h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So am I right to gather from that screenshot that she somehow managed to change the password to be 210N0101, which, interestingly, reads as ZION0101. Did anyone else spot when they followed Persephone, the number on the wall was 101, which was the number of Neo's apartment in the first one? It's all to do with being the one, obviously.Neo is also an anagram of "ONE". Trinity's apartment right at the start of the original was 303. Clever, huh?

yeah, 210N0101 - Neo, Morpheus, Trinity et al as 3l33t 4aX0r5 and warez doodz

I've seen The Matrix but not Reloaded so I hope you don't mind me butting in since I can't answer the original question. Am I the only one who thought The Matrix was a splendid remake of the Red Dwarf episode 'Psirens'?

In answer to an earlier question I thought the sequel and especially the second sequel (trequel?) to Back to the Future were at least as good as the original.

Should I go to see Reloaded then, since I enjoyed The matrix, whether I 'get' it or not?

F

(Spoliers ahead beware all ye who enter here)

5p0t5 3l33t t3xt *shoots Ictoan*
This is not ICQ or a CS forum

I got the plot. Not too hard to follow. A bit shallow but hey, I didn't get all the little quirks in the first film on my first watch. (For example everything the Oracle says is true though if you just listen to the meaning then she seems to have been wrong) I have been told the game offers a minor point to the plot though it is really not necassary, good for advertising the game. As my friend eloquently put it 'don't buy the game to get the matrix, buy it because its a damn cool game'

I'm fairly immune to bad graphics - I spend so long on the computer and watching films that I am suprised when RL isn't in 1024*786so I didn't notice anything wrong. Also the twins (ghosts, wraiths whatever they were) were kewl (And I wants one of those nasty little knives)

As for the ending...I suspect (And I'm deliberately avoiding trailers for the next film so I know no more than you) that they are still in the matrix when they are in the hovercraft & Xion. Thus Neos lightning doodad and 'i can feel them' at the end of the film. Possibly this comes of being a natural paranoid and watching eXistenZ too much...

Ah, the twins, come on a long way since being carpenters on Carol Vorderman's home improvement show on ITV, haven't they?

Also I reckon the motorbike went more slowly because there were two people on it. Furthermore the most important force in the universe (narrative causality) probably played a part.

Also I reckon the motorbike went more slowly because there were two people on it. Furthermore the most important force in the universe (narrative causality) probably played a part.

I left Jellen a link on her page to an article about the spiritual myths involved, the *messages* that people see.

I watched the first one after rave reviews from friends and wasn't impressed. After avidly watching every epsiode of Red Dwarf I found the concept wasn't shocking at all and didn't get anywhere near matching the cleverness of the Red Dwarf concepts.

I've seen the trailors at the cinema, and the presence of a few flashy graphics and Keanu Reeves will be enough to make most people go see.

Saw the first one abot a gerjillion times on DVD, played the game to completion with both characters last weekend, then finally saw Reloaded last night...

Before the spoilers, I need to point out to anyone who's not able to see it THIS WEEK, that if you wait about three weeks and are near Bristol, Birmningham, Bradford or London, save your money and watch the film on an IMAX screen.















Detailed points first...

Did anyone NOT know that the Oracle wasn't human in the *first* film? Was that supposed to be a surprise? She was supposed to be, like, a hundred or more years old. Also, if she HAD been human, where could she have been broadcasting from? She obviously lives in the Matrix, is a part of it.

Jet Li was very cool, but underused, I think - and if you've played the game, the line "but first, I must apologise" is a nice smirk moment, where you can think "hehheh, I know what's coming next...".

I thought the dancing/sex scene in Zion just went on for far too long and wasn't interesting. That section of the DVD won't be getting much laser-time, I'm sure.

What was impressive, if you've played the game, was the feeling that two or three times in the film, you got the definite feeling that you knew what was going on somewhere else, at the same time as the action on screen - because YOU'd been there, doing the things, as Niobe and Ghost. A completely novel experience... but a shame that possibly the single most impressive shot in the entire film - the eye-popping truck crash - had been used in the game and therefore didn't come as a surprise.

