I was watching Jay Leno last night. Keano Reeves was a guest. Neo.

They showed a fight between Neo and Seth (I think). Oh man...the style was so similar to the first sister fight in CTHD. The footwork, the kicks. Haha. Only slower.

The clip made me wanna see CTHD again.

Ahhhh the power of Yuen Wo Ping. :clap:

The music style was kind of alike to "night fight" in CTHD. I thought for a second that Keanu Reeves was going to act dumb, but I guess he's well improved. I guess.

Ei! There's a full coverage on MR at Time magazine. But if you don't want any spoilers, don't read (part of) the magazine; I was shocked to read the summary. :D

Just need to watch it a few times. Upload the new characters. Neo needs to get his ass kicked, I think. See some more of Trinity’s girl kung fu.

The biggest spoiler for the second two will be the first one....expect more of the same. Go blind from the eye-candy.

Man, I've got the memory of a flashbulb. :( What was the name of the singer/actress who was supposed to be in this film but died in a plane crash in the Bahamas last year?

Aaliyah...

Was she supposed to be Jada Pinkett Smith's character?

Yeah :( she could've been a great ass-kicker in the Matrix sequels.

and the damn plane wouldn’t have got off the ground. She would have been alright. She could have learned about that from Tanya Harding...about the value of a fat bodyguard.

Yuen Wo-Ping: He said his hobbies are just same as those of everyone else, "traveling, window shopping, reading novels, but I don't watch kung-fu movies."

Ya...well I wanna see the ones he does watch.

Just saw Matrix Reloaded. Pretty stunning effects, and good music, too. But I'm afraid I didn't get it right the first time. I'm planning to see it again two more times. :blush:

VERY good movie. I promise no spoilers but the ending and the philosophical questions the film asks will change previous notions of what you thought the Matrix was, is and shall continue to be.

I thought Aaliyah was supposed to play Zee who is now being played by Marvin Gaye's daughter or something.

Jada Pinkett Smith's character Niobe has always been on the cards.

I havent seen it as yet. Hoping to see it this coming week.

Roge :)

I was really turned off seeing how it ends. It means I still have to see the next installment which comes out in November. Nevertheless, I was stunned by the new effects and the latest moves.

It was more or less what I expected out of a sequel. Sequels aren't usually as good or on par with the originals (save for The Empire Strikes Back), but I think Reloaded did as good a job as possible in order to help explain some parts of the first Matrix, as well as confuse people enough to entice them back for Revolutions. That's what the 2nd part of a trilogy is supposed to do.

In my opinion, I was expecting more out of the Twins, just 'cause they looked so cool in posters and trailers. (I'll just leave it at that.) And man, the Merovingian was hilarious. (Those who have not seen it, must see it, at least for the Merovingian.)

The philosophical questions really boggled me. I had to talk it out with a friend of mine before I could somewhat understand it. I think Han Solo says it right when, "Ain't no all-powerful Force controlling MY destiny."

I finally looked up the meaning of "matrix". It is anything that "originates, develops, or encloses". Really fits the bill, don't it?

Revolutions will necessarily rock, as any end movie must do. If it's any good as Return of the Jedi was for Star Wars, or as good as Return of the King will be for LOTR, then we will be talking about this stuff for a long time...

After a week of being quarantined at home (no, it is not because of SARS but because of my annual asthma attack), i was finally able to watch a movie in the movie theater! YEY!
AnywayZ, I watched MATRIX: reloaded...hoohum....
there's one thing that i can say about the movie:

THE CGIs SUCK. It was kinda obvious that most of the fight scenes were CGIs of Keanu Reeves and the rest of the cast. The CGIs they used were almost as bad as The Legend of Zu's. If you watch the fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith x 100, you'll notice that their fight scene looks like something that would pop out of a Playstation 2 game.

Unlike CTHD, they had minimal use of CGIs...the most obvious ones where used as backgroud effects (the scenery when Zhang Ziyi jumped off Wudan mountain at the end of the movie). Yuen Wo Ping made all the actors do their own stunts and flying was kept to a minimal degree (which also followed the story's plot).

