Is there a glitch in the Matrix......

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2003)

Overall rating on a 1-10 scale: 7.0 Repeat viewing factor on a 1-5 scale: 1.7
SPOILERS THEREIN!!!!!
Let me keep this basic:
The Good: The rogue program characters were interesting..hope to see more of them. The WB's(Wachowski Brother's) treat the Matrix franchise as an opportunity to teach philosophy 101. In that sense, I liked the themes that were developed, although some were executed more smoothly than others. Causality- how much does anyone *truly* determime their destiny? Free will vs determinism. The Yin/Yang relationship of Man and Machine. I think the concept of 'purpose' though, as it tied in with causality and the free will themes, was sloppily handled. Even still, intellectually I was intrigued with MR; especially considering the Architecht's final revelation to Neo regarding himself and Zion and the questions they raised( is Neo human or a computer program?...is Zion 'real' or just part of the Matrix?). There is definitely enough unanswered questions to make MRev worth seeing...now the bad, and there was lots of it.

The Bad:
I.- terribly written dialogue in some scenes: As I said before, The Matrix movies in general conceptually are like a philosophy 101 class..unfortunately, the inane ramblings of the characters in this film often sound like the kind of stuff you might hear from a freshman in a 101 class. Even though the first Matrix film often could be guilty of the same things, namely being too hip or pretentious for its own good, the dialogue was tightly written to give you enough 'zen' to make the point and then move on. Unfortunately for MR, many of the characters ramble on past the point of prudence,(the Merovingian) or the points being made are handled badly by the script( the councilor's convo with Neo, any time Smith speaks) It felt like the WB had so many themes they were trying to establish as well as advance the plot that they were unsuccesful in structuring the dialogue in an efficient way. Ahh well.
II. Zion a huge letdown: I thought the Zion introduction was woefully underdeveloped. This was a challenge as at this point in time, the characters have all been to Zion before, so we(the audience) cant see it thru their eyes. This is how it should have happened: have the crew of the Neb be involved in a vicious fight with the 'squiddies' and if they dont gain access to Zion by x amount of time, they are toasted. This accomplishes many things, namely you get to have a kick ass action intro, it supports the theme of sentinels massing for an attack..and it heightens the anticipation of seeing Zion..so that when the Neb does finally make it to Zion, we feel the crew's relief, and our own 'awe' at finally seeing this haven for humanity. But..even if the movie had started the way I stated, I dotn think it would have helped much...Zion isn't much to loook at anyway, though logistically speaking, that isnt suprising.
III. Club Zion: whoa....who the hell greenlighted that scene? That was just so god-awful and cheesy. Not only that, it made it seem as if the WB were running out of good ideas and were copying themselves. Didnt we have a 'club' scene in the first Matrix that featured Neo and Trinity? And talk about featuring Neo and Trinity.....umm, best not to speak on it. But really, that dance sequence was just awful. Nothing but six packs and tits and ass swaying everywhere, it looked like something out of a Jovan Musk print ad or something. Look, I know this is hollywood, and all, but didnt they say in Matrix 1 that most of the people 'freed' were hacker types...you know, the kind that are either gangly or chubby who dodnt get alot of sun? (nothing against computer folks, I love ya but...) how did we go from freeing hacker geeks to freeing Tommy Hillfiger models? That scene was just awful and an insult to the spirit of the first Matrix movie. OY!
IV: Seemingly useless secondary characters: On the one hand, I am glad to see my peeps( afro americans) get screen time in a big flick...on the other hand, Niobe and Link were useless in this film. I really could care less about what happened to Tank and Dozer( you could always assume Tank died of his wound that Cypher gave him). Other than that Link was not an enthralling character. But he did have one unfortunate purpose, which relates back to another flaw of the movie...he was the 'greek chorus'. More on that later. As for Niobe, other than setting up some worthless back history on Morpheus ( and being a big deus ex machina in one scene) she seemed pretty useless too. But I assume she has a bigger role in MRev. I will say that at least the rogue program characters had some function in the film, and were used well...for the most part.
V. The (yawn) action sequences. Listen up and listen good WB. YOU CANT HAVE FIGHT SCENES FOR THE SAKE OF FIGHT SCENES. Unless you have CGI or choreography that truly *hasnt* been seen before, it will not do anything for the movie unless it is plot driven or has some dramatic tension behind it. Remember the first Matrix and how the action sequences blew you away? Why did they do that? Because they had dramatic tension behind them. We didtn know why Trinity could kick ass , but she could...we didnt know if she we would get out that phone booth alive. We didnt know what Neo was capapable of every time he fought. We actually feared the Agents who could kick butt and were pretty sharp shooters. There was danger, uncertainty...tension; the plot drove the action sequences. Not so in this movie at all. We *all know* exactly what Zionites can do in a fight, and its the