There's something in the game which I was hoping was going to be explained in Reloaded, and which wasn't, so I REALLY hope it's going to be explained in Revolutions - namely the guy in the subway station. Niobe is about to jack out, and some old geezer walks by with an arm full of watches and says "Seventy two hours", and "Me? I'm nobody, just a spectator". Anyone any idea who/what that guy is?

The architect I found somewhat unconvincing, seeming to be going for an impression of Charlton Heston and missing a bit.

This might be a churlish point, but I found some of the humour to be inappropriate. Link going "YES!" was good, but the Merovingian revelling in the sound of French swearing and saying "It's like wiping your arse with silk", while it's funny, somehow isn't "The Matrix". Like I said, churlish...

So... onto generalities.

This film seemed long. I don't like films that *seem* long. I don't mind films that ARE long - JFK packed six hours' worth of information into three hours of film, but it was rivetting and seemed to fly by. Reloaded, on the other hand, seemed to pack an hours' worth of information into two hours, and felt like six. There was too great a contrast, I think, between the action, which was fairly uniformly breathtaking, and the talky bits, which really did go on and on and on and did not relate, in some cases, directly to the action.

In the original, every time it kicked off it was directly related to what the characters had been talking about right then.

In Reloaded, they seem to blather on at length for ages, then decide to have a fight, sometimes for an unrelated reason, sometimes for no reason at all.

Examples: there's a long scene with the Oracle, which is OK, but there's a wire-fu scene both before and after which are COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to the plot. Jet Li fights Neo because he can, and Hugo Weaving fights Neo because that's what we paid to see.

Contrast that with the first film - "This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix...". That fight had two MAJOR points - (1) in this world, you can simply download thirty years of martial arts training in a matter of hours (2) in the Matrix, you can bend rules like gravity and have superhuman powers - if you can free your mind.

Neither of the fights mentioned above made any kind of point, beyond "Jet Li could kick Keanu's butt if he really wanted", and "Hey look, we can computer generate a hundred Elronds, isn't that cool?".

The ending is extremely abrupt, and more than a little confusing. In fact, what I was actually HOPING for was that it would end as Neo went through the door of light - as the screen went white I was literally thinking "THAT would be a cool ending"...

I agree with whoever said they think they're not actually out of the Matrix yet... it's a common twist, and in some ways I hope that ISN'T it. We'll see.

Well, that's my , it merely remains to wait for the IMAX release and November...

H.

I suspect the entire post-Matrix Earth will turn out to be a recursive subroutine buried into another matrix, and Keanu Reeves will eventually wake up in bed next to Jeff Bridges from Tron.

As a middle-brother in filmic terms, I thought Reloaded held its own. There seemed a little more passion in the plot than the first, but it was always going to be a 'filler' to some extent, so I guess the fights and other aspects were carrying the plot along rather than directly affecting the narrative. They're probably building it up that little slower for the sake of box office take. And the music was pants.

X-Men 2 was loads better, I reckon.

The music *was* pants, wasn't it? Several times, especially in the hallway sword/mace/morningstar/whatever fight, I was thinking "This music sounds a bit like the good stuff in 'The Matrix', but only a bit." It was as though I was hearing a knock-off soundtrack of the type you hear in supermarkets, lawsuit-avoiding, non-copyright-infringing almost-but-not-quite cover versions of well known tunes.

Possibly this is unfair and as much down to the fact that "Spybreak" is so ingrained on my consciousness as a result of four years of forcing every single visitor to my house to sit in front of my DVD player and making their ears bleed with the immediate aftermath of the words "Would you please remove any metallic items you're carry, keys, loose change... Holy Shit!" as it is to do with the possible lower quality of the music in the new film. Maybe by the time I've watched Reloaded a few hundred times the music will seem better. I doubt it though...

I agree, I definitely came out of X2 buzzing in a way I didn't (and expected to) after Reloaded. I just hope that Reloaded and Revolutions are the seamless one-long-movie we're promised, and that everything is satisfactorily resolved. Fingers crossed.

H.

There is the odd SPOILER in this posting.


The radio review I listened to yesterday ended up deciding that the people enjoying Reloaded were young male geeks. Does this thread confirm this ?