AnywayZ, over-all, the Matrix sequel was okay...not exactly a heart-stopping thing... it was well-worth my 100Php (around US$1.80).

what i do like about the movie was their sunglasses/shades... they were SO COOL!
_______________________________________
Zimoonstar's Xanga Site (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=zimoonstar)

Originally posted by zimoonstar
THE CGIs SUCK. It was kinda obvious that most of the fight scenes were CGIs of Keanu Reeves and the rest of the cast. The CGIs they used were almost as bad as The Legend of Zu's. If you watch the fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith x 100, you'll notice that their fight scene looks like something that would pop out of a Playstation 2 game.

hehehe I could have told you that! You can see it from the trailer. I downloaded the super sized one (something like 1000x600 res) and the cgi stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought cgi was supposed to be unnoticeable. I agree with your "video game graphics," although I wish games looked that good.:D Bad parts from the trailer: Neo vs. 100 agents, agent jumping on car, and various fireball explosions.

This is probably the biggest reason why I haven't seen Reloaded yet and why I won't watch it until maybe next week. It sounds really dumb, but hey, I'm dumb like that. It's really too bad because I liked the first one a lot.

Matrix was digital anyway. Isn’t it supposed to look like CGI sometimes? The Matrix is a real video-sensual game.

I would have thought you guys would have figgered that part out. The only real parts of the film are the parts that take place outside of the Matrix. I’m not sure what a 100 clones of the same program...fighting just one program is supposed to look like...probably just like it does there. Hehe. They don’t need your money.

Anyway...Roger Ebert said in his review...it was a good film that extends the Matrix mythology greatly. I can hardly wait to see it. I like the Trinity character.

I want to see how they do Psion.

I know the matrix is a program, but in the first movie, everything looked "real" and believable. To me, nothing looked like horrible cgi in the first movie. I'm not sure if any of the fights in the first movie used cg people, and that's the way it should be IMO.

I think it's the use of all the slow motion that makes all the bad things stand out. I haven't seen the movie so I'm not sure if they use as much slow motion as in in the trailer.

oh yeah, I saw a clip of Morpheus talking to a big crowd and something just didn't look right...

The freezed scenes which show perspective in the Brawl scene (Smith versus Neo) is getting the greater criticism (the cape, the moment Neo looks mostly CGI with the pole). But in all fair honestly, I do not feel the CGI was better the first time around. Maybe I'm a junkie but even in the first movie, I can spot the actor from fully computer generated figures. You have computer programs (agents) in the first film that were partially CGI and having the sequel make fully CGI agents does not bother me. Since they are not human (they are programs), making the character fully CGI doesn't bother me because all the characters inside the matrix are computer based. I have a greater problem when people like Neo fully turn into CGIs but not the agents.

I'll take 100% Z over 100% CGI any day of the week....

In fairness, the hundreds of Agent Smith were not created by CGI. The shots of Hugo Weaving (the actor playing Agent Smith) was shot using a new device called Universal Capture:

From Time magazine (http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030512/story3.html)
In Reloaded, which has some 1,000 virtual-effects shots (compared with 412 in the first film), special-effects supervisor John Gaeta trumped that effect with such devices as Universal Capture (putting five high-definition cameras on an actor so he can be duplicated or, in Agent Smith's case, centiplicated, and shown from any angle, as in the Burly Brawl) and Virtual Cinema (which can give emotion, in the anime style, to elements like fire and water).

I give everyone the right to judge the quality CGI effects of Matrix Reloaded. However, to aver that that 'Many Me' sequence were merely creations of computer wizardry would be partly unfair to both actors. The human figures we see on that sequence were not computer texels; they are live actors shot with real cameras. While that scene was undeniably manipulated using computers, it would be unfair to state that both Weaving and Reeves in that scenes are 'computer graphic images'. There's a distinction between computer-generated images (hence CGI) and computer manipulated images. Anyone who has ever touched Photoshop can easily tell the difference. Let us give the actors their dues.

These remarks do not necessarily mean that I'm personally endorsing The Matrix Reloaded. On the contrary: I still feel empty seeing 'To Be Concluded' on screen, and I"m aching to see Matrix Revolutions (Part Three) before I could render my own evaluation.

Really ZM? Then the actors look fake.:laugh:

The bullit-time sequences were also sort of real. The shots between the key frames were computer generated. We really don’t see them...they’re just for continuity. The persistance of the key-frames are what the brain sees.

