Empty Calories; flying bodies & karate chop-tedium.

Rating: 4/10 (20 May 2003)

In some instances of big budget films Screenwriting 101* appears have been orphaned in the Hollywood scene. Characters are now simply foisted upon us sans introduction, for example, so we the audience does not identify with them. Not identifying with them we therefore don't really care what happens to them. Not caring for the characters we don't get terribly involved with the story (what little there is). We are then left with a banal list of scenes where the current vogue (at this writing) of flying bodies clash in the air ad nauseam. The bodies simply keep coming back for more, unhurt, apparently even after being tossed against brick walls that a crushed by the bodies.
*Consider: The stepladder of antagonists, sometimes called the "chain of promises" are what keep people turning a page or sitting at the edge of a theater seat. The way it works best is that the protagonist does not solve the first problem until the second problem is already introduced. Each problem represents a promise to the viewer that there will be suspense, excitement and adventure in solving the problems.
We raved about The Matrix when it was first released because it had so much visual and structural inventiveness. Now, the Wachowski Bros. appear to be saying, "So, you like the incessant karate-chops and flying bodies, here's much more." In Matrix II Big-load a giant serving of the flying bodies that is apparently just a half of the plate, we are left quite sated. Do we care about Matrix Big-Load Part III to come next fall? Please say it isn't so.