The latest theatrical trailer for Matrix 2 left me blown away to say the least. I can honestly say that I am now going into the new Matrix movie expecting it to be the greatest action film of all-time. Anything else in my mind will be a let down. I found this review on the new Matrix flick by Kirk Honeycutt. I skipped over a few parts because I felt he was giving away too much but I felt his overall review was not a great one. Either way my expectations are still very high and am greatly looking forward to it. One part of the article that caught my attention. Each sequal for the Matrix cost over 300 million to make. Film Review: the Matrix Reloaded Mon May 5, 7:39 PM ET By Kirk Honeycutt LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Matrix" rewrote the text book for movie science fiction. The surprise 1999 sleeper hit -- Warner Bros. Pictures' biggest until "Harry Potter (news - web sites)" came along -- did what science fiction and fantasy often do: It questioned the nature of reality and drew inspiration from philosophy and Eastern and Western spiritual thought. But for its borrowings from Lewis Carroll, William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, among others, the movie stood as a unique creation. Its authors, the highly talented Andy and Larry Wachowski (news), pulled the movie's many themes and ideas together into one of the great entertainments in recent pop culture. Like "Blade Runner," "2001" and "Metropolis," the movie made us rethink the nature of our world. The "Matrix" phenomenon also inspired several books analyzing its references and cultural impact. "The Matrix Reloaded," the first of two sequels being released this year, points to the discouraging prospect that the Wachowskis may have read those books and started to believe in their own semimythological status, for the brothers seem to be taking themselves way too seriously. The first movie was pitched to a broad spectrum of moviegoers, combining the best elements of storytelling, action and computer and visual effects. While upping the ante considerably in the action and effects department, storytelling stumbles frequently this outing as the movie stops cold for philosophical digressions about fate and destiny and reality. These remind one ever so much of tortuous university lectures in symbolic logic on a warm spring day. Instead of Zen-influenced truths punctuating the action and characters' decisions as in the first installment, these now impede the narration. The film, of course, is a sure thing at the box office. In fact, each sequel, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" (coming Nov. 7) -- reportedly costing more than $300 million to make -- will easily pass the $460 million worldwide gross of the original film. Opening weekend for "Reloaded" should come close to $100 million, with a potential for a $300 million domestic box office. "Reloaded" wants to burrow much deeper into the complexity of both the Matrix, that computer-fabricated world that lulls its human slaves into the delusion of a normal life, and the "real" world, where liberated humans can battle artificially intelligent Machines. Perhaps the gamble here is that "The Matrix's" many fans will willingly sit through lengthy character introductions and further amplification of the philosophical realm in which the final battle must be won in order to lay the groundwork for "Revolutions." Like his character, a computer hacker who goes by the handle of Neo, Keanu Reeves (news) has clearly grown in conviction and physical agility to wear comfortably the dark clothes of the series' hero. Playing to the actor's strengths, the Wachowskis have made Neo in the mode of Western heroes played by Gary Cooper (news) and Alan Ladd -- strong, silent men who do what they have to do. Laurence Fishburne (news)'s Morpheus, Neo's spiritual guru and guide in the first episode, handles well the transition to someone who is not quite a sidekick yet must recede into a role that requires him to be the conduit of the Wachowskis' philosophical ruminations. Carrie-Anne Moss (news) returns as Trinity, the female warrior whose love for Neo and faith in Morpheus provide the rock from which both men can confidently battle. Her fights and stunts, especially a wild motorcycle ride during a freeway chase, continue to be the highlight of the series. She is the movies' best female action star since Linda Hamilton (news) in the "Terminator" series. "Reloaded" sends Neo on a personal quest to understand the nature of the task he accepted when he embraced his identity as the long-sought "One." To do so, Neo re-enters the Matrix. In his search for truth, he visits the Oracle (the late Gloria Foster (news)), protected by the fighter Seraph (Collin Chou); rescues the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who knows the system's weakness; encounters new foes in Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), a Matrix political heavyweight, his duplicitous trophy wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci (news)), and the Twins (English black-belt brothers Neil and Adrian Rayment), a silver-clad albino duo in dreadlocks; and finally encounters the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), the godlike creator of the Matrix. Meanwhile, a Machine army bores down on Zion, humanity's last enclave deep within the Earth. At times, its vast machines and torch-lit cavernous rooms remind one of a crowded cathedral where hope still rules. Another time, when everyone parties down, it looks like a rave. Zion's three heroes are aided by new characters including Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), an ex-flame of Morpheus'; the wise Councillor Hamann (Anthony Zerbe); Link (Harold Perrineau), a crewman on Morpheus' hovercraft; and Link's anxious wife, Zee (Nona Gaye (news)). The evil Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving (news)), so explosively "deleted" from the system in the original film, makes a startling comeback not only as a free agent loose within the Matrix but who has the ability to replicate himself 100-fold -- which leads to the movie's first great fight sequence and the first glimpse of one of the film's problems. Determined to one-up themselves in the area of effects, the Wachowskis move beyond "bullet time" -- those moments of slow motion seen by a camera moving at regular speed -- to put on film an epic rumble created through motion-capture data and virtual reality. This pits Neo against 100 Agent Smith clones in a city courtyard. Making and breaking the rules of 3-D animation, the sequence is technologically astonishing -- but repetitive and dull. Over and over, Neo slams aside these Agent Smiths, and over and over they spring back to attack. It's an amazing demonstration of movie magic, but it has virtually no impact on story or character. In fact, when Neo tires of the whole thing and simply flies up from the courtyard and away -- doing his "Superman thing," as Link puts it -- more than a few viewers may wonder: Why the hell he didn't do that in the first place? Unlike "The Matrix," all fights and stunts -- including a 14-minute freeway chase -- have a disturbing tendency to repeat intricately choreographed action. Thus, computer technology and overkill supplant the ingenuity of the original film's action. How this strategy of raising the bar in special effects and annotating most nonaction scenes with philosophical and mythological references will pay off in the final chapter may ultimately validate the Wachowski brothers' choices in this film. As the Matrix deteriorates in "Revolutions," much of "Reloaded" may resonate in ways we can now only imagine. Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and NPV Entertainment a Silver Pictures production. Cast: Neo: Keanu Reeves; Morpheus: Laurence Fishburne; Trinity: Carrie-Anne Moss; Agent Smith: Hugo Weaving; Niobe: Jada Pinkett Smith; Oracle: Gloria Foster; Persephone: Monica Bellucci; Seraph: Collin Chou; Zee: Nona Gaye; Keymaker: Randall Duk Kim; Commander Lock: Harry Lennix; Link: Harold Perrineau; The Twins: Neil Rayment, Adrian Rayment; Merovingian: Lambert Wilson. Credits: Screenwriters-directors: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski; Producer: Joel Silver; Executive producers: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Grant Hill, Andrew Mason, Bruce Berman; Director of photography: Bill Pope; Production designer: Owen Paterson; Music: Don Davis; Visual effects supervisor: John Gaeta; Costume designer: Kym Barrett; Editor: Zach Staenberg.
What I want to know is when are the Wachowski brothers gonna do a sequel to "Bound?" It could work as a trilogy IMHO.
all I know is that it better not suck busboy c*** for ketchup packets, or I'm going to blow a load of 1000 penis force onto the twin sisters who invented the matrix.
My expectations for this movie are that I fully expect this coming movie to be the greatest of all time.
If this movie is not a top five movie of all time I will be highly dissapointed. I don't think it will beat the two LOTR's, Titanic and ID4 (my opinion of course).
b/c i couldn't believe that, i did a quick google on it. it said combined they cost over 300 million not each. it did say they may have actually cost a lot more, but no one's talking. but i'm sure a lot more didn't mean another 150 million each. still, those are some nice sized numbers for sure. i never saw the original matrix in theaters, and i think the only full run through i saw was on tnt. but it still pulled me in. and now i'm extremely hyped (though not as much as many people) for the 15th. hopefully it lives up to everything. it won't have to be top 5 for me to not be disappointed, but it better be close. and it better beat xmen's 85 million from last weekend. since reloaded seems to be the most hyped movie i've ever heard about, it should stand a good chance. now if it can beat out harry potter's best weekend, that would be great. if it beats spiderman, that's just gravy.