Actually I suspect the movie is working on a number of levels:

- great action and special effects
- the geek factor (technology)
- the consciousness factor (myth, metaphor and mysticism)

The tech conversation here goes mostly over my head, though I find it interesting what the W brother's are doing by using contemporary technology. I also suspect that the use of contemporary technologies in the story is also acting on the consciousness level.

The thing I'm interested in is the use of the story to prompt changes in consciousness. This is a common cross-cultural storytelling technique, where a story is used to convey or teach ever deeper understanding of reality, but the plot of the story itself can be on the surface quite simple or superficial.

The use of paradox throughout both movies is an example of this, kind of like zen koans.

I reckon I've missed lots of the film too, and need to see it a few more times to get what is really going on. Krispy's point about the relationships is good - without the human stuff its just a fancy special effects showcase.

I was a bit disappointed with the Morpheus character too, he seemed too fanatical to me, but this was somewhat resolved by his acknowledgement near the end that his dream had come to an end. He may still end up being right of course.

Obviously Neo choosing Trinity is a key thing, and although in some ways the film handles their relationship quite clumsily, their whole relationship is central to the story in a deeper way than just a boy meets girl plot.

For instance when Zion are partying and Neo and Trinity go off to make love, its very reminiscent of European pagan myth/history where a powerful woman and man in the community come together in the sacred marriage in order to bless the land and ensure fertility for the coming year. The whole dance/love making sequence has parallels with the Celtic festival of Beltaine.

I would see Neo and Trinity's love making at that point as crucial to raising the energy for what happens later. Its significant also that Neo has a flashback(forward), at that point, of his dream that Trinity will die.


I'm not sure that Zion etc are part of the matrix (I'm hoping its not too). Its also possible that Neo has bridged some sort of gap between virtual reality and physical reality. What's happening with Agent Smith fits this too.

One of the things I really like is the theme of how a supposedly logical system like the matrix ends up with rogue programmes, and the possibility that it didn't intend to create them. Maybe logic on its own is not self sustainable and will inherently generate difference as its survives.


Elentari, the reason that humanity hasn't ended when Neo chose Trinity is because its going to happen in the 24 hours after his choice (from what I remember).


Fathom, go see Reloaded anyway. Just remember its #2 in a series of 3 and don't expect it to be a stand alone 'sequel' (unless you're just going for the action scenes).

It turns out that much of the incidental music was by Paul Oakenfold, the artless hard-house shill who gave us that ubiquitous Big Brother theme.

Basically I agree with most of what's been said, I zoned out during the talky bits (but that might have been because of spending the day walking round alton towers and being on the verge of dozing off), found it a bit , enjoyed most of the fighting - except for a couple of bits where it looked too much like a very well done computer game - the bit with all the smiths being the main one, I didn't consciously notice the music but that might explain some of the ness of it the something that seemed missing.

Looking forward to watching it on IMAX in Bournemouth in a few weeks time...

I'm a 48 yr old female & I thoroughly enjoyed it - what does that do for statistics?

I only got around to seeing The Matrix in full last weekend, which was probably helpful in following the plot. I'm sure there were also assorted nuances & allusions that I missed. Overall I think Reloaded was probably a bit too long, but it kept me pretty well absorbed throughout. I felt it was a somewhat tongue in a cheek production & certainly the narrative was a bit contrived, but then it usually is in most dramas.

Looking forward to seeing the last episode, hope that will have a satisfactory resolution without relying too much on technical wizardry for entertainment.

Total disappointment.

Don't normally go in for sci-fi action films, but have ended up seeing the first Matrix film at least half a dozen times. Loved it. Totally.

Just home from seeing Reloaded. Load of crap. So terribly disappointing. Far too many fight scenes - like get outta here.

Morpheus character reduced to nothing.

The whole bit with the French guy and his babe could have easily been eliminated - had no substance at all,

Agent Smith also reduced to nothing. Just replicated - so? How is that interesting?

Also, all that psuedo-philosophical babble. 'Things never change, but sometimes they do'. Ick. Many more examples of this but, thankfully, can't remember them all now.

The 'architect'. Sad

The oracle - say what?

The twins - extremely bad.

Crash em, bash em car chase scenes. Snore.

