I was a hardcore fan and that’s why I was disappointed. It felt too much like a Star Trek movie at times; it just wasn’t as good as the original.
LOL, yeah, that’s it, I’m just not deep enough to appreciate the high art of the half-hour long car chase/gunfight. 
Original:
A+ (after the first, second, tenth, thirtieth viewing)
Reloaded:
B+ after the first viewing
A after the second viewing
Upcoming release schedule for you:
May 23
Bruce Almighty Universal
The In-Laws Warner Bros.
June 13 Dumb and Dumberer New Line
From Justin to Kelly Fox
Rugrats Go Wild Paramount
June 27 28 Days Later (LTD) Fox Searchlight
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle Sony
July 2
Legally Blonde 2 MGM
July 18 Bad Boys II Sony
Aug 15 Freddy vs. Jason New Line
C (A- for the original).
Low points:
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Morpheus’ speech: “let’s show those machines how determined we are! Let’s dance!!!” yowsa.
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Boring pointless fights that didn’t advance the story.
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Zion in general, esp internal politics. It felt like SW Imperial Council scenes. I was expecting Padme to show up at that council meeting. Yawn.
-
Monologs. Zillions of monologs. Especially the Architect: blah blah blah. Neo, would you please shut this guy up?
Quite a few parts were fun and interesting. But they could have cut an hour out of the movie, easy, and not lose very much.
I really liked the first one, was a bit dissapointed with the second. It was way to talkie at times, and some scenes they could have done without. i.e. the love scene (which went on way too long) and the teahouse fight scene (which seemed pointless.) It did have it’s moments tho, the Bearly Brawl and I liked the tension between Trinity and Persephone. In anycase I’ll see Matrix: Revolutions and hope that Reloaded was just a setup for it.
I’m one of the few that finds the first one to be mind numbingly stupid, so I actually like Reloaded more. I’d give it about a B whereas I thought the original was about a C.
The depth that people see in this series is around the level of college-dorm bullshit-session philosophy; fun, but certainly not original, and nothing much to get worked up about. As a framework to hang an action film on, it was amazing. As a philosophy to deconstruct, it’s pretty flimsy.
So, I was pretty seriously bored during the film. There wasn’t any of the visceral excitement in any of the fight scenes; I kept thinking of them in terms of technical achievement, and didn’t really ever think of how they affected the characters. And some of them were, as has been pointed out, completely pointless. Especially the Agent Smiths fight; why the heck did he stay even that long?
Meanwhile, Neo also gets distracted beating up flunkies. I thought he had the power to change the world around him? Why not have the house just eat them? Have the ceiling fall on them? Have the earth open up and swallow them whole? Not too bright, our omnipotent pal.
Another thing that bugged me was the music; often it didn’t seem to fit the scenes at all, and it never came close to reaching the pinnacles of scoring that the first film hit. The scene in the lobby, for instance. Nothing came anywhere close.
And, of course, the Exposition Fairy took a liberal dump all over this freaking film. I just hope that clears all the long, drawn out explanations out of the way so they can make an enjoyable conclusion.
Characterization was weak, dialog was weak, scenery was nice. But it seemed like an awful lot of trouble to go to to save a Phish concert.
I give it a C.
B minus. The Fraggle Rock Rave was bad, but since I had heard how truly Godawful it was, I was actually expecting something worse, so I ended up pleased that it wasn’t quite as terrible as I had been led to believe. The movie wasn’t written very well (and I don’t primarily mean the dialogue; I mean the writing of the whole movie) but there were some good scenes and the twist at the end was a little more imaginative than I was expecting.
Both “Matrix” movies have to be understood as fulfilling a very specific niche; the movies are the ultimate fantasy of a computer nerd. You’re basically watching the cinematic version of a geeky 14-year-old’s fantasies. Given that, I think they do a pretty good job, because it would be so much worse in the hands of less daring people.
Did anyone else notice that most of Zion is black? And that bras haven’t been reinvented?
Original B, Reloaded gets an F. I found myself yawning during the long, uninventive action sequences. The philosophy was silly. And my husband and I kept cringing over the bloody “I-can’t-live-without-you” scenes. Don’t the ever, oh, argue? Or do laundry, or water the plants together or something? Something that involves talking?
The rave scene was like Fraggle Rock. I should have noticed.
It gets a solid B.
Original gets an A-.
Heh, and what’s funnier is that most, if not all, of the council is white.
Well, that’s not always necessarily a bad thing.
Anyhoo, to go along with the nerdy grading scale, I give the movie a C#.
You’re not the only one:
Personally, I saw it last night and would give it 4 out of 10; I saw the original (the first time since 1999) on the big screen three days ago and would give that a 9. Seriously disappointing.
Holy cow!
Plugging “Fraggle Rock” and “Zion” into Yahoo also gives me:
I guess I’m not as original as I thought. 
I give it an A+ for doing a damn fine job of putting butts in the seats.
Okay, Okay. The jig is up. “Most of Zion was black and most (if not all) of the counsel is white.”
You guys didn’t REALLY see Reloaded, did you? I mean…Dr. Cornell frickin’ West is among the counsel members. And most humans look like someone of color when their dirty and only being seen in a poorly lit cave (but I did note the more than usual number of ethnic characters in this movie). Frankly, most of the people appeared to be of a more hispanic ethnic make-up instead of AA.
Now, the Chancellor (I think that’s his title) was white. He was also older than most other people in Zion, so that made sense to me.
Careful guys, apparently Laurence Fishburne does not take kindly to criticism.
I give it a C+. It was an acceptable summer diversion.
The first half hour or so was awful, though. The boring secondary characters, awful faux-primitive costumes, and flat dialogue made it feel like a demonic collaboration between George Lucas and the Star Trek writing staff.
A-
I thought it was better than the original (which I would give a B-).
It was very, very GREEN.
I got bored of the whole kung fu-hang-in-the-air-for-45-seconds-at-a-time fighting thing 5 years ago.
I really loved the two semis smashing together. That was cool.
As for the dialogue, Christ, that was some of the most boring and pointless drivel I’ve heard since the freshmen debate team. The speeches completely killed the movie.
As for the whole “mythology/spirituality” vibe that supposedly runs through the movies, please :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I’ve heard better mumbo-jumbo talk that made more sense from Miss Cleo.