(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

survived the birthday, got to watch 'the matrix reloaded', so i can finally stop dogging

a whisper in the ear of the matrix makers... less can be more. often is. i much preferred the first part, the way it hovered between face value (one hesitates to say reality) and metaphor and could be read both ways. here most of the ambiguity is lost in a flood of admittedly often breathtaking images...

the good:

- neo's new coat, all stylishly monkish-austere, very nice. keanu's still beautiful...

- the fact that the saviour turns out to be just another integral part of the matrix, something the human psychic make-up apparently demanded. not exactly a new thought of course, and a turn of plot that maybe should have been expected, but at that point i'd been so very bored already that any change was welcome.

- the fact that neo seems to change fate (presumably for the better) or at least disrupts a repetitive pattern where salvation is as much an illusion as life in the matrix itself, exactly because he choses to try to save the woman he loves, never mind zion, fate and humanity. this is a rather pleasantly surprising reversal of a age old western literary and artistic tradition of Man having to Face His Destiny, never mind the female casualties on the way. :: cheers ::
let's just not go into the virtual cardiac massage, or whatever it was.

- neo/trinity, less annoying than i thought it might be. they're good together and i sort of like carrie-anne moss, she's got an interesting face, even if i never can quite make up my mind whether her perpetual worried frown irritates me or not


the bad:

- the script, or lack thereof. to me the movie never came together as a unity, something where the different parts ideally would reinforce each other. rather they're just loosely stringed together one after another, fight sequence, pseudo-philosophic babble, obligatory love scene, car chase...

- everything zion. i kept wondering when we'd moved on to (a slightly more stylish) star trek. the assembly-mass-party-orgy thing. wtf ?! moreover the complex (and not all that horrible) reality of zion, while it makes the possibility of fighting the matrix more real, also de-emphasises the contrast between the illusionary world of the matrix and the bleakness of reality that made the first part and the moral dilemma presented there so intrigueing. while there waking up to reality was tantamount to facing a void, the loss of everything familiar, the price to pay so high that a person might regret his choice or go insane, here this is suddenly a much less extreme scenario, presented in a more conventional way. a fight for freedom that while it demands bravery and sacrifice, isn't impossible or (almost) superhuman.

- most of the dialogue. there really should be a law against so many platitudes in a row. (though on second thoughts one might give them the benefit of doubt that all this never-ending talk of fate and purpose is consciously presented in a flat and obtrusively annoying way to prepare the ground for the revelation in the end, that it is indeed a lie. )

- the overuse of the stop and go / slow motion fight sequences. awesome in the first part, still very impressive here. the first time. and the 10th. the 50th, not so much. it starts getting rather old half way through the neo/agents smith fight... (then again, i'm not a person to watch a movie for fight or action sequences when there isn't a plot or context to hold my interest. so by the time they'd finally (for the moment) saved the key-maker & made their escape i was very, very bored indeed.)

- neo-as-superman. though i suppose it actually might make some sort of sense given that ghosts and vampires are faulty programs and can be killed with silver bullets. and neo in his matrix life would have known about superman, i guess... still, it's not the best-placed cultural reference ever, imo.



left and right...