What did you think of Matrix Reloaded?

[Sleuth]

I like the Truman Show too

Pretty much everything about the Matrix is in fact a copy of something else.  The fight scenes (mainly from part 1) are really similar to lots of Hong Kong action
but I still like it

[phil marlowe]

what about dark city? that is yet more resembling.

[MacGuffin]

I used to respect the matrix for its captivating and original storyline.  Then I saw The Truman Show again.  These guys copied so much from the Truman Show that it's almost embarrassing.  Ok, the whole living in an imaginary world, having to choose between realities thing is as old as Kant and probably older.  But that's not the only thing taken from The Truman Show.  At one point, after realizing that his world revolves around him Truman steps into traffic, stopping traffic simply by putting his up.  Hello, stopping bullets with your hand, how boringly unoriginal!!!  I know that every idea in Hollywood is borrowed from someone elses idea, but if you take away the originality of the concepts behind the matrix, all you're left with is special effects.  Does this bother anybody else?

BTW, The Truman Show is fantastic.  Guilty confession there.

If wanna go that direction, "The Truman Show" is a rip-off of a "Twilight Zone" episode called "A World Of Difference" where a man finds out his life has been a TV show.

Plus, there is a copy of the screenplay for "The Matrix" dated 1996. "Truman Show" came out in 1998.

[DavTMcGowan]

And what's the earliest date on a Truman Show screenplay, MacGuffin?

[MacGuffin]

And what's the earliest date on a Truman Show screenplay, MacGuffin?

Whenever it was, it's different than what appeared on screen.

The "Twilight Zone" episode aired in 1960.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, the Matrix Truman show thing is a coincidence... they just happen to be similar.

The Dark City Similarities are much closer.  They even used some of the same set pieces.  And those spiraling shots of people in stairways.

[Gold Trumpet]

Something that will likely anger a great deal or at least turn them off, my favorite critic, Stanley Kauffmann, just released his reasons for not even reviewing any of the Matrix movies in light of the conversations (like the one here) they are getting on serious matters:

Note. Several readers have asked why I have not reviewed either the first Matrix film or its sequel, especially since the theme has evoked so much serious comment. But serious themes are hardly new in science fiction. In the 1950s, when I was a book editor, I dealt with, among other sorts of books, some science fiction, including novels by Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl, and C.M. Kornbluth, most of which were built on serious ideas and were really readable, not mere aggrandized juvenilia à la The Matrix. Intellectuals comparable to those who are now discussing the Matrix films might just as easily have examined back then the core themes of Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury and The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth. In any case this quite familiar utilization of serious thought does not in itself make the Matrix films more than the adolescent fodder that they are.

~rougerum

[Sleuth]

I don't get it.  People are always saying either the Matrix is too hard to understand for an action movie or too stupid of a movie to even review

[Xixax]

Dinner with the wife: $40.00

Drinks: $12.00

Tickets to the IMAX showing of The Matrix 2: $24.00

Popcorn: $6.00

Seeing the dance scene on a five-story-tall screen with 12,000 watts of multichannel sound: PRICELESS

[RegularKarate]

If a critic refuses to review a film, he/she's not allowed to write about why he/she refused to review it.  You say you refuse to review something, you just don't talk about it, you given up your license to comment.

If you're so fucking snobbish that think you're above reviewing a film like the Matrix, then shut the fuck up about it.

...and yes, I would say this if he were talking about almost any film.  Unless the critic was being humorous, which this one wasn't.

[DavTMcGowan]

And what's the earliest date on a Truman Show screenplay, MacGuffin?

Whenever it was, it's different than what appeared on screen.

The "Twilight Zone" episode aired in 1960.

Ugh, no date on the Truman Show screenplay?!  I'm so disappointed!  And to think, I was going to suggest that you change your name to Dr. Know.

Still might be a good idea.

[Gold Trumpet]

RK, his reasoning for not reviewing the Matrix is not because he believes he is above it, but that he it is not even reviewable for him. His avenue of film review are art films and he doesn't even review most known films out anyways. The only reason he made a note of Matrix is because to reply to the flood of emails he may take reviewing the film into consideration given the large amount of serious conversation on the film. He said of how common that was in sci fi and that the film is still an amateur work.

Personally, I think The Matrix: Reloaded is bad both on the action and art level and I cant see how it could be reviewed for any artistic merit.

~rougerum

[dufresne]

Dinner with the wife: $40.00

Drinks: $12.00

Tickets to the IMAX showing of The Matrix 2: $24.00

Popcorn: $6.00

Seeing the dance scene on a five-story-tall screen with 12,000 watts of multichannel sound: PRICELESS

in the few times i've seen 35mm prints projected on IMAX screens i've been really disappointed.  the image (understandably, but still unfortunate) always just fades out to black on all four corners.  

[Pubrick]

Ugh, no date on the Truman Show screenplay?!  I'm so disappointed!  And to think, I was going to suggest that you change your name to Dr. Know.

Still might be a good idea.

oh my, the first public anti-mac attack.

[Mesh]

Personally, I think The Matrix: Reloaded is bad both on the action and art level and I cant see how it could be reviewed for any artistic merit.

I'm no defender of the Matrix.  I'm highly critical of it, too.  But any honest observer of film art has to hand it to The Matrix for bullet time.  It's their innovation and it's everywhere.  You have to give them at least that.