 | 映画原題: The Matrix Reloaded [ 映画邦題:マトリックス リローデッド ] |  | |  |  | |  | The Matrix Reloaded : Hollywood Cinema Director : シネマ作品監督紹介 |
| The Matrix Reloaded : Hollywood Actor [CAST・CREW] : 出演ハリウッド俳優(男優・女優・声優)&ミュージシャン・アーティスト紹介 |
| The Matrix Reloaded : 本国映画ライターによる映画の内容 with イングリッシュ : English Description of Story |  |  |  |  | Amazon.com:Considering the lofty expectations that preceded it, The Matrix Reloaded triumphs where most sequels fail. It would be impossible to match the fresh audacity that made The Matrix a global phenomenon in 1999, but in continuing the exploits of rebellious Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) as they struggle to save the human sanctuary of Zion from invading machines, the codirecting Wachowski brothers have their priorities well in order. They offer the obligatory bigger and better highlights (including the impressive "Burly Brawl" and freeway chase sequences) while remaining focused on cleverly plotting the middle of a brain-teasing trilogy that ends with The Matrix Revolutions. The metaphysical underpinnings can be dismissed or scrutinized, and choosing the latter course (this is, after all, an epic about choice and free will) leads to astonishing repercussions that made Reloaded an explosive hit with critics and hardcore fans alike. As the centerpiece of a multimedia franchise, this dynamic sequel ends with a cliffhanger that virtually guarantees a mind-blowing conclusion. --Jeff Shannon |  |  |  |  | | | |
| The Matrix Reloaded : 現地ハリウッド市民の評価 : 英語批評版 : Native Evaluation | | | | |  BETTER THAN THE FIRST, BUT STILL NO CLASSIC! / 2005-11-24
"The Matrix Reloaded," the sequel to 1999's sleeper hit, is a better film than the original. Like the original, though, it is boring for the most part, and features a lot more of quasi-religious babble that seriously detracted from the original. On the plus-side though, there is a lot more action in this one, including a spectacular car-chase-crash sequence.
The acting hasn't improved either. Laurence Fishburne does the best job as Morpheus. The rest of the cast does just alright, although Monica Bellucci ("The Passion of the Christ") does good in her interesting little scene as Persephone.
Overall, this is a decent film that will only appeal to fans of the original film.
Movie/DVD Grade: B+ | | | | | | | | | | | |  The Matrix Regurgitated / 2005-11-06
I just don't get it. Is good movie Sci-fi defined by too many computer generated special effects and Kung-Fu fightin'? This is just an awful movie, with an awful story line, based on an awful premise. You have the directors recreation of some kind of Dante's Inferno. Keanu Reaves delivering his lines like some bad robot in the Hall of Presidents or some dime wax museum. Add to that his wearing that cassock. And the cheap Superman pose as he flys throught the air is hilarious. Laurence Fishburne delivers his lines in speech mode. Did I tell you there is Kung-Gu fightin? And more Kung-Fu fightin' and so on and so on, well you get it. Add to this the pseudo Wastern philosophy peppered with Christian terminology and the dialogue is just too taxing. Even worse is that you can see that many of the fight scenes are just computer animation. I can't go on, this movie is just too awful. I say take away all their computers until the write a good story and real Science Fiction. | | | | | | | | | | | |  Unneccessary Movie... / 2005-10-18
The Matrix was a revolutionary movie. It had graphics and special effects not before seen in a major American box office hit. It made us think and opened out minds to possibilities some of us never before considered. It was spectacular. And we all awaited with anticipation the sequal.
Unfortunately, many of us were dissapointed.
The second movie doesn't add much to the plot that couldn't have been put into the first or third movies. By the time I sat through the "orgy" scene, I got the feeling that this movie was made more for the purpose of getting extra revenue than for adding depth or plot to the series. To quote the ever-present Hollywood maxim: "Sex sells."
For die-hard fans, this part of the series was met with awe and rapture. However, many of us wanted to see something more akin to the first movie: Something that would open our minds and leave us stunned, something awe-inspiring. In this respect, the second Matrix movie did not live up to expectations.
In conclusion:
The majority of the plot from this second movie could very well have been added at the end of the first or the beginning of the third movies without taking up too much time. This is a movie worth watching to connect the plots of the first and third movies, but is sorely lacking in what makes both #1 and #3 greats. Fans will enjoy this movie regardless of it's sore lackings, but those who are not die-hard fans may not enjoy this movie half as much. | | | | | | | | | | | | Insulting to Africans / 2005-09-18
Here is another case of whites in Hollywood making themselves feel like they are helping race relations by making African characters geniuses or heroes in a movie. This is a form of affirmative action that sickens me. See Ayo's _How to Rent a Negro_ for more on this mentality. How presumptuous of the Wachowskis to think that a few African hackers and dashiki-clad Zion council members, some dreadlocks and a big rave can make all the hurt go away. This trivializes the entire African-in-America experience. Meanwhile, the movie is by whites and for whites, with the African characters in secondary roles, as usual. Noble negro types, to help the white protagonists along.
