Comments on: Matrix Algebra

By: Becca

Becca — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I have to disagree with this one. Matrix Reloaded was excellent. I think one of the reasons it’s getting such negative reviews is that people are really only reviewing half a movie. Once Revolutions comes out all, or it least most, will be understood. This movie was great, especially if you pay really close attention to those dialogue scenes. Of particuar interest was of course the conversation with the architect, but also with the guy who was guarding the oracle.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

people are really only reviewing half a movie.

Then maybe they should only have charged me $4.25 to see it. :-) The film should be self-contained. The Two Towers was only a “third of a movie,” if you like, but still much better than Reloaded.

if you pay really close attention to those dialogue scenes

I disagree. I think people are mixing up two things: (1) Having the Matrix-world be internally consistent, interesting and rich, and then seeing that conveyed in the dialogue; and (2) Putting a lot of references in the dialogue to everything from Baudrillard to the Gnostic Gospels. Lots of neat references are great, but I don’t think it gets you to (1).

By: Maciej Ceglowski

Maciej Ceglowski — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Becca, unless Matrix Revolutions has us wake up and realize that Matrix Reloaded was all part of a terrible dream, it can’t do much to help.

Kieran, thank you for a wonderful review. A tidbit I thought you might appreciate: my girlfriend calls the Architect “Evil Colonel Sanders”.

By: Walt Pohl

Walt Pohl — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Overly long action sequences? Surely you jest. Or did you want to see Keanu Reeves “act”?

By: Misanthropyst

Misanthropyst — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

As a viewer who thinks that the original “Matrix” belongs in the trifecta of must-see sci-fi films (along with “Dark City” and “Bladerunner”), I must agree with the negative review.

But the problems of doing a sequel to the orignal of this film makes me think of the inherent and unavoidable flaws in any sequel to flims like it.

Take as an example “Lethal Weapon”. The charm of that movie is that the lead character is depressed and suicidal and therefore an actual lethal weapon, for all concerned, including himself. The story involves his overcoming this through bonding with other people. So how do you do a sequel and keep the magic? You can’t. What would you call it? “Still Depressed and Dangerous, Yet Zany”?

In the original Matrix, Neo discovered the secret of the Matrix, and his one true love, how to overcome death, and that he was “The One”, with the power to bend the Matrix to his will. So what can he do in a sequel? Be in fight scenes and car chases. Yawn…

By: tc

tc — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

A popular theory is that Zion will turn out to be still part of the Matrix, which would explain some of the bizarre speechifying in Reloaded.

By: Frank McGahon

Frank McGahon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Matrix Reloaded is bad “Godfather III” style and bad “Heaven’s Gate” style. It is an execrable sequel to a tightly plotted lean stylish film and everything The Matrix wasn’t – flabby, incoherent with fight sequences that had a tenuous relationship to the plot. But it is also bad as a standalone movie(ignoring the fact that it would be incomprehensible to viewers unfamiliar with The Matrix) with laughably bad dialogue and ludicrous Phantom Menace style procedural rubbish. Also, confronted with the “utopia” of Zion, did nobody else feel they would prefer to remain blissfully unaware, plugged into the matrix?

By: Maynard Handley

Maynard Handley — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Not to mention that the trilogy seems to be losing it’s chance to be relevant and deep.
One could make a reasonable case that the first movie was basically about the corroding effect that television has had on modern life, especially (but not limited to) modern politics—- “If something false happens on TV, does the falseness matter. Hasn’t TV constructed a reality where all that matters is what is believed by those who watch it?”.

But like all analogies, this only works well and powerfully if one accepts it as an analogy.

Once you start going on about the details of Zion, how the Matrix was constructed etc, it’s obvious that one’s now deep in the world of an SF story independent of any sort of social analogy.

By: Walt Pohl

Walt Pohl — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’m surprised at all of the negative comments. I mean, it wasn’t as good as the original (how could it be), but consider:

By the end of the movie they had completely undermined the characters’ picture of the world. The rebels find out that they are not rebels at al: they are part of the system, and they are still under the system’s control. In fact, their whole rebelleous subculture was created by the system to channel the inevitable dissent. I think we can safely still read this as allegory…

By: Walt Pohl

Walt Pohl — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Damn. The comments software deleted my “SPOILER ALERT” tags. If I give anything away to someone who isn’t expecting it, I apologize.