It always amazes me when right thinking individuals can watch a fantasy and complain when impossible scenes are shown. Complain that they don’t look real...when even the concept is absurd. When I went to see CTHD people in the audience snickered at the flight-like leaping. Well, what is a flying man supposed to look like? A real problem with some of these films is that many people can’t suspend their disbelief. These films will always fail for them.

For me I think flying would be alot like falling. Arms and legs flailing around. I also think I’d wanna do it feet first.

That fight sequence doesn’t look real too me either. I think the whole idea is absurd. Haha. I think it would have been more effectife if the agent would have duplicated himself and Neo popped them off with a machine gun. That would be easier to believe, but not if all of them also had machine guns. I think they used too many guns in THE MATRIX series.

Originally posted by Brainchild
I think they used too many guns in THE MATRIX series.
They used a lot less guns in Reloaded though. I was very happy to see that there wasn't a large amount of gun fights. Most of the core fights didn't have gun (most, but not all).

I have personally seen the 'Making Of' special, and they have aired clips of Hugo Weaving (aka 'Agent Smith') being made to pose in different positions while a stationary camera(s) take his picture. As for how they wove everything in film...I doubt that they would show it in the 'Making Of'...otherwise, people will just start ripping them off again.:D

It may sound unreal, but believe me, it's possible. If you're into Photoshop or Premiere---I'm an Adobe addict---you can use layers to simulate the effect, whether in a still picture or in a movie.

Perhaps that was why they wanted heaps and heaps of people (even if they had never acted before) with specific physical requirements sometime last year or so for a casting call...

The armourer for that movie apparently did drop into my range to do some testing and did mention that H&K did ship a container of arms for the movie. They didn't use all of them though. Wish I got to see it :(

Still havent had the chance to watch it yet...

Roge :)

BRUCE ALMIGHTY knocked off THE MATRIX RELOADED.

Could this finally be the death of the blockbuster movie? I think MATRIX RELOADED will find it difficult to crack 400 million $ U.S.

Jim Carrey is probably laughting it up for real today. Good job!

I did see Bruce Almighty today, and I gotta tell ya, it's a riot. Easily the funniest movie I've seen this year. Carrey is at his brutal comedy best in this flic. Jennifer Anniston is, well, I hate to admit it, pretty good. No Z mind you, but still, pretty good.

I still haven't seen Reloaded and I was soo looking forward to watching it. Then something just snapped, and I have no desire to watch it.

ahaha how did Reloaded only make half of what Bruce made in only its second week, especially on Memorial day weekend? That's pretty funny. I'm happy for Jim Carrey.

a movie with Jim Carrey and Z would be. Instead of that (in my opinion) very ordinary Jennifer Anniston. She is hot don't get me wrong, but there is that top level of fine ass chicks that she doesn't fall in, and Z does.

A little OT, but hey Brad Pitt, wake the f*ck up, you could have almost any chick, Jennifer Anniston is assuredly not what I would choose if I were you.

I the biggest Jim Carrey fan there is...and I’m more anxious to see BRUCE ALMIGHTY, haha.

I’d like to see Z and Jim Carrey in anything.

I agree that Jim Carrey is indeed awesome and very funny in his own sense :D I want to see Bruce Almighty too!

Do you think Jim Carrey should replace the Adam Sandler role with Ziyi in "Good Cook, Likes Music"? That would be too funny but very awkward. Ziyi would end up kicking Jim Carrey's ass like Rene Zellweger did in Me, Myself, and Irene, kicking him square in the face of course, that's the Hu Li style :bigwink:

As long as they don’t kiss. I would have to kill Carrey if Z kissed him.

I just about threw up just now.

Carrey is best when he’s not so spazzed out.

I'd rather see Carrey kiss Z's character than Sandler (or Schneider) if she had to kiss any of them.:D

Even though I like Carrey lot more than Sandler, I think I'd still rather see Z and Sandler in GCLM. I can't see Z with Carrey in any movie...

I think they’d (Carrey and Z) have a good rapport. I think Z has a wacky side trying to get out...I think I can tell by the pictures of her laugh...and he’s of course...out...and all over the place. Sometimes too far out. Both are superstars.

Just as long as he doesn’t talk through his butt. That was going too far.

ZZB: If Z kicked Carrey in his face...her foot would stick. The man is made of rubber.

Was there some rumor that she was going to work with Rob Schneider? I doubt she would even consider that.

