alrighty. I don't use the word "gay" lightly. I know it's popular with little kids to describe something that's lame or weak, and that's terribly wrong and i'm against that. I am. I use it only to describe people who are infact actually homosexual, which is cool, or something or other that has tried so hard to be tough and manly and heterosexual that it's gone way over the top and tried too hard and come right back around to being completely ... well, gay. You know, like that Creed video called "Bullets" that' s computer animated with the lead singer cock-dude as a fighting warrior angel, all beefed up with a flaming sword n' shit? You should watch it, it's awful. That's what i'm talking about. That video tries so hard to be tough, and it's too far, and so it fails, and that's what i call 'gay'. And this movie, my friends, is SO FUCKING GAY soooooooooo bad. so long and bad and lame and pointless, i can hardly describe it to you. I would watch that Creed video for 2 hours straight rather than see this thing again. You know how i hate Lord of the Rings? Fuck that. I fucking EMBRACE LOTR and all of it's parts and appologize for everything because goddamn i am upset right now, and i don't even know if i could watch the first matrix again. It was just that GAY. I'll say more later, i need smokes. Possibly alcohol. Do not pay to see this movie. See X2. See it twice! The poor nerd boy in front of me just started banging his fists on the armrests yelling "crap crap crap CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP...." as soon as the credits came up.

Every single "wow" moment is in the trailer. It plays out like bad fanfiction. In the first one there is no spoon. In the second one there is no plot. I have made a pact with people to not watch the third one, at least not in theatres. So disillusioned. So angry. Yes, it is so gay. Beyond Ricky Martin gay.

I know I wasn't supposed to read this if I didn't see it, but I couldn't help myself. I wasn't a huge fan of the first one, and although Spunky is totally psyched about this movie, I could care less. Thanks guys. Now I know what not to expect when I am forced to subject myself to losing two hours of my life on something I already had serious doubts about. Do you think that somehow the third movie (due out this summer, too for some fucking insane reason) will tie the second one to the first one, blah blah blah, and it will all redeem itself? Do you see any kind of possibility of that?

Its like this. At the end of the first Matrix, Neo says: “I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules or controls, borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.” that promises Neo changing peoples minds from within the Matrix, revolutionary use of his power. Kinda like someone rising to the head of a major corporation only to destroy it. That is awesome. This movie is nothing but non stop (cheesy) action sequences with no new innovations, but rehashing a lot of the same techniques, new versions of the famous bullet time shot, over and over again. Its actually very very boring. Especially seeing as Neo is all powerful, he's invincible, thus boring. Like in the Spawn movie, there can be no tension. And the first one is the ship and the Matrix and Zion is this mythical place. There was the 'real world' of the ship and the other 'real world' (1999 Matrix) with real streets and buildings and such. This one is a bunch of mythical looking setpieces, backdrops, making it all epic and distant. And when you see what Zion is like and they try to make the story so much bigger, it all falls apart. It crumbles under the weight of the universe the filmmakers create - they basically George Lucas'd the hell out of it. It is more Episode 1 than Episode 1, if thats possible. I dont see how it could redeem itself, if only because the loose ends that could be tied up exist only from the second Matrix, and the real connections to the first one have been completely forsaken and overlooked in favor of creating this new world, this expanded universe of the Matrix and explaining that, instead of telling an actual fucking story that truly continues from the first film.

the action scenes are so long, drawn out, overdone and non-stop it only gives you time to ponder the large and significant plot holes. "i thought Neo could fly? can't he fly? why isn't he flying? oh, there he goes. Why didn't he do that 10 minutes ago? Can't he just kill them all? My god, that looks lame." coupled with speech after dramatic speech about choice and reality and upgrades and choices and bravery and a nasty sex scene that i thankfully ran out of to go pee. And then they cram in all this matrix-lore bullshit, with councils and religions and "but the prophecy! the prophecy!" "I don't care about your damn prophecy!" and.... fuck, where are the Ewoks. next comes the final, and then the novel series. Then maybe a tv mini-series! Oh, won't that be neato?!

