ReaperFett
May 21st, 2003, 06:59:08 PM
(I asked another Mod, he agreed that this is best seperate from the thread on the sequel)
Being as I haven't watched it in a while, I watched it on TV just, as I always do when going to see a part 2.
For those who don't know my previous opinions on the Matrix, I watched it twice before. The first time I thought it was reasonably good, despite not realising the repeated scenes was actually due to the rented DVD being broken and occasionally repeating chapters, as opposed to it being deliberate, considering how important Deja Vu was. Hey, when it happened it seemed logical!
Second time though, I turned to really disliking the film. I was struggling to see any more than a two hour long MTV music video. Expensive music video, but still a music video. There were a few highlights, but overall, just overrated pap.
So, on with the third time.
First acting, starting with the bad. Guess who I'm going to start on? ;)
Keanu Reeves. And he is still bad. No matter what he is doing, be it being explained the Matrix, fighting or being shot, all he seems to have is a confused expression. Wearing sunglasses can save people from this generally, but then he speaks in what seems such an emotionless, one tone voice. It is almost like Arnie in Terminator 2 for me.
Lawrence Fishbourne suffered from the script. Harrison Ford once said about how hard it was to act in Star Wars due to the strange words you had to say. Fishbourne seems to have the same problem, but Ford had a natural charisma to get over this. Fishbourne instead almost sounds uninterested, as he spews out line after line of psychobabble. Having said this, his performance improved later on in the film, when he wasnt having to teach, and realisation of Neo was dawning on him.
Although only with a small role, I felt the role of Tank was well acted. The shame was that he was the only one of the background crew to have any characterisation. I didn't really see the point of even having the majority of the others there. It just felt like a waste. But Tank did the best he could with his role, and it is a shame that this whole "Not being recast and now suing for that plus slander of calling him a terrorist" thing has come along.
Now onto the good. Starting with Hugo Weaving. His job was basically to play an emotionless program, which was showing traces of emotion. Yet somehow, he actually managed to porvay a great deal of emotion. You actually FELT his dislike of humankind when he was talking of them.
Joey Pants was, as always, great. Matrix, Daredevil, Sopranos, heck even Goonies and through to Babies Day Out(*shudder*), he manages to pull a great performance out, reguardless of film. Also, his role was important for the film, as there had to be SOMEONE who didn't believe in the dream.
Carrie Anne Moss did a great job too. Aside from having to say all the Oliés (As in, the obvious lines, such as when Tank says to unplug Morpheus, and she shouts "That will kill him!", as if this nugget of information had slipped his mind). But really, the film would have benefitted had Trinity been the one, and Neo never existed.
One story element involving her that didn't work for me though was the romance. I mean, Neo was hardly with the others a long time right? Now, how many times did he have any sort of conversation with Trinity? And yet by the end, she is so certain she LOVES him? It just felt bolted on at the end for me, as if they had to show Trinity believed him, but couldnt think of any other way. There was no development, it was just one moment Trinity wanted to say something and her admitting it, and that was it.
On to the fights. In every fight, there was a HINT of a good fight, but it felt ruined every time for me. For example, the rooftop fight. The first few moments, it was great, what with the Kung Fu and the Colt firing and the knife, it was really good. But then the Agent appears and we have to revert to SFX dodging, which just drew me away from the fight. Or the lobby scene. There were some great moments in that, like when Trinity disarms the shotgunner and blows a couple away. But then you get parts like the cartwheel while shooting an assault rifle, which just looked to me too much like a choreographer who had run out of ideas and needed a big ending. And this was how EVERY fight was to me. It was great while they were actually fighting, but then they had to involve SFX. The wirework wouldnt have been so bad to me had it not been for the SFX as well.
And one thing struck me about this whole film. WHY do the rebels want to "save" everyone? What will they actually come back to? There is one habitable city, and they expect to just fit a few billion extra people in? And how will they rescue the people? Even if unplugging them doesnt kill them, wont they die waiting for rescue? These rebels are quite self centred when you come down to it :)
To sum up, it was better than I remembered, but barely. Rather than being a bad film, I now see it as an average film, with a lot more bad points than good. Not really worthy of a sequel.
