Ugh, this is just one of those movies about which there is almost literally nothing to write. I listened for the first time to the Hollywood Saloon podcast last weekend (definitely recommended on the basis of just one episode) and they spoke at length about Roland Emmerich. I actually don’t have a great prejudice or bias for or against the guy really – Independence Day is fantastic, The Day After Tomorrow has its moments, Godzilla is great cheese and I found The Patriot very impressive coming from that same team (though, it’s interesting to note, like the Hollywood Saloon guys, I’m pushed to really remember much of that movie, lol).

So the problem I had coming to this movie was not Emmerich. The problem to me was – who really thought anybody actually wanted to see this thing? It’s just … nothing! We have seen all the visuals this movie has to offer many times before, often even better. I find the sabretooth tiger here no more lifelike than Aslan in the BBC’s adaptation of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” 20 years ago let alone the more recent bigscreen version. The story is absolutely non-existent, purely an excuse for those visuals. My mind just boggles at why anybody felt this was worthy of the time, effort and money it takes to put a big budget movie together. It’s just appallingly useless.

This really deserves bonus points for its shelf-life. 13 years on and god knows how many times that I’ve watched it, it is always a surprise and it’s always fresh somehow. Like Casper, which was released the same year, the visual effects still strike me as phenomenal over a decade on, not just in their execution but also the concepts.

But like any movie that I’ll watch over and over like this (though I’ll admit, it’s actually been a long time since I last watched this from start to finish), there’s something much bigger to sink one’s teeth into here, and in fact that thing hit me more this time than it ever has before. Scratch that – it definitely hit me this way before, but it was only this time that I really understood why. I think I only realised this time that Jonathan Hyde plays both Alan’s father and the hunter in the game. Of course, that’s the key to this whole message that has struck me all along. I love when Alan and Peter are walking down the street and Peter starts crying to which Alan’s response is to tell him, “chin up, act like a man,” etc, at which he halts himself, physically on the sidewalk, and says, “I’m sorry – 26 years in the deep dark jungle and I still turned into my father.” It’s perfect.

All this hangs around the ethereal moment at the end when Alan and Sarah meet Peter and Judy again in the “fixed” timeline. That “you’ll never know”-ness about that scene absolutely kills me; for a family movie like this, it’s almost mindblowingly deep. And all of this is constantly undercut by the humour which, again, makes me laugh just as loud now as it did when I was a teenager. The axe scene, the cop’s car being taken away by the plant (“Take it!”) and even in that goosebumpy final meeting, Bonnie Hunt and Robin Williams screaming, “No!” in unison at the mention of Peter and Judy’s parents’ ski trip, lol. It’s an insanely special experience.

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.

It’s really really hard for me to review my passionate favourites. I sat down to watch this today not knowing if I’d be in the mood for it, but within minutes – even before Christina Ricci appeared onscreen – I was back 10 years ago.

It’s so hard to believe how old this movie is – the effects still stand up completely. For me they’re among the very best in movie history. The ghosts aren’t marvels of 3-dimensional modelling, but on this viewing I realised for the first time what exactly is so good about the visual effects on this movie – it’s all in the lighting. In every scene, the ghosts blend in so perfectly. There’s simply no doubting that they are in the scene with the humans, they’re as much characters as anyone else. Ironically, the only time this illusion slips is when the ghosts are in a frame of their own, the editor cutting back and forth to a human jerking their head around “following” the ghosts’ motions.

My favourite thing about this movie is the score by James Horner. You can say what you like about its obviously being ripped off from Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands scores (it’s almost too clear that these were probably used as a temp score at times), but somehow, for me at least, it ultimately stands as a work on its own. The piano theme alone, Casper’s Lullaby, which is one of the few parts you really can’t attribute to Elfman, is worth an Oscar. When coupled with the image of a lonely young girl passing her hand through that of a lonely ghost, it makes for me one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever seen on film.

I’m always surprised by the sheer number of sad scenes in this movie. I always think I’m going to come to it and find Carrigan and Dibs (Eric Idle and Cathy Moriarty – I have to admit, even they are brilliant in flashes as pure comic relief, you couldn’t ask for better actors in a movie like this) all over the place. But from the image of a haunted Bill Pullmann on a tabloid news show, trying to contact his dead wife, to Ricci pulling a photo of her mother out of a box while unpacking (that piano theme making itself heard for the first time), to the aforementioned breakfast “touching” scene, to the scene that really made me break down this time – when Casper asks Kat (Ricci) “Can I keep you?” and kisses her on the cheek, and she mistakes his natural coldness as the window being open – it’s just an incredibly sad movie, right down to Casper basically losing his dream in the end. It always really kind of shocks me how deep the movie goes. I’m convinced it’ll always be close to my heart, this one.