Rob Schneider is a television grade B actor. I don't even think she knows who that guy is. The odds of her working with him are zero to null.

Nope! (Thank goodness) Schneider and Sandler always appear together, so that's why his name comes up frequently.

:laugh: I think Z's foot would stick BC! Rob Schneider and Z are NOT a good combination. It's funny when Jim Carrey talks through his ass but it's not funny when he's doing that and Z is laughing and pointing at him :D Ziyi probably does act goofy.

I think Ziyi will be great in a comedy movie... :agree:

I have a feeling that Ziyi is a born comedian with great sense of humor.. :D


She already has such wonderful laugh.. :hug:

be edited and shelved by Miramax.

It’s toast at the box office. Looking like it won’t make even as much as it costs.

Keanu better be careful with his money.

It peaked when Bruce Almighty hit the screens and ground to a total halt when Finding Nemo hit. Sorry to say, but Matrix has a very narrow audience demograph. They all saw it on the weekend it debuted, a few went to see it twice and that was it - flat out of steam.

dvds. That’s probably the plan all along.

When the third one comes out...all the MATRIX lovers will have to buy a billion more boxed 6 disk sets. With the comic...all the bloopers, trailers, and commentary.

I saw it over the weekend and there were only about ten people there, compared to the already sold out Finding Nemo. I wonder what movies will do the same to Revolutions.:D

Easily one of the funniest spoofs I've ever seen. Warning Will Robinson, do not eat beans while watching this trailer.

http://www.ntrope.com/images/matrix.mpg

Quietly, even though everyone hated this, it racked up $278 million U.S.

It’s not even out on dvd yet, is it? I wonder if they are waiting for the other foot to drop (part 3) b4 they release the dvd? What an awesome dvd package it’s going to make when all three come out in the epic MATRIX TRILOGY.

Unless the last part is lame.

night in a row. I have penetrated all it’s mysteries except one.

I still haven’t been able to penetrate the dialogue of the Architect. For some reason...no matter how carefully I listen to that dialogue...it still comes out gobbly-gook.

Another thing...why do they waste time trying to shoot the agents. Instead of packing all that heat...why aren’t they just trying to outrun those guys? When they stop shooting and start running...they’re usually ok.

Scratching my head.

I found this analysis of the achitect dialogue really useful. Not sure if it'll specifically answer any questions you may have personally, but I've posted it here for anyone interested. I've also BOLDED all the additional footnotes to make them easy to spot.



Architect: Hello Neo

Neo: Who are you?

Architect: I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I have been waiting for you. You have many questions and although the process has altered your consciousness you remain irrevocably human, ergo some of my answers you will understand and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question maybe the most pertinent you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.


NOTE 1: See NOTE 9 BELOW.

=========

Neo: Why am I here?

Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you inexcerably here.

Neo: You haven’t answered my question.

Architect: Quite right. Interesting, that was quicker then the others.

Neo: Others? (What others? How many? Answer me)

Architect: The Matrix is older then you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next. In which case this is the sixth version.

Neo: Then there are only two possible explanations, either no one told me, or no one knows.

Architect: Precisely, as you are undoubtedly gathering the anomaly is systemic. Creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations.


NOTE 2: The Matrix is very old, perhaps as old as 600 years or more, depending on how long it takes between one anomaly to rebuild Zion and die and another anomaly to arise and be found and Zion to be destroyed.

=======

Neo: Choice, the problem is choice.

Architect: The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect; it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it, Based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the answer was stumbled upon by another, and intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.

Neo: The Oracle



NOTE 3: Based upon the Architect’s response (SEE BELOW), the Oracle may not be the “Mother” of the Matrix. Perhaps it is Persephone. Monica Belucci states in an interview that her character is like an emotional vampire. She’s not human but she likes to consume human emotional experiences. This is evidenced in the movie when she asks to kiss Neo. And someone online stated that her character is supposed to have a larger role in the next film. This might jibe with the Architect’s description of the “Mother” as “initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche.” However, it seems from the Architect’s tone that what he might have objected to was not the suggestion that the Oracle is the “Mother” he is speaking of, but rather his objection is to Neo’s human naïve and mystical beholding of her as an “Oracle.” In this case, the Architect was just objecting to the title “Oracle.” This scenario would also seem to jibe for 2 reasons. First, her function as the Oracle is one of “intuition” about humankind and their choices, and the Architect refers to the “Mother” as an intuitive program. Second, the Oracle used much of the same language as the Architect including the idea that Neo’s choices had already been made.

