The Matrix Reloaded (full spoilers)

I would've enjoyed this movie so much more if there had been a scene with fifty outraged Morriseys trying to kick Neo's arse.

(bascially a two hour ILM effects reel)

Again, if only! "poison roxx u r all gay", "hahaha not really" and "oh no!!! FITE! oh no!!!" would have really spiced up the dialogue, plus the architect would have explained rockism to Neo.

Is it wrong not to always be Keanu?

It is, but not when it gets bogged down in trying to explain itself. Did we really need anything about the Council in Zion? That was about as exciting as listening to the Councl in the Phantom Menace talk about their policies on intergalactic trade. The plot is about Neo, leave the "how do they recycle their water on Zion" questions for geeky internet messageboards.

Stranger has happened, they could make a musical out of Silence of the Lambs and...oh.

Top Five reasons I can't hate on this movie:

1. Fighting on top of an 18 wheeler and then crashing it into another 18 wheeler and everything blows up and then the cheesy reaction shot of whatsisface in the ship as Neo rescues them Justice League stylee

2. The idea that the Matrix has people like the Oracle's bodyguard and the french-cursing dude and his wife. The gun with silver bullets and those freaky twins with the butter knives were entertaining, I thought, much more interesting than anybody or anything in the first film (save Hugo).

3. Agent Smith (though he got crapped on in this movie, really. He had the only lines worth remembering from the first installment and this time he doesn't even get to properly explain himself. I do like the idea that he has a manifestation in the 'real world' now. Freaky-deaky.

4. the TV screens showing the alternate reactions of Neo during the Architect blah blah. Proof that the bird is not obsolete.

5. more interesting questions dealing with free will vs. fate etc etc. Much better than the first movie, which was over-obsessed with the idea of the world we live in being fake (LAME unless that was a new concept to you, in which case, I'm very sorry)

Top Five reasons to hate it:

1. Saving Trinity's life inside the Matrix = lame! The flying was okay. The slow-mo endless falling with the bullets etc. was just k-dumb, and they made you watch it like 3 or 4 times. Fucking A.

2. Carrie Ann Moss in black plastic = SO NOT EVEN HOT, dude. Give it a REST.

3. Lawrence Fishburne opening his mouth to say words

4. I didn't have enough hit points when I got to the last Boss and it took me forever to figure out how to beat him, plus I kept getting lost in the Portal, dude, it sucked

5. Sunglasses on everybody is just a little tired. The way the Zionists dress inside the Matrix is completely fucking absurd.

That said I haven't enjoyed a film so much in ages, an action/sci fi film so much in maybe years. Didn't think it took itself seriously.

I mean come on lots of the fighting scenes border on Tom and Jerry style anvil on head ridicule, it must be intentionally ott. The ending was very poor though and a big deflation after that scene on the freeway which was more exhilarating than anything in the first film as far as I'm concerned.

I hate all the cod psychology and the subtle as a knife in the head anti capitalist messages but I suspect the reason people hate this is because they imagine various wankers they know thinking the Matrix is something more than the most bling bling obscene splurge of special effects and kung fu ever.

It is the benchmark as these in the know types tell me, can you ever imagine watching another god awful gun film again. They had been boring for years. The action scenes are usually the ones I'm bored by. Not in this case for once.

(obviously the rave scene was classic)

Finally am I the only one who thinks the next film is going to reveal how Zion too is part of the Matrix yadda yadda.

(is the ps2 game good?)

Would it help if you thought of it as an intermission?

the idea of great power being generated by the humans partying and having sex - cliched and Titanic/Ewok Village reminiscent

An Ewok sex/rave scene... we can only dream,

Actually I heard LB2 was going to be the Empire Strikes Back of the saga.

Not possible. I was ready to enroll in the French Foreign Legion and raise a militia after seeing Menace.

The fighting ie the actual real fistwork was sluggish, but the fites were by and large ok, not boring. HOWEVER the thing that had me laughing, like actually really giddy, was the *bink* sound effect (like little-league aluminum bat sound) when Kino tee'd off on one of the Smiths with the pole ripped out of the ground.

However, I HATE the feeling of hearing a mono/dialogue in a movie and immediately needing to imagine ways in which the ideas could have been said better and more deftly and still sounding like things actual people (or rogue bots or whatev) might say to each other. You can't write a character smarter that you are, and I don't think the bros. Wachowski are all that bright.

I like the way that perhaps Agent Smith is the hero. The only thing that could possibly save it now. Suffers fromt he curse of the dystopian future (everyone is grubby and its shitty but they have flying cars...)

Who says the computers / we have soul?

the possibly great/bad thing about The Matrix is that it may actually kill off the whole 'gung-ho dystopian future sci-fi' genre, taking it to its peak visually if nothing else. there may be a few more Philip K Dick adaptations to be made perhaps, but with The Matrix seemingly aiming to corner the market by encompassing so many divisions (sci-fi, kung-fu, general action) its currently hard to imagine future films being able to match this for thrills alone. certainly they could offer more intricate stories with better characterisation, dialogue etc. and genuine suspense/mystery in a tradition of horror, sci-fi horror and more psychological thrillers (because you're never actually really SCARED when watching The Matrix, unlike Alien or even Event Horzion or whatever). and while stuff like X-Men and Star Wars will be able to survive, what about another 'from nowhere' success like the Matrix happening? have the Warchowskis spoiled it for everyone/anyone else in this respect?

I think we will see from nowhere stuff again - of course we will. Its hard to get by the current studio system, but any film which was initially produced by Joel Silver will never be from completely nowhere.

They fail hugely, there are now about 20 people left IN THE WORLD (or is it 23?)

No, that was the other door. There's sill a quarter of a million left.
And the movie's not over.

will Neo and the Architect really never meet again as the Architect states?

how will the Oracle appear in the next film as the actress who played her has died?

if the Agent Smith phenomena never occurred in previous matrices, what has changed? and that bit where he says to Neo 'I watched you die...' was interesting, he was surprised Neo was still alive just as much as Neo was surprised Agent Smith was still alive. there must be something in this, especially as it has not been explained HOW Agent Smith survived...has it?

so i eventually figured the guy at the end on the table adjacent to Neo was Bain (i know i'm fick but bear with me)...but is this the same guy who cut his hand and was going to kill Neo in Zion? they look different...and Bain looks a lot like Cypher (some people have been saying it actually IS Cypher) but really it is Agent Smith who possessed Bain's body via the telephone at the start yes? so now one Agent Smith is in the 'mezzanine Matrix' while all the copies are still in the official Matrix...yes?