Matrix Reloaded

[Cheebs]

OK, just saw it. The 1st half was awful. Everything from the second half of the giant Smith fight on was great. Is it me, or did they tone down Neo's strength a ton? He didn't have one single "blurry fist" move in the whole movie, and it took him way too long to clear out all the rouge programs in the french resturant.

Sooo.... Here's my interpretation of what happened:

Zion is indeed in the real world, but it only exists because the machines alow it to exist. They use it as a place to dump all of the people who reject the matrix so the program doesn't become corrupted. Morphus and company provide this service (unknowingly) for the machines. Once too many minds are freed and Zion becomes a threat, it must be destroyed and the cycle begins again. The oracle only helped Neo everybody else to get Neo into that room.

[Megatron]

Thats it, I'm seeing it again to straighten some of my questions out.

[Gondolin]

Saw Reloaded with a bunch of my buddies Thursday evening on an IMAX screen, which was pretty cool in itself. Unfortunately, the sound was as loud as the screen was big... and as nice as the theater's soundsystem was (it performed without a hiccup), the volume was just a bit too high for my taste.

However, though the sound hurt my enjoyment of the film, I still liked the movie quite a bit. Not as much as the original, but wow some of the action and effects were indeed nice. As for the plot, eh, I'll wait until Revolutions to judge and see if they don't flesh out all of the ideas presented in Reloaded (and properly conclude the trilogy).

I've got to agree with everyone here about that tribal dance/orgy/sex between Neo and Trinity scene. It was completely out of place and, really, entirely unnecessary. I did like the cake scene, however... and don't have much to complain about as far as the long stretches of dialogue during certain parts of the film, either.

So, currently - when compared to the original - Reloaded gets about a 6.5 or a 7 out of 10 from me, which could change, for better or worse, depending on what the Wachowski brothers do with Revolutions.

Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
Sooo.... Here's my interpretation of what happened:

Zion is indeed in the real world, but it only exists because the machines alow it to exist. They use it as a place to dump all of the people who reject the matrix so the program doesn't become corrupted. Morphus and company provide this service (unknowingly) for the machines. Once too many minds are freed and Zion becomes a threat, it must be destroyed and the cycle begins again. The oracle only helped [edit] everybody else to get Neo into that room.

I think you've pretty much got it.

Gon

[Despair]

ANother thing to note is somewhat of overuse of Slow Motion 0 Bullet Time effect. Way too many scenes of camera slowing down to show characters or certain events. Like take for example the Freeway sequence - It would have been much better if camera didnt go into slow motion EVERY TIME some car crashed. It really broke the temp of the sequence, and after couple of times, you just stoped caring about it. I honestly havent seen that many NEW and Groundbreaking FX that Silver and Co were talking about. Thank god they didnt used infamous Bullet Dodge effect, but whats up with Morpheus doing Trinity-like Crane stance in the air. When leather clad chickj did it first time it was cool, but when somewhat overweight big black dude in thrench-coat does that it looks ridiculous

[Chux]

Was supposed to see it again today, but didnt. Picked up the original Matrix instead

[Sqoon]

I'd also like to add that I think most of the dialogue is absolute piffle and pointless jargon. Feels like the Wachowski brother's copied and pasted some German philosophy text into their screenplay.

The running parable in The Matrix was cool, but now that everything is spelt out Revolutions, it doesn't even seem half as cool, especially when coming from an Alec Guinness-wannabe or yet another French pompous stereotype.

[Geruto]

Saw it. My hightlight of the movie is the big chase. Really impressive what they've pulled off there. The beginning was nice too with Trinity jumping through the window etc. Otherwise it was a bit overdone at times plus the end was kinda lame. They've could've done that better imo instead of a simple cut and paste job. Still a great movie though.

[Starfox]

Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
OK, just saw it. The 1st half was awful. Everything from the second half of the giant Smith fight on was great. Is it me, or did they tone down Neo's strength a ton? He didn't have one single "blurry fist" move in the whole movie, and it took him way too long to clear out all the rouge programs in the french resturant.

