Another case of me going “WTF?” over my old review. Best in trilogy indeed I don’t know what I was thinking – though I fully remember watching it that time and finding something about it I really loved, I have no idea what it was, and this time around was just exactly the same as the first time … just a huge, pointless, rambling disappointment.

I’ll give it the showdown between Neo and Smith – that’s what we’re here for. And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, again I slightly underappreciated the visuals of this finale in the past. But really even here the movie lets itself down entirely, when Smith delivers a 100% convincing monologue about “the vagaries of perception” that Neo’s pathetic, “Because … I choose to!” can do nothing to defeat. It’s just a shambles really, I don’t even wanna try saying any more about it. It’s a beautiful, slick shambles with a great fight at the end … but it’s still a shambles.

April 15th, 2004:

Now dare I say it… I think this is the best in the trilogy. I know, I’m as shocked as anyone. My advice to anyone who saw this in the cinema and came out practically even hating the first because it was so bad, is watch it again… really, truly, watch it again.

All of the Matrix movies have major flaws… they’re not Citizen Kane, The English Patient, Fight Club – how much you let those flaws ruin the experience though, is up to you, because there’s undeniably as many great moments as flaws. My thoughts on this trilogy lead me so far to one difficult conclusion, that they’re really not cinema – they’re art, but they’re something beyond cinema, because the audiences’ reactions to the movies, especially the sequels, is as telling as the concepts in the movies themselves.

It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m convinced that one day, if I grow to love one movie in the Matrix Trilogy, Revolutions will be that movie. But again, I have to say… the jury’s still out. But Smith’s final speech gives me chills more than anything in the series.

First off, I’m crazy for what I wrote in both those reviews below. I have seen this movie surely 5 or more times now and, again as with the original, it was only this time around that I finally realised just how brilliant the effects sequences – not just the big lorry crash climax – are here. It’s not as together as the first movie, that’s for sure, and it does end with that hideous cliffhanger that still makes me laugh my ass off … also, kinda like what I noticed about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when watching it with non-readers, I noticed here how you really need to have seen the Animatrix shorts between the original and this because there are at least a couple of “huh?” moments if you haven’t. It is still a hell of a lot of fun though, all the way, and especially having watched Revolutions again just now and realised how bad it is, as a sequel to a movie that really didn’t need ‘em, they don’t come much better than this.

April 14th, 2004:

My initial reaction to this installment of the Matrix Trilogy was a little spoiled, a basic, “Whatever,” aside from the lorry crash which continues to meet my highest expectations like no other moment in the whole trilogy.

One of the series’ biggest flaws struck me on this viewing of Reloaded – Don Davis’ score. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great music, but I find that it’s a little like Joel Silver’s hype interviews that filled movie news shows all around the movies’ release dates – it overplays every single moment, making it sound like something is happening that’s infinitely, even impossibly, grander than what is actually happening on screen. It’s impossible to put this into words on the page, I’d have to play you clips of the score or something… but I’m sure it’s a definite problem.

The Burly Brawl is the biggest let down in the trilogy – call me spoiled, tell me that ridiculous defence “It’s all in a computer anyway, it’s not meant to look real!” (seriously I read this a few times…), but the virtual actors just don’t cut it yet, I don’t care how much they spent developing the technology. The funny thing is, there are places where they do work, in fast motion, etc, you can tweak them to make them work; but like idiots, they just had to go too far, put virtual actors into slow motion bullet time, so there’s no escaping scrutiny, and they fall apart before your eyes.

After watching the whole trilogy in order once more, I’ve changed my mind a lot about Revolutions and realise that this installment, Reloaded is the real letdown. Having said that, it’s the biggest ride and I could still watch it perhaps more readily than the other two. Like I said in my review of The Matrix, the jury is out on what the Matrix Trilogy means to me… but they’re endlessly intriguing.

Old review found! Courtesy of Archive.org – May 23rd, 2003:

I just wanted to write a few words on this movie, ‘cos despite my (current) slightly undecided feeling about it, it still blew me away. Why am I undecided on the matter? Why because, that is my purpose… just kidding :-p The third movie Revolutions is gonna be absolutely crucial to anyone’s final judgement on Reloaded and the whole series (though it has to be said, whatever the outcome, the first movie will always be a standalone masterpiece).

This may or may not be spoiler laden, I don’t know, I don’t care, there, I mentioned it. The movie ends, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the title, “To be concluded…” But that’s not all. It ends with a lingering shot of the ‘evilly-bearded guy’ and a hysterically funny music stab (I kid not, we’re talking of the dun-dun-DUHHHHHH brand of musical cue found only in parodies). I sincerely hope there was some tongue-in-cheek here and I don’t mean Trinity’s tongue or Neo’s cheek, ‘cos personally, I almost had to laugh out loud at the cheesiness of this moment.

