Matrix Reloaded & Animatrix
Finally got around to seeing Matrix Reloaded on Sunday night. Then picked up the Animatrix yesterday. Before I read any reviews or blogs on the subject I thought I’d spout off on my own…
(Contains spoilers and future plot speculation…)
Initial reaction at the end of Matrix Reloaded was one of disapointment. The effects were good, but I’d found the pace somewhat sluggish in places, the main story was a little thin and I didn’t like the downbeat ending. Given that subsequent films in the series could never have the ‘oh my god’ factor of the first film (and my natural pessimism) I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting from this one. Having slept on it, I want to see it again. There was a lot going on around the main story and I’m not sure I got all of it…
I liked the comic book/storyboard style direction, this seemed more pronounced than in the first film (more on my thoughts on that later). The Trinity falling backwards scenes could have been drawn by Brian Bolland and come from an early Judge Dredd. The Keymaker was pure Manga, right down to his riding on Trinity’s back on the Ducati.
The effects were very clever, but the fight scenes seemed a little too long. The Burly Brawl could definitely have been trimmed a little with no loss; the fight on the stairs with weapons seemed too drawn out - “For christ sake kill them with the knives, stop playing with them!”. The car chase was, well, a car chase…
As I said above, the pace seemed slow. The Zion scenes were too long. I’d got the point that ‘in Zion people feel free and alive’ well before the scene ended. I’d have preferred them to have trimmed the fat from the scenes that made it into the film and filmed the ‘Last flight of the Osiris’ from Animatrix and added that to the start as the opening scenes. I’m not sure the choice to ’end on a low’ did them any favours with the general public. Knowing that Reloaded and Revolutions are essentially one film is one thing, having it rammed down your throat at the end is quite another.
What I view as the not so obvious parts of the story appealed to the geek in me, but like with The Phantom Menace, I think they should have, perhaps, been a little more obvious so you don’t have to be such a geek to get them… Still, it got me thinking.
Animatrix was good. Haven’t seen all of it yet, but it’s nice background material.
Spoilers and future plot speculation follow….
*I think the third film will be better. But that’s possibly just because I expect there to be another twist that appeals to us geeks in the same way that the first did. Right now I’m thinking recursive Matrix as the only explanation for how Smith ‘possessed’ the guy in ’the real world’ and how Neo started to get ‘powers’ there too. It makes geek sense too. Some humans get off on the hero thing, how better to keep them as good little Duracells than allowing them to think they have escaped and think they have a chance. Those that aren’t content with being sheep can become comic book heroes. It’s just another level of control. Given the implications of system failure the disaster recovery plan must involve multiple independent Matrices anyway, so why not build recursively as well. The reloading that the Architect was talking about also seems to be a great way to genetically grow the system. Each new iteration is loaded with the ‘most fit’ from the previous round…
But I expect I’m just allowing the geek in me to read way too much into this ;)*
