The Matrix Trilogy does it deserve more respect?

Actually the third film is not really got that much CGI because like you say it's all in the last half an hour or so.

I think the problem with the sequels is that are so many new characters that you can't care about everyone.
 
For me it's more or less the other way about. The first film is the best cinematically, but has no substance. Just the dreary "reality is a dream from which you may awake" that was old when Lewis Carrol did it in Alice Through the Looking Glass. I reckon it impressed people who don't know much SF or philosophy. It also has a straight fight against the evil machines, and a by-the-numbers love story that neither actor conveys convincingly.

The second film is much more interesting. The plot is widened out into a 3-way battle, with new characters like the Merovingian having their own agenda and old, once-trusted ones like the Oracle becoming more ambivalent. The philosophy is more interesting too, and the SFX are now more polished. Unfortunately it's not so good cinematically, and tenRAB to alternate mindless action scenes with dialogue scenes which are dull if you aren't interested in ideas. On the plus side, it's the only one of the three not to mention the stupid idea that humans are being kept as batteries. We can imagine Morpheus misunderstood what he saw. (Morpheus is another more ambivalent character; we come to see he is what we'd call a religious terrorist.)

For me it's worse than that, because it undermines the earlier films. It resolves the tension between the hard science and the mystical elements in favour of the mystical. It reaffirms that humans are kept as batteries. Much of the plot is borrowed
from one of the later Dune books (the blindness etc). The machines are no longer ambivalent but openly good.

It's a shame that the promise of the first two films led nowhere.
 
I loved the original Matrix but was so disappointed with the second one that I didn't bother getting round to watching the third. Is it any good or will it be a complete waste of 2 hours of my life?
 
Personally i think you should re-watch the first two and then finally finish watching the third.
There are others who would disagree but i think you can only measure the trilogy by watching all three films and on a second watching you may not find the Matrix lives up to your expectations of it.
 
Q.) The Matrix Trilogy. Does it deserve more respect?

A.) No, not really.



The first film was a bit special, the second had one or two good moments and the third was a load of old pony.

The first film was sufficient.
 
That's the beauty of films I guess. We've both taken something completely different away from watching this trilogy.

One last point tho. Why didnt the machines just use cows for their battery power. Create a pastural universe and let them graze forever. Least they wouldn't rebel! Or cry over spilt milk! *gets coat* :D
 
Agreed. It seemed to me that the machines had no apparent strategy at that point. They stream in, then flew around in bunches until they got shot down. They'd have been harder to hit if they had separated, and flying around in circles didn't seem to achieve anything. So there was no useful structure or motive or anything, hence no drama.
 
I prefer to believe they were not using humans as batteries at all. I see The Matrix as a kind of benevolent prison, kept for the benefit of the humans because we can't be trusted and the only alternative is genocide.

As I recall, The Architect makes some of this explicit. Initially he built The Matrix as a utopia in which everyone could be happy. It failed because humans can't be happy unless they have choices - but that only matters to the machines if they care about humans, so they must be benevolent. Later versions of The Matrix allowed choices, and that led to people like Morpheus making wrong choices that led to war and destruction.

Since the humans are being kept anyway, I can just about accept that it might might sense to extract electricity as a by-product, but really this is one of the weakest aspects of the trilogy and tenRAB to undermine it all.
 
Because it wasn't the cows that were being mean to them. Plus i suspect that you get more power outta a human than you do a cow where all you get is milk.
 
I love the first one.
The second one I think in hinRABight is probably pretty good really as it's a much better film than most films of this type which get made and aren't 'The Matrix'.

But the third film.
Look, to me it was just throwing an endless stream of visual effects into my face with the intention of making me go "Wow, what amazing SFX, when will they ever end?", but instead bored me senseless within a few short minutes making me say "Okay, I've had enough SFX now, when do they end?".
There's a limit to how amazed by special effects you can be. When they go on for too long there is no "Wow" factor, you just get bored, you get a bit of a queasy feeling, and your mind goes numb.

I'm sure that they thought they'd blow everybody away in that final battle by just throwing endless special visual CGI effects at people for half an hour or so. But after a few minutes of metal things whizzing around in front of my face it became torture to watch after that. It was just so busy I didn't have a clue what on earth was going on, after a while I just zoned out as all this flashy CGI was moving around on screen in front of me to form an endless long blur of a mess which provided zero drama for me.

It was just like watching a fireworks display. At first everybody's looking at each other impressed by the pretty lights. But after a while everybody gets a bit bored and restless and thinks "Yeah, we get it, they're just fireworks. Why did we ever think we'd be surprised? Seen one fireworks display and you've pretty much seen them all".
 
The Matrix is on ITV2 at the moment. Loved the first when I got around to finally watching it as I had no idea what it was about (didnt totally figure it out after it had ended!).

the second was ok but the third looked as though the cast decided to take a few months off and the director thought he would spend the time with the endless war/special effects...which was way too long.
 
hell no.
the first was genius, the second and third were just paychecks or the well had run dry.

i went on opening night. so much excitement in the audience for reloaded, it was party atmosphere.
upon leaving the audience was solemn. said it all.

i havent watched the first matrix in a long time because of the taint of the sequels. they basically ruined it. i still consider the first to be a game changer but goddamned, the sequels just ruined it all
 
I think in many ways Reloaded is just a fantastic film .

the 100 Smiths fight is (mostly) truly amazing , it's just a bit spoiled by a couple of CG shots , but look at how complex it is .

and the fight in the chateau - !! again , stunning , brilliant choreography .

and the freeway chase , just wonderful , great score too .

and I love the Architect scene , it's one of the greatest Villain monologues ever : he controls the human race by giving them free will - how f$%king clever is that !

but ..


the 3rd one , sigh , morpheus and Trinity become passengers , I didn't care about Zion, horrible cliche dialogue all over the place .

great final Smith battle tho .
 
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