Sooo.... Here's my interpretation of what happened:

Zion is indeed in the real world, but it only exists because the machines alow it to exist. They use it as a place to dump all of the people who reject the matrix so the program doesn't become corrupted. Morphus and company provide this service (unknowingly) for the machines. Once too many minds are freed and Zion becomes a threat, it must be destroyed and the cycle begins again. The oracle only helped Neo everybody else to get Neo into that room.

If Zion is in the 'real' world, how come Smith (the program) is able to intrude through the body of Bane? And how come Neo is able to manipulate those sentinels? I for one think you are right about what Zion is, but I would like to add that I think The Matrix is a layered system.

Other theory:
For five subsequent times there has been an equibalance between The One, and The Matrix. Every time Zion was destroyed a new One arrose. If Neo is able to survive, a second One might come and join him. When there are two Ones (without the machines knowing it), the tide could turn for the war.

[cka]

A guy on my forum elaborated a bit into one of my theories on M:R, and came out with his own personal theory, which I will now copy here. Be forewarned, it may not make sense if you don't understand programming (it took me a few passes to understand fully too):

cka, when you say the "top level" of the Matrix, do you mean the CPU? If so, I wonder if that encounter will become one of those "ooohh.. you were so close - if you only knew...." things in the sequel...

The Matrix within a Matrix only makes sense.. I didn't see it as much of a plot twist, but I was glad they put that in the movie, it actually made it make more sense. A Matrix within a Matrix or by our 'primitive 21st-Century standards' a Virtual Machine... =P

(please allow me to explain a bit where I'm going with this...)

Virtual Machines are software programs that emulate a virtual computer entirely in the host computer's memory. Thus large computational problems can be solved more cost effectively by using the aggregate power and memory of many computers. (ie: the shitload of data required to make a Matrix of this magnitude)

In present time aplpication, Virtual Machines are used to allow software to run on multiple platforms. For example, Java applets can execute on a virtual machine running on Windows, Linux or the MacOS.

Another feature of such virtual machines is that they keep applets contained to a software "sandbox"--preventing them from affecting the data on the computer. <-- And this is where I'm going with this post.. bear with me...

In order to attack virtual machines, one method is to "flip bits" - cause a random bit in memory to change value, from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0, by doing this you can break the security model that virtual machines rely on -- that the computer faithfully executes its instruction set.

You have broken out of the sandbox..

So you can attack the system by adding your own code into memory and then filling the remaining free memory with the address of the new code. For example, if you could fill 60 percent of memory with the addresses, a random bit flip would cause your attack code to run more than 70 percent of the time. In the remaining instances, a key program on the computer would crash instead. (so have the previous 'Ones' been somewhat successful and our 'ghost twins' are a product of this?)

Now if Neo, Morpheus etc. are truly in the future and there really is a struggle between some uber-powerful AI and a surviving remnant of the human race (which I am a little unsure of now that the "real world" is apparently a virtual machine - *notices primarily Asian-African population in Zion*) crashing the Matrix is going to be pretty difficult to say the least. (Although I digress, as processors and memory get faster, the energy needed to induce bit flips becomes smaller, suggesting that the above example technique will only become more effective, so it's hypothetically possible to crash the Matrix jacking in from the Nebuchadnezzar - if it really exists now.. sheesh!)

Just something to consider. The Java VM that comes with IE is actually teh matrix!11

Credit for that goes to Wintermute at the versuscity forums.

[arjue]

Just came back from it, and I loved it. It was as good as the first IMO. where the first was leaning more towards action, this one led more towards plot. Thats not to say that the action in this wasn't A class.

I can't wait for Revolutions. The end fight scene apparently goes for 15 minutes or so, and cost a whopping 80 million dollars to produce.

[Click_Stick]

Saw it last night, finally.

I'm pretty much with Mr-K on this one. I can't tell if I really enjoyed the movie. I hate to be a sourpuss, but:

The start of the movie was indeed slow and didn't really get anywhere. And I do think that the story wasn't planned out all that well.