same stuff from the last movie. We know exactly what Neo can do...which brings me to another point: ALL NEO"S FIGHT SCENES ARE TOTALLY SUPERFLUOUS! Neo is GOD-like in the Matrix. Is he omniscient? No . Is he omnipresent? No. Is he omnipotent? Damn right! Neo can manipulate the code to whatever he wants...why is he even bothering to engage in hand to hand combat? He could just as easily re write the coding and turn his enemies into ice cream cones. Yes, it makes for a shorter movie, but still, its non sensical to me. I would have loved to have seen him manipulate the Matrix to his will and just decimate folks..but instead I got overlong, overblown action sequences that did nothing for me. As far as the freeway sequence...good for one thing. How come the agents were running parallel in a car with Trinity and *still* couldnt shoot her? When did they become on par with Stormtroopers? Overall it was a good action sequence( and I did get a visceral reaction when Trinity got on the motorcycle) but it was nearly ruined with non-sensical execution. As for the most part, the CGI was cool, but it wasnt that big an upgrade from the first Matrix, and far less interesting this go around because of a lack of dramatic tension behind the fight scenes.
VI. Plot holes, inconsistencies and screenplay guffaws. The 'trinity dies and neo saves her' ploy was cheap. First off, didnt we have a 'near death' in the first movie? Why use the same thing again? Secondly...Neo is a GOD in the matrix. Was anyone really worried when Trinity 'died'? I was sitting there thinking 'ok,. just re write the code and rev her back up. As long as she was in the Matrix there really was little to worry about, so long as your boyfriend is 'the One'. Again, why make the Agents so inept this go around? You mean to tell me he cant shoot Trinity from about 35 feet away? Or even think to shoot out the tires of her car? The Twins are I assume old rogue Agents or something...you mean they know kung fu but didnt get the basic weapons training programing? Oy... The first Matrix's fight scenes were at least structured intelligently, this was a letdown. Here's what also let me know that there was some weak writing going on in this film- the presence of a greek chorus character. Movies should structurally sound enough that when a certain scene takes place, the audience should automatically be feeling whatever emotion you want to evoke...but when you have to have a 'greek chorus' in the background, you are in trouble. By greek chorus I mean a character whose lines do nothing more than echo the(supposed) thoughts and feelings of the audience, you know, lines like 'man, that was close! 'oh no! 'you saved us, whoopee!' The scene should be strong enough as written to make such 'observations' unneccesary, so when I see alot of this exposition going into dialogue, you know the scene isnt carrying its weight. And unfortunately, alot of these types of lines were given to Link: "its good to be home"( for the lackluster Zion intro) "I cant take this!"( when Niobe magically shows up to save Morpheus) "Yes!"(When Neo shows up).....not a good sign at all. And speaking of Niobe...how about a few shots of her hauling ass to get to Morpheus to make her entre into the scene seem less like Deus ex Machina? Sigh, this screenplay was just sloppy.
VII. Obfuscatorama: AS I said , I was intellectually( though not emotionally) drawn into MR. It raised some interesting points and had a few brain teasing revelations. But how much is brain teasing and how much is just being vague on purpose? Take for example the rogue programs. If the Merovingian has survived the Matrix from its 1.0 version, why is he so hell bent on Neo not seeing the Architecht and rebooting it? What does it matter to him, if he can survive 5 reboots, whats one more? If the matrix isnt rebooted and somehow the humans break free, thats the end of him, so why not help neo? This isnt so much obfuscatory as it is a screenplay flaw..why not show the attack on Zion, it would have drawn a nice parallel to Neo's return to Zion at the end, further contrasting Smith w/ Neo...unless the WBs are being obfuscatory about some other things; namely that Zion is part of the Matrix and that Neo is just a program that kicks in when its time to reboot the Matrix again.
Minor gripes and complaints. The obligatory ass factor: Well, I reckon someone complained that the Matrix wasnt 'sexy' enough, so the ass factor was increased in the MR. Ive already mentioned the 'orgy' in Zion as well as Neo's and Trinity's roll in the VR hay. But it didnt stop there...oh no, we had a VR crotch shot of one poor women( again, the WB's copy themselves...wasnt there a 'blonde' program in the first Matrix..interesting...), Hey, fair is fair...if we can have a VR crotch shot, how about a VR(virtual reality) sketch of say...Morpheus' package?............... Heh Ok, all that stuff about deja vu being a glitch in the matrix was kinda quaint...but werewolves and vampires..that was bordering on cheese to me. Why couldnt the rogue programs just have been rogue programs masquerading as humans.......When the TWins would 'ghost', that looked cheesy.

Anyways, there is my big steaming pile of a Matrix review. There were some things worth seeing, but overall it wasnt nearly as good a yarn as the first movie. This unfortunately, doesnt bode well for Revolutions which was made concurrently with MR. But, I will see it anyway to see exactly what the Matrix is and if the humans will overthrow it. Personally, I hope we just see the humans realize that they lost the war, and they are still pod people and the Matrix gets rebooted.