Attn Hollywood Advertisers...

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2003)

Next time, please, please restrain yourselves.
Is there anybody out there who didn't know this movie was coming out? Is there anybody who didn't have a suspicion that there might be some cool action in it?
I ask these questions but, of course, I already know the answers.
My point is, why is there this constant need for studios to give away so much of their films in their media blitzing. With one or two small exceptions, I had seen virtually every action scene in this film weeks before it came out. All I got in the theater was each scene, I'd seen earlier, but longer.
If memory serves, the first film was advertised very mysteriously. I recall a woman in tight black latex floating, frozen in space, about to deliver a kick as the camera flew around her. I recall a man moving so quickly he was a blur as another man tried to shoot him. I recall what appeared to be a menacing robotic squid. I recall Laurence Fishburn's powerful voice over all these strange visuals talking about something called "The Matrix". I was hooked. I knew nothing about this film but I had to see it. I was not disappointed. Virtually everything about the film was amazing and fresh.
Four years later, the ads start running for the next installment. I see some amazing things in the new ads. I can't wait to go to the theater to see what I haven't been shown. I movie arrives and I rush to see it. Sadly, I was very disappointed. Virtually everything about the film gave me a sense of deja vu with the exception of the last half hour (which, for a while, I was sure I was watching the preview of the third film as the editing seemed extremely disjointed and haphazard). Don't get me wrong, what's on the screen is ultra-cool for the most part; but believe me, you've already seen most of the action in the commercials before you even step into the theater. (I fear the ads for the film "Hulk" are doing the same thing.)
I've no comments about the plot at this point as I've basically only seen half of the story. However, before I end, I'll add one last comment; just as I feel shanked when I see a singer lip-syncing during a otherwise live performance, I feel equally reamed when, during an otherwise amazing fight scene, actors are suddenly and obviously replaced by fully computer generated animated characters. It's disappointing when it happens other films of the genre, and it was even more disappointing when it happened in this movie since I assumed, wrongly, that all the wire-work that is really martial-art ballet in the Matrix films would be "live". I'm not talking about the multiple Agent Smith's here, either. If I want to see CG cartoons fighting I'll rent Blade 2.