I have nothing against Bill Cosby presenting literate, successful Africans, as at least that is something our youth can and should emulate, but in Matrix, it is all fantasy. How can our youth be proud of this extreme artifice?
The first Matrix was escapist fun, and Fishburne was a pleasure to watch. But Reloaded was an affront. | | | | | | | | | | | | War of the World(s) / 2005-08-09
There is no Spoon.
You remember that one, right? With the room of gifted child prodigies under the nanny-ship of The Oracle, particularly the little genius with the spoon-shaped head who was busy bending a spoon. How didja do that, son? Easy---
There is no Spoon.
Now, Larry Wachowski, months before Reloaded's massively anticipated release, got Matrix fanboys foaming in their droolcups when, asked about the reputedly eye-boggling new special effects in the new flick (shot back-to-back with Revolutions) and queried whether the Brothers Wachowski were about to Raise the Bar, replied: "there is no Bar".
Turns out he was just joking. "There is no Bar", get it?
The Audience didn't: Reloaded suffer the fate of everything that toys with the brutal, double-edged Sword of Hype. Given the cultic frenzy that surrounded the opening, given the peek the first Matrix provided into a world in which mankind had been played the fool by his Machines and shackled into an invisible bondage---given all of that, could anything deliver on such a Promise?
The answer, in true Matrix fashion: Revolutions is a Binary flick. You know, those little zeroes and ones that, taken together, represent The Holy Bible, or a storefront, or a superpowered cadillac sedan driven by two dredlocked razor-wielding monsters. The Desert of the Real; the World of Illusion.
With that in mind...
ONE: The Matrix Rating (the World of Illusion): 5 Stars. Reloaded is a technophile's fever-dream, and in this glossy, mechanistic, techno-sensual Real the Wachowskis entertain in spades.
Reloaded oozes style, just like its predecessor, and the supple combination of high-technology glossiness and urban grime that defined the unique visuals of the first movie have been delivered seamlessly into the sequel.
That's no surprise, since the Wachowskis wisely brought the entire team from the first movie along for the second ride. On hand for the sequel is Director of Photography Bill Pope and Costume Designer Kym Barrett, and both deliver the goods. Reloaded looks jaw-droppingly, drool-spatteringly delicious.
The original cast (minus, sadly, Tank & Apoc) are all back as well: Morpheus (an increasingly portly Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and Neo (an increasingly Zen Keanu Reeves) all turn in competent, if not outstanding, performances, and Hugo Weaving's nefarious Agent Smith tries not to steal the show (and mostly fails: Reloaded is at its best when Weaving is snarling and mincing onscreen).
The Wachowskis toss in some other intriguing characters to round out the ensemble, including the dastardly Merovingian (played suavely, but talkatively, by Lambert Wilson), his gorgeous mistress Persephone (played tastily by Monica Bellucci), his razor-wielding Twin henchmen (done not with CGI, but played by real-life twins Adrian and Neil Rayment and a real-life razorblade!), and Jada Pinkett Smith's understated Captain Niobe.
So it entertains. But...
ZERO: The Desert of the Real Rating: 3 Stars. Is this the flick you wanted to see, thought you would see, when the credits rolled at the end of "The Matrix"?
Me neither. Yes, "Reloaded" is anchored fore and aft and amidships with some eye-popping action setpieces, chiefly the Freeway chase and the mountain-top Chalet duel with the Merovingian's lackeys. Yes, it oozes style from its steel and CGI pores. If "Matrix: Reloaded" were a ship, it would have mighty pretty rigging and sails.
Yes, it was cool to see the big exo-skeleton walkers lumbering around in Zion. No, I didn't find the Zion Rave scene embarrassing (celebrate, party like it's 1999 chal, 'cause we're FREE! I can dig it).
But after the "Burn the Barricades!" coda of the first flick, I wanted something more. Neo can bend the "rules" of the Matrix now: he can tweak all those leetle zeroes and ones in his favor. So why stick around to fight Agent Smith in the tedious 'Burly Brawl'? Why not conjure up a few werewolves of his own to keep him busy?
Or, while we're at it---if 'waking up' those slave-minds is so critical to the Revolution, why not *really* shake things up a bit? You know, mebbe introduce a few square miles of the Kalihari Desert in the middle of the City?
Seen in the LED readout-afterburn of "Matrix: Revolutions", "Reloaded" makes considerably more sense: certainly it's operatic in its sleek, luxurious gloss and glamor.
But the real problem is this: the first "Matrix" was our very unauthorized glimpse into the Truth behind "Reality". It felt like finding out a very dangerous, dirty secret. It felt conspiratorial, which was half the fun.
It's pretty, true, and if you pick up the Ultimate collection and pop this baby in the hopper of your high-end system, you'll watch in amazement as the rafters shake, plaster cracks and falls, car alarms go off.
But at the end of the day, "Reloaded" is just another big action flick. Reloaded? Reheated---but still pretty tasty.
JSG | | | | | | | |  |  | | |
[R (Restricted)]