======

Architect: Please, as I was saying she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99 percent of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at an near unconscious level. While this answered function it was obviously fundamentally flawed thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo those that refuse the program while a minority if unchecked would constitute an escalating probability of disaster.



NOTE 4: The anomaly in the system is created by giving those in the system choice, even very minor choice. Those that refused the system even when given a choice will cause disaster if they are not contained or “kept in check” by the machines. Notice also that the Architect says "those that refuse the program." This is based upon his previous assertion that, "nearly 99 percent of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice." This seems to indicate that according to the Architect, the 1% who don't accept the program, reject the program EVEN when they are given a choice. Are we to believe that this 1% don't accept one program even when given a choice but then turn around and accept another programmed reality with no problem? The problem with this group seems to be that they reject programmed reality EVEN when it includes a choice. This seems to indicate quite clearly that the Zion world cannot be another Matrix, for if it were this 1% would not accept it. To suggest that they reject one programmed reality while accepting a second seems to contradict the dialog.

======

Neo: This is about Zion

Architect: You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated.

Neo: Bullsh--

Architect: Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it. And we have become exceedingly efficient at it. The function of the One is now to return to the source allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry reinserting the prime program after which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix. Which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.



NOTE 5: The Architect speaks of Zion as if it is outside the Matrix.

======

NOTE 6: The function of the One is to take the code he has gathered from his life experience and return it to the source in order to improve the next version of the Matrix. It is possible that part of this code that is unique to the life experiences of Neo as the sixth “One” has been gathered from his interaction with Agent Smith. Furthermore, in the same way that this interaction has allowed Agent Smith to override humans in the Real World, in his first interaction with Squidy Sentinels since BEFORE he had this interaction at the end of Part 1, Neo is able to override the Squidy Sentinels. “Something’s different. I can feel them this time” may refer to the difference between this encounter with the Squidy Sentinels AFTER his interaction with Agent Smith and his previous encounter with them BEFORE his interaction with Agent Smith.

======

NOTE 7: The One will also then select 23 individuals who live inside the Matrix to free and insert as the founders of Zion. This is why in Part 1 Morpheus told Neo that the “man born inside who could change the Matrix” “freed the first of them.” This repetition wherein the previous “One” from the previous matrix loop frees 23 people from the Matrix explains why there is the prophecy that the “One” will return.

======

NOTE 8: The Architect speaks clearly of the extermination of Zion’s residents as separate from the cataclysmic system crash of the Matrix that will occur if Neo stays in the Matrix and refuses to select the 23 to build the next Zion. Zion’s destruction is, therefore, not related to the system crash of the Matrix, implying both that Zion is outside the Matrix and that the machines, not Neo, will destroy Zion.

======

Neo: You won’t let it happen, you can’t. You need human beings to survive.

Architect: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. It is interesting reading your reactions. Your 5 predecessors were by design based on a similar predication a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a very general way your experience is far more specific, Vis a vie love.



NOTE 9: The phrase “to the rest of your species” indicates clearly that Neo is human since his upbringing was intended to instill in him a “profound attachment” that compelled him at the end to go through the door that will preserve the species both in the Matrix and in the 23 recruits who rebuild Zion. Neo’s humanity is also established securely by the early statement of the Architect in his second line to Neo where he states, “you remain irrevocably human.”

======

Neo: Trinity

Architect: Apropo, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own.



NOTE 10: By stating that Trinity “entered the Matrix,” the Architect clearly places “where she was before” in the so-called real world on board the Nebuchadnezzar as outside the Matrix.

======

Neo: No

Architect: Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly revealed as both beginning and end. There are two doors, the door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of Zion, the door to your left leads back to the matrix to her and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you are going to do don’t we? Already I can see the chain reaction the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth, she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.



NOTE 11: This reference to “design” (as well as ABOVE) does not imply that Neo is a program. The Architect is talking about the element of human nature by which love overrides logic and reason. The “design” spoken of here is a function of natural processes that cause humans to fall in love and desire to preserve their species.

