I do. I thought, “AFL… Seems to be going the way of the XFL, isn’t it?” Oh well, I have the trailer, so I don’t need to watch.
You know, I was just thinking that’s it’s been at least a month or two since the last, “The Matrix sucked!” / “Nuh uh, it totally rocked!” debate thread.
The best part of this trailer I think is right in the middle. The three most intense action shots are all together, and they’re our three superheroes doing what they do best: Neo fighting with that rod, Morpheus engaging the… whatever they are in hand-to-hand, and Trinity and the guy in glasses on the motorcycle.
What’s the deal with those Ghost-like guys, anyway? Are they Good, Evil, or Third-Party?
GuanoLad, is there any film in which you do appreciate the special effects? I’m just curious. I’ve always thought if you were going to like a movie for its SFX, this would be the one.
Ever since I heard they were making a sequel to the Matrix, I’ve been a little worried because I wasn’t sure what they could do to impress me and I thought the overall coolness (I guess) of the original would lose it’s luster.
After having seen that trailer, I’m now officially eagerly awaiting the Matrix Reloaded. That was one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a while and the only trailers that have made me more excited for a movie were for Lord of the Rings TTT.
Actually, I personally much preferred the Star Wars prequels, Godzilla, AND Jurassic Park III’s effects (I’ve watched JP3 about four times more often than the Matrix). The thing about special effects (that I like, anyway) is that it takes fantasy and makes it reality, or it just totally recreates reality and you don’t notice it.
The Matrix seems to be entirely “look at these great effects! Isn’t it just so cooooool??” instead of “What a great movie, wasn’t it action-packed?” Probably it is trying to say the latter too, but I see that obscured by the former.
The effects are too digital. They’re image ripples, and slow motion, and digital stuntment, and repeated imagery, and morphing, and all that stuff that just looks like a digital effect. It’s all the things that make effects look like they’re drawing attention to themselves.
And don’t get me started on bloody ‘bullet time’. Sheesh!
The train station was real, though I’m sure it was digitally enhanced in some shots. They just mapped images onto a digital version of the room. That’s extremely common. And the shootout in the lobby was the point where I gave up on the film. I held off on my final judgement until that scene, and not even the single coolest shot in the film (where Trinity has the gun to the Agent’s head with the chopper in the background) made up for that inanity.
And don’t even SUGGEST that I ‘don’t get it’. I DO get it, I just don’t LIKE it.
Too digital? Isn’t that the point? Everything is taking place inside a computer-generated virtual-reality. IT IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK DIGITAL!!!
Okay, though I don’t agree with your criticisms of the effects in The Matrix, I respect your right to your own opinion.
What I can’t respect is anyone who would willingly subject themselves to watching Jurassic Park III more than once! Please tell me you were tied down and forced to view it while someone held a gun to your mother’s head or something! My god, that movie was awful!
I love JP3, it’s my fave JP movie.
I realise the effects are meant to look digital in the Matrix, but it just rubs me the wrong way. I guess I’m not like other people (big surprise there)
Sweet Lord Jesus…I definitely agree with Tangent on this: JPIII got wrong just about everything is was possible to get wrong with the featured dinosaurs and pterosaurs (and the script was easily the worst of the three JP movies). While I do admire the effects in that movie to some extent, I did not like the “raptors” - aside from the “talking” nonsense, they didn’t move naturally. They should have been able to come up with much better effects, especially considering they were better in the first movie.
But then, I do own a copy, just the same.
Re: the OP:
I rather enjoyed the new Matrix trailer, though the traffic in the chase scene looked artificial (one could tell the oncoming semis and such were CG).
The Twins are most certainly evil. As you can see in the previews, they can take on ethereal forms which leads me to believe that they are part of a matrix upgrade created in order to counter the threat that Neo presents, in the same way that Agent Smith now has the ability to clone himself.
Second 
I too, thought tha JP3 got it right where the first 2 got it wrong. Nothing to add on the Matrix thing. Liked the first one bot thought it was nothing special and the trailer is much too big for my computer. What is on it anyway?
The ultra size isn’t the only one available. There’s three other sizes on thematrix.com, even one that runs (almost) smoothly on my 380Mhz computer.
They are and they aren’t. The Agents are not independent entities, they’re computer programs who hijack the virtual existences of people in the Matrix. As such, guns can be used in killing the bodies but they ultimately cannot destroy the Agent program.
**
I’m starting to wonder if you’ve seen The Matrix at all, because that’s three out of four questions you’ve asked that are explicitly dealt with in the movie.
The bodies are somewhat atrophied; there’s a scene where Neo is having his muscles regenerated (the one with all the needles in him). The plugs in his arms, legs and torso are medical connectors - we see an IV plugged into one of them - so I would presume that the machines also contain some kind of muscle stimulation device.
The real world bodies having no hair may be due to a depilatory in the storage solution. I don’t know, but possibly humans would have no hair if they lived underwater all the time.
People in The Matrix look as they do in reality because we have a sense of where our bodies are even when we can’t see them.
**
Yes? And? So?
**
No. Just, no. The Matrix is still state-of-the-art for visual effects, at least until TMR comes out.
**
Because we aren’t totally up ourselves, and understand that entertainment and art are distinct?
They’re called the Virus Twins, and as such I’d presume they’re on neither side. The Agents will want them destroyed because they’re rogue entities inside their computer system, but at the same time the Twins won’t want the Matrix to be destroyed because that would destroy them also.
I usually fall asleep partway through it. I’ve only watched all the way through twice, I think.
Well, that’s a lame answer. I know what you’re getting at, but we don’t know what we look like unless we have a mirror!
Modern equipment doesn’t necessarily make for state-of-the-art. The problem is, it lacks imagination. I know Matrix fans would wholeheartedly disagree with me on that one, but that’s exactly what I see: the same old TV effects of yesteryear, but done with a flashier computer.
Ooh! That’s a bit nasty. I’m sorry if my opinion differs from yours so much. I’ll try to be more like you in future, we all want to be drones who like the same thing, don’t we?
Entertainment and Art are not distinct at all. Art is Entertainment. That’s how I’ve always viewd art - if it doesn’t entertain or interest me, it’s not art.
I just took a few minutes to download the 95 MB “super-big” file and the 59 MB “large” file. (Ah, broadband…)
My G4 PowerMac 533 MHz w/ 16 MB video card and 1.2 GB of RAM played the 95 MB file pretty well. A few stutters in the video, but not that bad. The 59 MB file played seamlessly. I offer this information to other Mac users out there so they’ll know what to expect. (The 95 MB file is a zip file, but Stuffit will open it just fine.)
As for the trailer itself: WOW! Beautiful. I am REALLY looking forward to seeing this movie!
WOW!
I maintain that you are dead inside. There is something inside of most of us that sees past the pedantic facts and bloody enjoys the film because it is a bloody enjoyable film!
Forget what makes sense and what does not. Just sit back and ‘pretend’ that what you are watching makes sense.
Did you ever pretend as a child? Try to do that now.
Ah geez people! The trailer! The trailer! As much as I love The Matrix, it’s yesteday’s news now! What about that elegant chateau? What about the nighttime fire-backlit melee? What about the nuke plant going up in flames?
But I didn’t find it enjoyable. Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?
Ah, never mind, I’ve already said more than I should’ve.
someone said that people who dont like this movie dont “get it” (im new at this so i dunno how to use the quote thingie) anyways, you cant “get” or “not get” a movie. They are interpreted. how you interpret them depends on who you are. It’s kind of like everyone doesnt like ice cream 