and i should say also that i don't hate action scenes. I loves me a good action scene. And i love the Matrix, i think it's wonderful. like so many films, it was fine on it's own. but if you really really really love effects shots and half-hour fight/chases, this is indeed the movie for you.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert THE MATRIX RELOADED 3.5 stars (R) May 14, 2003 Neo Keanu Reeves Morpheus Laurence Fishburne Agent Smith Hugo Weaving Trinity Carrie-Anne Moss Oracle Gloria Foster Niobe Jada Pinkett Smith Zee Nona Gaye Lock Harry Lennix Link Harold Perrineau Persephone Monica Bellucci Twins Neil and Adrian Rayment Warner Bros. presents a film written and directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (for sci-fi violence and some sexuality). BY ROGER EBERT Commander Lock: "Not everyone believes what you believe." Morpheus: "My beliefs do not require that they do." Characters are always talking like this in "The Matrix Reloaded," which plays like a collaboration involving a geek, a comic book and the smartest kid in Philosophy 101. Morpheus in particular unreels extended speeches that remind me of Laurence Olivier's remarks when he won his honorary Oscar--the speech that had Jon Voight going "God!" on TV, but in print turned out to be quasi-Shakespearean doublespeak. The speeches provide not meaning, but the effect of meaning: It sure sounds like those guys are saying some profound things. That will not prevent fanboys from analyzing the philosophy of "The Matrix Reloaded" in endless Web postings. Part of the fun is becoming an expert in the deep meaning of shallow pop mythology; there is something refreshingly ironic about becoming an authority on the transient extrusions of mass culture, and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) now joins Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Plato of our age. I say this not in disapproval, but in amusement. "The Matrix" (1999), written and directed by the brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, inspired so much inflamed pseudo-philosophy that it's all "The Matrix Reloaded" can do to stay ahead of its followers. It is an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure, combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts, chases and explosions, romance and oratory. It develops its world with more detail than the first movie was able to afford, gives us our first glimpse of the underground human city of Zion, burrows closer to the heart of the secret of the Matrix, and promotes its hero, Neo, from confused draftee to a Christ figure in training. As we learned in "The Matrix," the Machines need human bodies, millions and millions of them, for their ability to generate electricity. In an astonishing sequence, we saw countless bodies locked in pods around central cores that extended out of sight above and below. The Matrix is the virtual reality that provides the minds of these sleepers with the illusion that they are active and productive. Questions arise, such as, is there no more efficient way to generate power? And why give the humans dreams when they would generate just as much energy if comatose? And why create such a complex virtual world for each and every one of them, when they could all be given the same illusion and be none the wiser? Why is each dreamer himself or herself, occupying the same body in virtual reality as the one asleep in the pod? But never mind. We are grateful that 250,000 humans have escaped from the grid of the Matrix, and gathered to build Zion, which is "near the Earth's core--where there is more heat." As the movie opens, we are alarmed to learn that the Machines are drilling toward Zion so quickly that they will arrive in 36 hours. We may also wonder if Zion and its free citizens really exist, or if the humans only think so, but that leads to a logical loop ending in madness. Neo (Keanu Reeves) has been required to fly, to master martial arts, and to learn that his faith and belief can make things happen. His fights all take place within virtual reality spaces, while he reclines in a chair and is linked to the cyberworld, but he can really be killed, because if the mind thinks it is dead, "the body is controlled by the mind." All of the fight sequences, therefore, are logically contests not between physical bodies, but between video game-players, and the Neo in the big fight scenes is actually his avatar. The visionary Morpheus, inspired by the prophecies of the Oracle, instructed Neo--who gained the confidence to leap great distances, to fly and in "Reloaded" destroys dozens of clones of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in martial combat. That fight scene is made with the wonders of digital effects and the choreography of the Hong Kong action director Yuen Wo Ping, who also did the fights in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It provides one of the three great set pieces in the movie. The second comes when Morpheus returns to Zion and addresses the assembled multitude--an audience that looks like a mosh pit crossed with the underground slaves in "Metropolis." After his speech, the citizens dance in a percussion-driven frenzy, which is intercut with Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) having sex. I think their real bodies are having the sex, although you can never be sure. The third sensational sequence is a chase involving cars, motorcycles and trailer trucks, with gloriously choreographed moves including leaps into the air as a truck continues to move underneath. That this scene logically takes place in cyberspace does not diminish its thrilling 14-minute fun ride, although we might wonder--when deadly enemies meet in one of these virtual spaces, who programmed it? (I am sure I will get untold thousands of e-mails explaining it all to me.) I became aware, during the film, that a majority of the major characters were played by African Americans. Neo and Trinity are white, and so is Agent Smith, but consider Morpheus; his superior Commander Lock (Harry Lennix); the beautiful and deadly Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), who once loved Morpheus and now is with Lock, although she explains enigmatically that some things never change; the programmer Link (Harold Perrineau); Link's wife, Zee (Nona Gaye), who has the obligatory scene where she complains he's away from home too much, and the Oracle (the late Gloria Foster, very portentous). From what we can see of the extras, the population of Zion is largely black. It has become commonplace for science fiction epics to feature one or two African-American stars, but we've come a long way since Billy Dee Williams in "Return of the Jedi." The Wachowski brothers use so many African Americans, I suspect, not for their box-office appeal, because the Matrix is the star of the movie, and not because they are good actors (which they are), but because to the white teenagers who are the primary audience for this movie, African-Americans embody a cool, a cachet, an authenticy. Morpheus is the power center of the movie, and Neo's role is essentially to study under him and absorb his mojo. The film ends with "To Be Concluded," a reminder that the third film in the trilogy arrives in November. Toward the end, there are scenes involving characters who seem pregnant with possibilities for Part 3. One is the Architect (Helmut Bakaltis), who says he designed the Matrix and revises everything Neo thinks he knows about it. Is the Architect a human, or an avatar of the Machines? The thing is, you can never know for sure. He seems to hint that when you strip away one level of false virtual reality, you find another level beneath. Maybe everything so far is several levels up? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time tells the story of a cosmologist whose speech is interrupted by a little old lady who informs him that the universe rests on the back of a turtle. "Ah, yes, madame," the scientist replies, "but what does the turtle rest on?" The old lady shoots back: "You can't trick me, young man. It's nothing but turtles, turtles, turtles, all the way down." *************HOWEVER************** Chicago Tribune Mark Caro C- "Although the technical aspects don't disappoint, the human ones do. Action scenes can't be heart-stopping if the story hasn't gotten your ticker going to begin with." Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan C If a concept is to sustain itself over a multipart story, it must make an emotional connection, and this 'Reloaded,' especially with stars cast for their lack of affect and affinity for blankness, cannot do that." MSNBC Kirk Honeycutt C- "The Wachowskis may have… started to believe in their own semimythological status, for the brothers seem to be taking themselves way too seriously." New York Times Elvis Mitchell "[The Wachowski brothers] relentless love of movies, junk-food mythology and thoughtful reimagining of a future endangered by mass consumption and proliferation of pleasure to the point of soullessness makes for a heady and unusual mix." Slate David Edelstein D "'The Matrix Reloaded' is as messy and flat-footed as its predecessor is nimble and shapely. It's an ugly, bloated, repetitive movie that builds to a punch line that should have come an hour earlier (at least)."

