Phillip Winn's The Matrix: Reloaded Review

by phil on Tuesday May 20, 2003 10:43 PM
Matrix

Phillip Winn's The Matrix: Reloaded Review ... this is the best review I've found on the Reloaded so far. It contains a lot of spoilers and explains things very well. I probably like it the most because it aligns very well with my opinion on the film.

General consensus
Action was great, but not as great as the hype made it out to be. For fans, first film was better. For the uninitiated, this film is fun. Specifics: rave scene too long, over-drawn out philosophy, etc.

My view
My faith in the film is precisely that, faith. But, let's discard that religious nonsense and focus on truth. But what is truth? And there we have it, just like Reloaded; we are digressing into philosophy and meta-discussion. Nonetheless, let me deconstruct my feelings about the film. As a piece of cinema where the measure of a great film puts Godfather at the top, this is not a great film. I did yawn a couple times, I was distracted, I got bored, I got restless. The rave scene did last a while and the philosophical digressions seemed in poor style. In comparing cinematically, the first film was better... the philosophical implications were subtly tied in with the narrative, there was character development, and there was this fun retro, hacker, BSDM chic thing going on. But, as a black monolith of reflection, the Reloaded is awesome and unlike any other film. The Matrix universe, at least for me, has opened up subsequent thought into other fields. Just look at the latest round of posts on this blog to see how much inspiration for intellectual adventure it has spawned. In other words, this film has tremendous post-view benefits--a concept alluded to in the review linked to above.

Here are some of the benefits:
- Attempting to obtain a DIVX copy of Reloaded so that you can fish out parts you missed. This leads to adventures into the nether regions of IRC and ugly file-sharing clients. Needless to say, it was fun being hungry for a file.
- Attempting to piece together exactly what the heck was going on in the film.
- Exploration into hot realms of philosophy: nihilism, gnosticism, Plato's cave... even Christianity.
- Fantasizing about the implications of actually being in a Matrix and trying to figure out how one would be able to break free from it, like Neo... and whether one should.

So, in summary, I thought the film was alright, entertaining, but nothing special. The Matrix universe--a totally separate experience with a shadow, like the shadow's in Plato's cave, that is manifest in the film--is a great magical mystery tour that will keep you excited well beyond your 3.5 hour/$10 theatre excursion.