And as a parting note, I still don't believe Matrix was planned to be a trilogy :)
Being as I haven't watched it in a while, I watched it on TV just, as I always do when going to see a part 2.
For those who don't know my previous opinions on the Matrix, I watched it twice before. The first time I thought it was reasonably good, despite not realising the repeated scenes was actually due to the rented DVD being broken and occasionally repeating chapters, as opposed to it being deliberate, considering how important Deja Vu was. Hey, when it happened it seemed logical!
Second time though, I turned to really disliking the film. I was struggling to see any more than a two hour long MTV music video. Expensive music video, but still a music video. There were a few highlights, but overall, just overrated pap.
So, on with the third time.
First acting, starting with the bad. Guess who I'm going to start on? ;)
Keanu Reeves. And he is still bad. No matter what he is doing, be it being explained the Matrix, fighting or being shot, all he seems to have is a confused expression. Wearing sunglasses can save people from this generally, but then he speaks in what seems such an emotionless, one tone voice. It is almost like Arnie in Terminator 2 for me.
Lawrence Fishbourne suffered from the script. Harrison Ford once said about how hard it was to act in Star Wars due to the strange words you had to say. Fishbourne seems to have the same problem, but Ford had a natural charisma to get over this. Fishbourne instead almost sounds uninterested, as he spews out line after line of psychobabble. Having said this, his performance improved later on in the film, when he wasnt having to teach, and realisation of Neo was dawning on him.
Although only with a small role, I felt the role of Tank was well acted. The shame was that he was the only one of the background crew to have any characterisation. I didn't really see the point of even having the majority of the others there. It just felt like a waste. But Tank did the best he could with his role, and it is a shame that this whole "Not being recast and now suing for that plus slander of calling him a terrorist" thing has come along.
Now onto the good. Starting with Hugo Weaving. His job was basically to play an emotionless program, which was showing traces of emotion. Yet somehow, he actually managed to porvay a great deal of emotion. You actually FELT his dislike of humankind when he was talking of them.
Joey Pants was, as always, great. Matrix, Daredevil, Sopranos, heck even Goonies and through to Babies Day Out(*shudder*), he manages to pull a great performance out, reguardless of film. Also, his role was important for the film, as there had to be SOMEONE who didn't believe in the dream.
Carrie Anne Moss did a great job too. Aside from having to say all the Oliés (As in, the obvious lines, such as when Tank says to unplug Morpheus, and she shouts "That will kill him!", as if this nugget of information had slipped his mind). But really, the film would have benefitted had Trinity been the one, and Neo never existed.
One story element involving her that didn't work for me though was the romance. I mean, Neo was hardly with the others a long time right? Now, how many times did he have any sort of conversation with Trinity? And yet by the end, she is so certain she LOVES him? It just felt bolted on at the end for me, as if they had to show Trinity believed him, but couldnt think of any other way. There was no development, it was just one moment Trinity wanted to say something and her admitting it, and that was it.
On to the fights. In every fight, there was a HINT of a good fight, but it felt ruined every time for me. For example, the rooftop fight. The first few moments, it was great, what with the Kung Fu and the Colt firing and the knife, it was really good. But then the Agent appears and we have to revert to SFX dodging, which just drew me away from the fight. Or the lobby scene. There were some great moments in that, like when Trinity disarms the shotgunner and blows a couple away. But then you get parts like the cartwheel while shooting an assault rifle, which just looked to me too much like a choreographer who had run out of ideas and needed a big ending. And this was how EVERY fight was to me. It was great while they were actually fighting, but then they had to involve SFX. The wirework wouldnt have been so bad to me had it not been for the SFX as well.
And one thing struck me about this whole film. WHY do the rebels want to "save" everyone? What will they actually come back to? There is one habitable city, and they expect to just fit a few billion extra people in? And how will they rescue the people? Even if unplugging them doesnt kill them, wont they die waiting for rescue? These rebels are quite self centred when you come down to it :)
To sum up, it was better than I remembered, but barely. Rather than being a bad film, I now see it as an average film, with a lot more bad points than good. Not really worthy of a sequel.
And as a parting note, I still don't believe Matrix was planned to be a trilogy :)