The movie felt like this: stuff happens, stuff happens, story thrown at you in three minutes, stuff happens, stuff happens, more story within three minutes, stuff, stuff. The pacing was pretty poor. At some points I nearly forgot about what was going on: the Sentinels were getting closer and closer to attacking Zion. It never really felt like a threat because the movie did not feel very focused on any one thing.

I dunno, the movie never really grabbed me. The actions sequences didn't do that much to make me shake in marvel. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were absolutely ridiculous, but they didn't make the movie for me.

And god, that dance/rave crap was ridiculous. Totally unneccessary. [Yea, it's been said. But it bears repeating.]


But I don't want to completely put down the movie before I rewatch the original and Reloaded once again. Maybe I'm just missing something...and the movie was definitely confusing. Partly because they just throw so much at you within such a short period of time, but it's naturally confusing to analyze all the layers at once.

Nitpicks: Neo's CG model was definitely subpar in the Smith battle. I noticed that in the trailer, but it wasn't any better in the movie. At one point when Neo is using the pole to fend off the Smiths, Neo's hand looks completely unarticulated and unnatural. Plus his jacket shouts 'CG.'

And the fighting bothered me more this time around then during the original: everyone is too mechanical and stiff. [Maybe I'm being way too biased here, heh.]

[Drewbacca]

I thought some of his movements were very awkward, with his body looking like it was made of rubber or something. I liked the Architect and the way he talked, because the last sentence of every one was the only thing you had to pay attention to.

I also loved how the alternate responses relayed and he knew everything that was going on.

The machines know mankinds biggest strength, and turn it in to their biggest weakness: Hope. The One is designed to bring about this hope, falsly. They put their faith in him, when he's just apart of another system of control.

Chibi Nappa got the jist of it. I only had to watch it once to understand it, so i don't know why some of my friends went and saw it twice, unless they really liked that fighting scene.

[Rich]

I just went downstairs to get a glass of water this mornin', and the Matrix was on my counter.. I didn't think anything of it yesterday when I saw it because I thought it was the first, but alas, it was the second. I don't even know where it comes from. SCORE!

[Captain Vegetable]

That kid that Neo and Trinity were annoyed by has a huge roll in the third movie, as the actor's contract specifies he is obligated to preform in eps. 4-6, should the series go so long.

:whoa:

[Rumpy]

4-6? Good lord. Honestly, I'd be happy if the just made this a trilogy. That kid is in The Animatrix too...awesome tie in.

[JMET]

Ive been saying since the first that I hope they go beyond the first 3..

I would so love 4-6..

[maruchan]

I like this movie, it was pretty good.. The only promblem i had was the music used in Bruly Brawl, was i the only one that was saying POW, WAM, PLANK.. while singing MATRIX da da dada MATRIX...


I think it makes sense for a secondary Matrix, recall cause and effect. So once they realize that matrix isnt real, they have to send them to someplace they think is real, and their is zion

It also makes you woder, if the matrix programed an afterlife, once you die. And maybe thats another Matrix..

I think the ending should be a couple of kids, seing a Game OVER screen show up, then complain about how games are to hard these days.. and say this game sucks i give a 6 out of 10...

[frostwolf ex]

Originally posted by Sqoon

The running parable in The Matrix was cool, but now that everything is spelt out Revolutions, it doesn't even seem half as cool, especially when coming from an Alec Guinness-wannabe or yet another French pompous stereotype.

hmm, what interests me though is, i dont think what was said in this movie WAS true, or at least was the whole truth. I think/hope that there will be much more to it that will turn everything we learned here in a different light,kind of a giant robo type thing.

[cka]

Ep 4-6 would be like SW 1-3 syndrome. I personally hope it ends with 3, with MAYBE a 4th depending on how #3 ends.

[Delta]

hopefully it'll end with the third movie. the story in the second movie felt contrived and weak. i would hate to see the stories in the later movies if they go past revolutions.

and the fight scene with the smiths WAS NOT 10 minutes. it was 6 minutes. you guys and your exagerations!