The Matrix Trilogy

Well...we've seen 2 on ITV this week with the last one tonight. I really haven't been that impressed with them. Obviously the effects are great but I really don't think it has much style. The actors are pretty awful generally and I'm still struggling to actually know what its all about!?

 

I was surprised at how poor the much touted special effects now appear.

 

I think the consensus is the first film was great, the rest were pants. The Matrix is considered 'thought-provoking' but bear in mind that for a US audience 'thought-provoking' is anything that hasn't got Chuck Norris in it.

 

The Matrix is a brilliant film. The 2 sequels are not a patch on itand really quite bad.

Each to their own i guess. Its still one of my favourite films, oozes cool and style. Great kung-fu sequences, amazing camera work. How do you know you arent in the Matrix?

 

The Animatrix is better than all the films and video games. A true exploration of the Matrix concept by THE BEST animation houses in the world (Studio Ghibli excepted). Big Budget and it shows.

Genuinely fascinating, beautifully crafted, thought-provoking art (yes, I'll go so far as to call it that in this instance) and well worth seeking out if you are even minutely interested in the Matrix or animation in general.

DT

 

Why would I care one way or t'other?

 

As Cypher said; "ignorance is bliss"

 

Is it? I've seen enough evidence as a child, looooong before naughties, to suggest to me that all is not real. Toys that change colour overnight and bottles of orange juice that suddenly appear in cupboards are quite strange occurences to a 7 y/o.

Then there's stories that other people have told me like TV aerials that "get lost", and then suddenly reappear, or those items that you put down in an obvious place that you then can't find.

As for the weird deja vu thing that happened to me last Thursday while waiting for the lights to change, let's not go there...

I mean, SERIOUSLY, all your input goes through your brain. Do you REALLY know you're not just some cells in a jar, a'la Beck in Futurama?

Good movie though, that Matrix

 

See I didn't feel it oozed 'cool and style'. I think it tried to but failed for me. Too much reliance on black leather, sunglasses and pouting and the odd Audi. Just doesn't quite hit the mark for me. Neo, Trinity and Morpheus just aren't played well enough and the bit parts are noting parts really. Theres some good characters but the directors don't do them justice. The smattering of parts played by people who used to be in Home And Away is a pretty bad sign.

I was really dissapointed in the first film how they went about introducing Morpheus. He's built up but when you meet him its pretty anticlimatic. I compare it to the Brando character in Apocalypse Now. The way we meet that character, hardly seeing anything of him at first is very dramatic and gives you a real sense of his importance. The Matrix missed those oppurtunities I thought.

I felt it should have been done in a darker 'comic book' style but few films have managed to catch that atmosphere. May well check out Animatrix instead.

Bladerunner is a good example of what could have been achieved in terms of atmosphere.

 

That's because everyone else has since copied them to death. The whole set of Bullet Time type special effects were pioneered in The Matrix. The first time people saw a freeze frame with a 'virtual camera' moving around a still object their jaws dropped. Now everyone does it it's become pretty ordinary.

Have to say I think The Matrix is a superb film. The other two are, respectively, pretty poor and absolute rubbish.

Michael.

 

Either you really are living in a matrix, Dom, or you should possibly consume a bit less of the chemical enhancements

 

I still can't see what difference it makes whether we're living in the Matrix or not.

 

Even when it was first out I was amazed how bad the effects in the second film were. I think they were probably good effects but they tried to push them too far. Like neo being completely computer generated... hmmm...

The first film was GREAT, but the second wasn't and the third was a little better. They should have made the second and third film into one I think.

Keep getting told to watch the Animatrix but never get round to it. Isn’t it on a website somewhere?

 

It/they were made as one film and then split into two because it was too long and for obvious marketing reasons.

Michael.

 

Hmm I guess it depends if you want to have a shot at those pesky squid machines or not. :gatling:

 

None really. More just that its not very nice thought if we are, and do we really have any control etc etc. Anyway we're not in the Matrix - we're in an Ancestor Simulation

 

i think there was an advert for 'gap' that was the real pioneer of 'bullet time' of course if that was the general perception it would be called 'jumpy clothes horse model time' which is nowhere near as cool.
still the effects used in the matrix (the original) were pioneering at the time and should be a landmark for movies in a similar way that jurassic park is considered to be.
the subsequent 2 movies are ok but not as good effects wise but the biggest dissapointment is that the myriad story possibilities that could have been used were discarded in favour of low brow violence and a bit of quickfire doubletalk.
the animatrix is ok but not really that great compared to some anime that's been produced - to be honest i preferred the animation from kill bill.

 

I was so disappointed when I saw the second of the trilogy last night. The first film had long been a favourite of mine - The script was so good that it spawned half a dozen cliches - always a sign of a good movie. "Welcome to the real world" etc I especially liked the references to "Alice in Wonderland"
The second however was an excuse to play with computer animation and special effects. Poor ones at that - Suspend disbelief - only, in as much as how bad can a sequal really be. - Having said that I will, however, stop up tonight to watch part 3!!

 

The first one was worth seeing but not worth thinking about. The second made me wish for an early death, so we left the cinema after about an hour. I saw a bit of the third on a long-haul flight and it made no sense at all, so I watched Team America: World Police instead, a masterpiece in comparison.

-- Ian

 

nice line worth a bump!