Continuity?

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2003)

Ok, I've mulled it over, talked it over, here's my opinion....
The Matrix: Reloaded is sub-par in every department. It has very little visual continuity withthe original, the story is not as tight, many scenes (the lovescenes in particular) areextremely cliche, some dialogue and acting is absolutely terrible,and the producer / studio /directors (?) gaveway to product placement instead of maintainingartistic integrity.
Ok, here it goes...
The prodcution design and art direction of the original was incredible. There was a contrastbetween retro technologies (rotary phones, classic cadillacs,etc.) and the themes of theMatrix, the lighting and cinematography was breathtaking, and thespecial effects wereappropriate (and mind boggling).
Reloaded retains very little of this. The suicide-doors caddy gave way to Escalades, CTSs,Audis and Ducattis. Sleek clean cell phones became chuncky crappyones.
Electrodes tookplace of accupuncture. Scenes were brighter, cleaner and didn't retainthe lighting, color ormood of the original.
The special effects, in may cases, were terrible. In the original instead of resorting tocomplete digital scenes they made the effort to use the actors andcompliment the scene withdigital environments and effects (the way they did this wasrevolutionary). In Reloaded, manyof the fight scenes were totally digital. Thedigital body doubles were terrible and took awayfrom the mood and focus.
The original had a very tight and original story. Nothing about the original was cliche.Reloaded's script is filled with holes, eye candy and inconsistency. The story built up aroundan oncoming seige of Zion. At the end, suddenly the seige wasover??? Why did they spendso much time on the gate scene when Morpheus's ship returned todock if this was notforshadowing something. What was the deal showing all the machinery andprotection of thegates? If Zion was not a "character" in the movie, these scenesshould have been cut. Lovescenes were too abrupt, too cliched (i.e. the elevator groping,saving Trinity, etc.). The scriptgave way to Kung Fu instead of character and story development. And what's the deal withNeo in the end? Being able to control the Matrix, which is aprogram, is acceptable, butshooting lightening from his finger-tips and stopping squiddiesbreaks any suspension ofdisbelief.
Finally, I was sick of seeing logos (mainly of the cars). Most people had no idea the blacksedan in the original film was a Cadillac. Nobody got out of Reloadedwith out seeing theCaddie logo a hundred times, or the Audi logo (the emphasis ofthe shot when the Agentsdrive up), or the Ducatti.
Anyway, it was "ok", a 3 out of 5 stars, but it definitely is not an academy award winning stunner.
I don't know, what do you think, honestly?
JAB*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, I saw the film a second time and, although I have more respect for the film, I'm holding to my original posting. The film either flies through long action scenes or looses itself in philosophy. There are how many 'deep' philosophical scenes? Neo and the Counselor, Neo and the Oracle, Neo and Smith, the French program... I'm missing a few here. This is a film, instead of burying us in its philosophy it should show us. The philosophy should come out in the story. It can't happen the other way around.