Hatrack River Writers Workshop: The Matrix

This is topic The Matrix in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

OK, I'll bite. As long as we're talking about recently released scifi movies, let's go on to the Matrix.

OK, brace yourselves, don't hit me! I thought the Matrix Reloaded was AWFUL!

I loved the first movie. I own it and watch it again and again. I was looking forward to the second movie.

I was disappointed.

First, there was a long (felt like half an hour) dancing/orgy scene at the beginning. (I hope I can say that word here.) It was obnoxious, the slow motion made me want to strangle the caeraman, and I didn't need to see Kianu (sp?) Reeves naked.

Next, there were the ENDLESS action scenes that wouldn't quit! Enough already, this is a guy who can rearrange reality as we know it and he's wasting time with kung fu? Give me a break! Even if he couldn't have rearranged reality, they still went on too long. When the Smiths were coming and coming, he should have just flown away eons before.

Next, they went overboard with the slow motion special effects. They were well done in the first movie, but their popularity drove the segments way out of control in this one.

Yeah, there was some philosophy shoved in there. They weren't enough to redeem the movie, I'm afraid, especially with that obnoxious french guy and his excuse to have us all look up a girl's dress in digital format.

So, give me a chance to duck out of the way...anyone else have an opinion?

Posted by Penboy_np (Member # 1615) on :

I have never walked out of a single expirence more disapointed and upset than I was after leaving The Matrix: Reloaded.

Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :

I thought the writers of The Matrix: Reloaded were geniuses!

NON SPOILER SPOILER AHEAD!

In one scene Keanu meets a powerful character who says something like: "Not all of this will make sense. It's not supposed to make sense."

Boy oh boy, was he right or was he right!

We writers could all learn a lesson from The Matrix: Reloaded. Insert a character who says it's not supposed to make sense and you can just do whatever the heck you feel like doing until you decide to end the story. Fans will pay millions for random nonsense if they think it's not supposed to make sense.

Posted by James Maxey (Member # 1335) on :

--I have never walked out of a single expirence more disapointed and upset than I was after leaving The Matrix: Reloaded.--

Penboy, you have apparently lived a fortunate life. I would rate my upsetness with Matrix Reloaded way, way down on my list of upsetness, well below my divorces, health problems, or having my car towed from a perfectly legal parking space in NYC.

That said, wow, did Matrix Reloaded suck. This is one huge disadvantage of being wildly successful. I'm sure that in the first Matrix, the creators followed their own vision, took a lot of gambles as to what the audience would like, and it paid off. So, this time around, they followed the template of their previous success... long fight scenes? Make them twice as long! Long conversations about reality? Triple thier length! And who was going to tell them to pull back or change things?

I think if I were the creator, I would rerelease this on DVD with about 45 minutes of material chopped out and it would be a pretty good flick.

--James

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Yeah!!!

I'm sorry I didn't give you guys more credit, but the thing is, I've been arguing with people ever since I watched it. Many of my family and friends seemed to have loved it, and I've been trying to figure out why.

So, did anyone actually like the movie? I'd really love to hear why. It did make milliions and millions of dollars, after all.

Posted by cvgurau (Member # 1345) on :

Call me crazy (or just naive) but I liked it. Maybe that's because I'm a 19-year-old guy who likes violent action and tends to get kind of sleepy when people start talking about the meaning of life or the meaning of free will, but yeah, I liked it. The action scenes were well made, and they obviously put a lot of time and thought into them. Maybe too much time and thought, but so what?

Still, to keep myself from getting burned at the stake, I will agree with what some of you have said. Although the love scene between Trinity and Neo was...nice, and it showed how they're all in love and tender to each other, I, too, didn't really need to see Keanu Reeves naked. That was uncalled for.

Although the bullet-time sequences were better (special fx-wise), I will agree with Christine when she says there were more than there needed to be.

The philosophies were nice, but I'm pretty sure they were added just because the brothers thought they were a good idea in the first, were well-recieved by the audience, and so were tripled in length in the second (and undoubtedly the third).

So anyway, yeah, I liked it; it had stunning visual effects, an interesting storyline, and some surprising twists, but i also thought it would be better than it was. But then, I think that about almost every movie that come out nowadays.

Chris.

Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :

I enjoyed it, after the pace picked up. The pacing at the beginning was WAY to slow for the tiny tidbits of story it supposedly was expressing and the fight scenes too long for (what to me, no experienced fight person) the amount of repetition within the fight. But after than, it was fun, and there seem to be interesting layers built for the third movie.

I was by no means the sequel I would have hoped for. Not by a long shot. It was not the fabulous experience of the first one. Besides the pacing issues, I think a good deal of that can also be attributed to the fact that this was a different sort of story than in the first film. We know what the matrix is this time. We know what the agents do. Neo’s self-discover, while not complete, has taken it’s largest leap as he acknowledges he it The One. The special twists that really kicked the first one, weren’t available this time, and they didn’t supply a new one, so it became a more standard feeling film. Which for the Matrix, is disappointing.