My take is that in an attempt to make a massive money making trilogy out of this, Reloaded (having very little plot) was filled up with lots of very repeticious fight scenes and special effects nonsense (ALL seen before, but previously better) in order to have an excuse for the third part.

Nothing was convincing in this film. Also, there was none of the tongue-in-cheek humour of the previous film. In fact, no humour at all. And also, no character development.

Not interesting. Not entertaining. Sad disappointment.

And the worst thing is that I have to take a young 12-year-old friend to see this AGAIN on Wednesday! Am hoping I shall faint from boredom after the opening credits so I don't have to sit through this again.

az

I didn't think Matrix Reloaded was bad, it just wasn't brilliant. I thought the first one was brilliant, and it is d*mn hard to try and match that in a second film. The problem the filmmakers had with Reloaded was that they had already made Neo superhuman in the first one. But a Neo with perfect control, unlimited control over the Matrix is not interesting -- he would have no challenges. So the filmmakers basically had to backpedal like crazy. Maybe he's not the One. Maybe he's just an anomaly of the system (if I understood correctly). All of the "philosophy" in Reloaded seems like a labored explanation of why Neo is now vulnerable. The audience has to believe that Neo can fail to save humanity, otherwise there is no third movie, no big climatic confrontation.

Am I the only one who thought Neo bringing Trinity back from the dead was too much like Trinity bringing Neo back from the dead in the first one? Resurrecting characters is becoming commonplace. Where's the suspense if Neo can fix anyone who gets shot, etc, inside the Matrix?

I agree with some of the points other researchers have made: 1)That Morpheus is demoted from THE leader of the human rebellion to just A leader of the humans. His character is changed for the worse in this one. His speech to the crowd at Zion totally failed to move or motivate me. 2)The music for Reloaded was REALLY POOR compared to the original Matrix. Did they change composers?? 3) Why didn't Neo avoid some of those fights by just flying away?

I've got to say that I did find the fights and the chase scenes in Reloaded pretty exciting. It was pretty good. But Matrix One had, I don't know, symmetry, I guess I would say. Everything fell into place at the right time. Action led very natually into philosophy, and back again, there was flow. In Reloaded they alternated much more awkwardly, it all seemed rather forced. Oh, and Matrix had an ending, Reloaded does not. (I will go see the next one, of course)

PS *Spoiler*

I did so like the scene where the chick demands a kiss from Neo, and Trinity gets all jealous. That was really nice.

JEllen

Hi JEllen

Good point about Neo having to be vulnerable to defeat otherwise it would be a boring movie.

I think the point of Neo reviving Trinity was twofold.

1. Neo had been told by the Architect that if he chose to forsake humankind to save Trinity it wouldn't make any difference because she was going to die anyway. If Neo had chosen to let Trinity die in order to save humanity, then isn't he risking what is human in himself (his love for another)? So, given that he chose Trinity, and that this is so crucial to the plot, it wouldn't work for her to actually die at that point.


2. There is also this theme of how what we believe defines our reality. This is certainly true in the matrix, and was explored in The Matrix a number of times eg when Morpheus teaches Neo to fight and that his ability to fight is limited by his mind not his muscles. Also when Neo 'kills' Smith, it is about his ability to go past the limits of what he and others believe is possible.

I think in Reloaded, this was repeated, especially with Trinity's resurrection, but its still important because otherwise Neo would have been thinking that by killing Smith he had exceeded _a_ limit, but the point is that in the matrix he has no limits other than the ones he believes. I think this concept is in many disciplines like martial arts and shamanic practice, and that its core to the whole Matrix idea.

Also the difference between Trinity resurrecting Neo and vice versa, is that Trinity did it through a kiss and her belief in her love for him (though this apparently is yet another programme?), whereas Neo had to plunge his hand into her ribcage and do something much more heroic/macho. Cultural metaphor or gender stereotyping?

~~~

Anyway, if its all just a matrix within a matrix how come they all have freewill? (Its starting to sound more theological all the time).

Matrix Reloaded was great. A brilliant story, great fight scenes, great car chase scene, and you are just left wondering what's next. The whole world is shown so much more, and so mny questions are answered in it.

spook