Secondly, the BIG effect (you’ll know it when you see it) that ends the much-touted car chase is the ONLY thing in Reloaded that reaches the jaw-dropping peaks that the first movie was filled with. Revolutions simply MUST have more scenes of this calibre to make the series worthwhile. But boy, when it hits that peak, it goes beyond, any movie for the next 5 years will be pushed to match this effects shot.

A lot of people don’t like the Wachowski’s dialogue… I say they’re missing the point, I don’t know how to elaborate on that. They did the same in Bound, and I personally love the coldness of it.

This is all surface-matter. I think the true value of this installment in particular will be revealed in further more scrutinising viewings. There’s effects here that are hidden, like the matrix itself is described by the Oracle, when it goes right, people don’t notice, but when it goes wrong, you hear about it a lot. There’s a lot wrong here. But there’s LOTS to like, so pay attention. I’d recommend the Animatrix for anyone wanting that little bit extra depth (“Beyond” in particular… I want to write about that at another time, simply the most beautiful animation I’ve ever seen… the light… but I’ll write about it another time).

Like the ad says… Free your mind. You might like it.

Well, in answer to the question posed below, yes, it’s the original and best. I’m sure I must’ve reviewed this since 2004, but it must’ve gone missing so I apologise if I repeat myself (and if this sounds rushed, then it’s because the original version of this got lost in a disconnect fiasco).

I was pleased looking at the IMDb page for the movie to find that it won a fistful of technical Oscars in 2000 – which is even cooler when you remember that the movie actually came out pretty early in ‘99. It came practically out of nowhere, was never really talked about as so many mega-budget event movies are, and yet, almost 10 years on (which means I’ll be watching it again next year for sure – scary though!) it still blows my mind, if anything, more with every viewing. I don’t think I’d ever appreciated the complexity of the whole rooftop helicopter sequence as much as I did this time around.

And what this installment of the trilogy has over the sequels is something that kind of makes me loathe to even call it a trilogy anymore, and that’s its self-contained quality. As you’ll read elsewhere, I have a soft spot for the sequels, but the fact will always remain that they were fairly unnecessary in comparison to this. Compared to the other two installments, particularly Revolutions, this one feels much more written and considered, there’s humour, setpieces and ideas wall-to-wall and it literally never goes flat. And say what you will about Keanu Reeves … can you really imagine anyone else in the part?

April 14th, 2004:

The original and best? Or the best because it’s original? I think I’ve seen this one too many times compared to the sequels so it’s still impossible for me to judge. All I can say for sure is, it’s a completely different movie for where the triology ended up.

I remember when I saw it first, I saw it because I was a huge fan of the Wachowski’s Bound and wanted to see more clever camerawork like the gun/arm mounted camera moment and more great images like Joe Pantoliano’s blood spraying into white paint in slo-mo. The Matrix delivered, but not quite enough, and it never seemed anywhere near to me as good as Bound.

It is unique and self-contained and for many will continue to be the best by far in the whole Matrix Trilogy. For me, the jury’s definitely still out as I rewatch and rewatch the whole thing over and over, because I find it all increasingly intriguing – not just the movies themselves, but everyone’s reactions to where it went.

I can only apologise, but again I have to say Kermode pretty much nailed this one in his review. I really didn’t expect this, from what I’d seen and heard, to be a monster movie – the moment he mentioned this aspect of the movie in his review, my interest in the whole thing all but disappeared. It seems so entirely pointless, not only following the obvious 28 Days Later … that he mentioned, but also following unrelated projects like Vanilla Sky and Devil’s Advocate which gave us those frightening vistas of a deserted American city; slightly more related flicks like the recent 30 Days of Night (incidentally, one thing I’d say Kermode and others have got wrong is that if you’re gonna say ‘it’s pretty much a zombie movie even though they’re not zombies’ a la 28 days later … then you may as well count in their aversion to sunlight and fangs too and say it’s actually more like a vampire movie, hence my 30 Days comparison); and End of Days, which at the time of its release seemed to be some kind of consolation for how badly this very project (which was once to be directed by Ridley Scott – why did you do American Gangster instead of this Ridley?!? – and starring, ahem, Arnold Schwartzenegger … no comment …) was going.

For what it is, I can’t deny it has its moments and Will Smith is at his very best, being as he is the only person onscreen for much of the movie. But this is one case where the 90 minute blessing does not apply in the slightest. This movie needed to be longer, it needed to go further. Yet at the same time, I can’t help but remember the long stretches of Smith just wandering around shouting “Anna!” and just how many times did he have to tell her “everyone … is … dead!”? Enough for his voice to metamorphose into Norman Lovett’s in my head, that’s for sure. Even the visual effects – on the creatures side of things, at least – are a disappointment here. Double bill 28 Days Later and iRobot and read the book if you must instead.