Thought on THE MATRIX RELOADED: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2003)

I don't know who invented the tracking shot. But I do know that IMAX re-invented it. When you go to an average movie theater you sit down for a mostly passive experience. But with IMAX you body is immersed in a movie. I've seen a few of the beautiful nature films and sweeping films about far off planets that IMAX has brought us. But nothing prepared me for THE MATRIX RELOADED THE IMAX EXPERIENCE.
If you've seen this film on the smaller movie screen and you liked it. I guarantee you'll like it even more on the IMAX screen. Great sequences are even better. The details are magnified, and the computer-generated effects are much clearer. But the best part is how as the camera tracks around the various scenes and your body moves with them.
As the film opens, you are actually drawn into the Matrix. As the camera sweeps between and in and out of that green programming code, you body feels the motion. It's breath taking. It's a feeling you can't have at you're local Loews.
The best scene to utilize the IMAX is the scene in which NEO is fighting the hundred Agent Smiths. When he leaps up into the air and back into the crowd of Smith's your heart jumps. As he swings the street pole around his head, your head moves along with the motion. There is also a great moment when Agent Smith and Neo fly into a wall. As they bang into it, they actually hit the screen with a huge crack. You feel like it's almost hit you. It's amazing.
While many have argued that this film is a terrible movie. I think for once, they missed the point. Yes, RELOADED is full of long drawn out exposition scenes. Scenes in which characters discuss computer lingo, and programming glitches, as well as Gnostic and, Eastern Philosophies, and while many had problems with that. I had not one problem with them. (For the record the mass orgy scene fails on every count and is a major flaw in the film) They do what they are designed to do, that is to offer a lot to think about, or maybe nothing at all. At the end of the day and after thousands of scholarly papers are written on the subject. It doesn't matter, nor should it. I don't think THE MATRIX will save the word or be an important film but it will always be lots of fun.
Personally I also found the movie has a high replay value. It has lots of little moments and nuances that you miss the first time. It's also fun to put the pieces together, all the plot points that went over your head the first time.
I also gained an appreciation for the supporting cast. Especially Lambert Wilson as Merovingian, his speech on second viewing is really funny. It's such a small role and he has such a good time with it.

I really hope that THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS pulls no punches and ups the ante. I hope that many if not all the ideas that surround THE MATRIX are made a little clearer. Because of course that can only strengthen the film series as a whole. But I also hope the film keeps it's sense of fun (I heard on a police radio during the freeway scene a cop calling, saying he was ADAM-12Â…That Made Me Smile).
If you didn't like the film, I still recommend THE IMAX EXPERIENCE.

http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?0234215-47-To Read My Original MATRIX RELOADED Review.