The Matrix Reloaded

Nonspoiler summary: Lots of good eyecandy (careful kids, you’ll rot your corneas), philosophical wallpaper (covering everything you see, and about as deep as the shallow end of a kiddie pool), in a neat universe with not terribly developed characters. It was good and bad, with more of the former than the latter, though not by much. I preferred X2.

I’ll concentrate on what I didn’t like because it’s more fun, and I feel more inspired on that score.

They are terminally unable to figure out when a scene ought to be over. The fighting sequences are like porn. Really interesting at first, but leave you ready to doze off by the end. I don’t know how or why, but I think that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did it much better.

The characters are difficult to care about, because they don’t seem all that well characterized. It’s a sad statement when the most likeable and dislikeable characters are computer programs. I didn’t so much care whether Neo won, because I had no reason to.

I realize I shouldn’t expect action movies to follow every intricate detail of characters’ personalities, but if I want to watch martial arts demos, I can find much better executed ones on sports channels. A big part of what made the Matrix so cool to me was the exploration of the world, and the philosophical focus. But now we’re in sequel land, so we substitute more explosions, and fights, and car chase scenes (this one was brilliantly done, I was quite impressed by it) for the vast majority of the time previously invested in development of character or universe.

So, summary, good, but, more time building our perception of this fictional world, less time blowing it up = better movie. X2 needed this too, but not as much as Matrix Reloaded.

And now off to gay day at great america