======

NOTE 12: The phrase “back to the matrix” indicates that the system crash is caused by Neo’s continued tampering with those who live in the Matrix, causing more and more of them to reject the programming and so, “whole crops will be lost,” most likely as the machines are given no alternative use for them and, therefore, kill them. This phrase “back to the matrix” also indicates that Zion is not a part of the Matrix given that Zion is mentioned distinctly as a part of the alternate choice whereby Neo does not “go back to the Matrix.” This demonstrates that going back to the Matrix does not include going back to Zion and so Zion is not a part of the Matrix. Zion is real.

======

Neo: If I were you, I would hope that we don’t meet again.

Architect: We won’t.



NOTE 13: There is a balance between Neo’s hope and the certain compromise offered by the Architect. If Neo exits through the door his predecessors chose, then he guarantees humankind’s survival, albeit under the Machine’s continued control. If Neo exits through the other door, then He might be able to possibly save Zion, save Trinity, and free the rest of mankind from the Matrix and the Machines (despite the Architects discouraging words to the contrary.) This is Neo’s “hope” and his ultimate declaration of freewill, that humans are not bound to endless cycles of prediction and obligatory responses to programmed stimuli. The information exchange that has taken place between Neo and Agent Smith and has been played up by Smith’s dialog and obsession with Neo in Reloaded may give Neo the unanticipated upper hand, giving him the power to control machines in the real world in much the same way that Agent Smith is able to override human beings in the real world. This may also be why Neo is able to shut down the Squidy Sentinels at the end of the film, as described above.

Thanks. I needed that.

Now, perhaps I won’t go again tonight.

It’s almost like the Architect is supposed to talk to Neo. That’s troublesome. I mean for the sake of honesty.

MATRIX REVOLUTIONS movie crew.

Their little AOL ikon is busting out in his own MATRIX ads.

Outstanding stunt work. I wonder if his stunts were choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping? He has motorcycle stunts, a bar fight with spam and junk-mail. Has his own plastic-clad ‘Trinity”.

In the end, he slams us with his pitch hanging from a wire-fu wire.

Supposedly, he faster than ever.

right weekend to open. No competition.

Even so, not many critics like it and ELF (Duh!) cleaned up. $85 million U.S. probably means the series will generate enough to make a really good sequel a little further down the line. A sequel that measures up to the original film.

Maybe Keano can play the father of The Next One.

First they will have to figger out the right way to do that. Get the right director, etc.

I thought Revolutions sucked. The plot (if there ever was one) "resolution" made no sense to me.

The grand fight between Agent Smith and Neo is sublimely ridiculous, reminding me a great deal of Zu2 in its overuse of CGI. Its ending is equally ridiculous and pointless. Indeed, the entire storyline is pointless, consisting of nothing but special effects and very little story telling. Vague references to side characters like the Oracle, the Frenchman, the Architect, the Train Conductor, each adding their ounce of incomprehensible metaphysical gobble-digook dialog to what was once a simple and elegant story premise, now mired in ludicrous story-telling without a plot and without a sense of intelligent direction, with all alliterations to software programming metaphors falling apart in the process.

Agent Smith is simply a really bad rhino virus, don't you see; the "battle" to save mankind between him and Neo coming down to an epic fireworks display, each of us breathless for the next big "wow" punch that really puts the icing on the knock-out kick of the millenium that Neo will surely deliver with explosive certainty. Frankly, I was yawning through the whole thing.

So at the "end" there is peace between man and machine. Hellooooo..... I thought the machines were the ones that had enslaved mankind. What was the war about other than to get rid of the machines and free mankind from the grand illusion of reality that the Matrix perpetuates. Zion, the last vestige of mankind, living in a large hole in the ground - just gives up because there are too many of them and makes peace?

Damn, what a sellout. I guess all those human beans we saw in Part 1 are still wired up to the big OZ in their slime-ball cocoons. They don't count.

The Matrix Series is either the most esoterically sophisticated sci-fi plot ever written and so far ahead of anything and everything that it cannot be understood by normally intelligent college grads like me, or, it is the biggest piece of virtual film fluff ever conjured together by 2 scriptwriters who ran out of ideas after Part 1 that they winged it; taking the big out - Story? We don't tell no stinken story! This is ART! - in lieu of admitting intellectual bankruptcy.

If nothing else, The Matrix is an object lesson in how to take a Part 1 success story and milking it for all it's worth by sequeling it to death.

Each to his own opinion.:D But I still don't understand how Neo found himself in that train station. Somehow it doesn't make sense.

