I thought the main problem can be summed up with “over-exposition” The first movie was vaugue, rolled out ideas. This movie seemed to be cramming the story down my throat. (with Keanu, that might not be a bad thing 😉 ).
But as I said, I don’t place the first movie on any pedestal (I don’t think it was a great movie, I just happen to really really like it.)
Cut out Zion, clean up the exposition (drop the dumb Word Of Darkness nods. Yes, we all now know the W bros. play “MAGE.”) and it would have been a decent follow up to the first movie.
IMHO, of course.
OMG YES! It was totally like the movie was based on a role playing game! That is what I was thinking throughout the entire second movie. The first, I must admit, is one of my favorites. It was fresh, original, and it did break new ground in the way movies are done.
I did remember thinking that the first one seemed like an idea developed from a Mage game, and the second movie completely reinforced that.
Overall though the movie going effect for me was atrocious with this one. I found myself simply not caring what happened to these people, who are totally not the same people as in the first one, and waiting for this to end.
Needs less pants
I thought the first 20-30 minutes were complete and utter crap, save only the little battle suit with the big guns, I cannot wait to see more of those…
Now, that part aside, I thought the rest of the movie was just lovely.
I really enjoyed most of the fight scenes. Even when Neo looked completely fake while fighting Mr. Smith, I found myself enjoying the comic book feel to the situation.
Hmm… I wanted to express deeper opinions, but I’m out of time…. tommorow I should have time to write a bit more 🙂