I can GUARANTEE that the new Matrix will be top office box for four weeks in a row for a guaranteed two hundred million. AND the genious is they filmed them at the same time, which means their October debut will get the box office at #1 for at least six weeks, again at a guaranteed two hundred million. Pure genious, in my opinion, on how to capitalize on a hot product. Combine that with Euro sales and DVD's, and this is a guaranteed billion dollar franchise on the residuals alone. Kudo's to the marketing... EXCELLENT job. We just hope we get the hype's worth. (and, unfortunately, that will always be disappointing) Just enjoy the movie for what it is...... Another $6 to find out what happens to Neo, and you won't be disappionted. (And you can do a Matinee for 3.50 if you're really curious)
I am trying not to set my expectations to high because it seems everytime I do I walk out of the film feeling disapointed. I HOPE the movie is awesome although it will be tough to top the original movie............but, I hope they do
Time magazine SPOILES the Matrix sequel. DO NOT READ BELOW THIS LINE IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE...TURN BACK NOW! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED: Time magazine spoils THE MATRIX RELOADED Richard Corliss, what were you thinking? Dateline: Monday, May 5, 2003 By: PATRICK SAURIOL By: News Editor Warning: if you don't want to know what happen in THE MATRIX RELOADED before you go see it, don't pick up the new cover issue of TIME magazine dated May 13. In an article by TIME movie columnist Richard Corliss about the movie, the journalist stops halfway through his piece and then proceeds to lay bare almost every major story twist that take place in RELOADED. What makes this even harder to believe is that TIME magazine is owned by AOL Time Warner which is the parent company that owns the Warner Bros. movie studio. 18 months ago readers on the MATRIX portion of the Coming Attractions message boards became the first to learn of major story details that took place in THE MATRIX RELOADED. Readers who had access to the movie's screenplay posted the names of new characters and details about crucial moments from the film, as well as climactic secrets that took place. The scriptment attracted the attention of the MATRIX filmmakers, who asked Warner Bros. to contact CA and request that we remove the information. It was, and the secrets were kept safe for all this time. That is, until TIME magazine's article came along.
The few reviews that I have seen (including Time's sort-of review) seem to want us to lower expectations, realizing that this film is basically half of one story. The first half of this movie opens with a bang but then wanders through Zion and exposition and such; then gears up in the 2nd half. In other words, will the wordy first half of THIS movie pay off in the 2nd sequel? Standing alone, it makes up for mumbo-jumbo. That's what I gather. But I think the movie will be very good, and will be seen as great when the story arc is completed in "Revolutions." As far as box office, who knows? It's rated R. So lop off some money there. Still, this geek says it'll haul in the most ever for an R film, maybe $300 million. At X2, I overheard more than a few parents talking with their kids about seeing The Matrix 2.
With the way it's been hyped, if it isn't the best movie i've ever seen, I'll be dissapointed. It's going to be good, I think that's a given. But how many 'good' movies come out every year? This movie need to be spectacular, at the least.
I'm expecting A LOT of CGI and special wacky camera stuff. I just want some action and according to the reviews, this movie has it...
I thought it was going to be a great movie until I heard about the Yoda cameo, that just ruined it for me...
I'm still holding onto the theory that its better than getting *** from a 26-headed surfer chick if I have an additional twelve d***s. I still think that's the funniest comment in a review I have read in a long time.
Careful there buckwheat. Stuff like that will send this thread the way of the fake id thread... into the garbage.
Edited for those who didnt get my quote of the "AintItCool" Matrix review from last week. Besides, 26 heads is pretty weird.
My expectations, nothing less than a 10 on the Orgasmic Richter Scale. Very important guys, the trailer for Matrix Revolutions will air.