I don’t think those two brothers have figgered out the right way to finish the story.

Probably in 10 or 15 years somebody like Joel Shoemacher will create the quintessential Matrix sequel.

Probably in 10 or 15 years somebody like Joel Shoemacher will create the quintessential Matrix sequel.

Isn't that the guy who ruined the Batman franchise?

ZM, if that's the only thing that didn't make sense to you, you're way ahead of me! What I hated about Revolutions is that nothing tied back to the original Part One. It was like Part One didn't even matter. Reloaded tooked it in another direction and Revolution went too far introducing even more characters that in the end - didn't matter either.

Matrix is full of characters that add nothing to the story other than a 2 minute plot gimmick to "move things along". Zero tie-back to the origins of the story, and therefore zero integrity as a series.

Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings as a series are infinitely better, because there is plot continuity, which gives context to each new story element as it is introduced. How Matrix ends has ZIP to do with how it started.

bad-ass sequel to all the great films rolled into one.

While the TERMINATORS are slugging it out, the ALIENS are hijacking a stealth bomber for a raid on a secret PREDATER base in China near WUDAN MOUNTAIN. The BATMAN is hired by the President to check out the theft of the bomber. He hooks up with SPIDERMAN, THE X-MEN, DAREDEVIL, and the always pissed off-HULK, and they get on AIR FORCE ONE to go to China to investigate. That Osmond kid from THE SIXTH SENSE stows away in the landing gear. Bruce Willis can be the pilot. Quentin Tarentino can be the Premier of China. Uma can be his Uber-Agent investigating from the Chinese end of the mystery, as she looks like a neo-Asian Amazon samurai.

Let’s see now, we need to shoehorn into this: Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Russell Crowe, and Harvey Keitel.

All this will be done strait up...no comedy...no camp...no Martin Lawrence.

Well, you've got the Revolution plot in a nutshell right there.....

If you’re like me and feel THE MATRIX ran out of steam before it finished...you may feel like not wasting anymore time on the story or concept. I heard about ANIMATRIX before and almost didn’t take a look.

When the Wawshawki (sp?) brothers got more money than they new what to do with to make the sequels to their first MATRIX movie, they decided to commission several teams of anime artists to develop concepts based on the basic MATRIX theme. Then they generously finance the production of these shorts. ANIMATRIX is a compilation of (I think 6) visions of the MATRIX mythology. All are interesting...some are better than...others...some directly mirror the MATRIX film...and some actually extend it in a way that neither sequel did.

My favorites were the two shorts called RENAISSANCE PART 1 & PART 2 which tells the story of the rise of the machines in the form of an archive of the Sion library. It’s very compelling, juxtaposing, the “race” of human created robot slaves with the history of Jews, blacks, women, and other victims from real history.

The artwork seems at first quaint...the retro images of early concepts of semi-human looking robots evolving into compelling creatures of artificial intelligence striving for respect and dignity. Creatures who in failing to archive equality and respect are forced to make war on humanity and eventually enslave them for the energy in their bodies.

The Japanese animators used classic newsreel footage to create shocking scenes of brutality only watchable because its humans brutalizing and slaughtering machines. By the end I sort of felt like becoming batteries for machines might be a deserved fate. Very cleverly done.

Other than the RENAISSANCE short features, each episode is different. Each vision of the MATRIX POV is clever and unique. All are fun to watch and there was a lot of background on the various productions.

I’ve seen all three of the MATRIX films. I like them all, but the last two don’t add as much to the very good first film as does ANIMATRIX, in my opinion. I wish they would have included the RENAISSANCE anime in MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. Sort of like the way QT added the anime of Ishi O Ren in KILL BILL.

You should be able to rent this at Blockbuster. I found it at an Excalibur comics shop. I rented it and now I’m looking for a copy to buy. I liked it.

My favorite shorts in the ANIMATRIX were "Program", "The Second Renaissance Pt. 1 and 2" and "Detective Story". All the others are okay :D

really interesting.

Watching that chick swordfighting sort of reminded me of what Z would look like if she was in MATRIX. I wondered if Z was the inspiration for that character. Z isn’t that big upstairs, but maybe to lonely animators, she looks bigger than she is. They gave her a nice butt. Haha.

The short with the runner was pretty cool. I wonder if the NIKE people saw that?