This is interesting. My brother has seen this movie four times, four days in a row. He liked it a lot -- like the action sequences and liked the philosophy behind everything, and he's not a dumb guy. I guess I'll have to rent the first one and then see this one, to come to my own conclusions. (Am I the only one here who's never seen the first one?)

Probably. I did think that they did a horrible job of combining the philosophical parts with the asskicking parts. You can't deny the eye candy though. The car chase scene was fantastic. I feel so bad for poor little Terminator 3, sandwiched inbetween the two Matrix movies. Still, it should have been more plot, less pow. It was like BANG BANG BANG BANG shuddering halt, ponder ponder ponder BANG BANG BANG BANG. That being said, I enjoyed it tremendously. So, anyone else think that the "real world" (with Zion, etc) is a level of the Matrix, with what the characters regard as the Matrixa sub level?

yes, how else can you explain the fact that Neo can stop sentinels. I did really like the idea that Smith could take over the mind/body of one of the free people and then get himself uploaded into their body. I was not impressed with the music video/sex sceen. nor did i find the philosophy to have anything real intelligent/ insightful to say. The action was good. The CG was good, but the 100 agents sucked.... you could see the individual actors/extras..... really, can they not cut and paste CG stuff, like faces??? and if he can fly, why bother fighting in the first place?

Because he's still Keanu Reeves. The whole downloading into a "real" human was what first clue'd me into the idea that what we see is all computer program in that movie.

i'm getting tired of the recent trend in fictional media that nothing in the end is real, deaths don't matter cause they're not real people even in the context of the film. [saw identity last night] i can only think that whatever the resolution of the matrix, it won't be very satisfying. it's all the dream of an old machine i'll watch anyway, for the effects and some of the amazingly choreographed scenes- but it just seems a waste of time to discuss the rest of it. then again, perhaps we should appreciate it in an economy that might not support another in the near future.

the first 100 agent fight was fun for the first bit, but it just kept going and going and going, also the CGI Neo looked like crap, or rather, looked like CGI. And then they did the same damn fight again, but in the hallway at the end..?! what's up with that? And Morpheus doing his big crowd speech was beyond silly. I did enjoy the new levels of the matrix/zion/reality story, but it was all so streched out in those long painful back and forth pseudo-phylosophical rants/question periods with Neo and between the action..... it's interesting but it took too long to get it out so i stopped caring. Zion as part of the matrix.... Orwel really did think of everything first, didn't he?

Orwell was/is the Architect.

I thought he looked more like Robert Anton Wilson.

I liked the movie, although it does require that you put your "thinking cap" on. It tends to be a little more intellectual and thready than just fun for the sake of fun. I'd give it an A- except for the ending. I hate "to be continued" movies with a passion.

bones,yes,i hate them to be continued crap endings also,when you pay your money,you expect the hero to live or die.none of this martial arts kick at film crew stuff,like enter the dragon,i think,where bruce lee jumps 20 foot in air with 20 police officers pointing guns at him,did he live or die,20 years later,i do not find out.

To quote a director from the movie "if it's special effects and the fight scene you want to see, watch the first one, if it is the story that interests you, watch this one"

well yes,you have a point.

that's strange, i think of it the opposite way.