Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Matrix Reloaded delivers added amounts of everything that the first film had, with the exception of surprises. We see more of the "real world" in the "last human city" of Zion and we go back to the 1999-look urban virtual reality of the Matrix for more encounters with artificially-intelligent baddies and--the real reason you've turned up--a lot more martial arts superheroics.
The downside is that this is just part one of a two-pack of sequels, with Revolutions required to tie up the story and sort out a great deal of plot confusion. There are other problems: none of the stars have much good material to work with outside the fights and stunts, which makes the film sorely miss the mix of science fiction thrills and character interplay of the original instalment.
However, the Wachowski Brothers still deliver more than enough stand-alone instant classic action sequences to make you ignore their duff script: in particular, Reeves and Hugo Weaving square off in a rumble that gets dicey, as more and more identical Weavings come out of the woodwork to pile on the lone hero; and a full quarter of an hour is devoted to a chase through the Matrix that lets Laurence Fishburne shoulder the heroic business. A last-reel encounter with a virtual God, the architect of the Matrix, finally delivers some major plot advances, but the scene is so brilliantly shot and designed--with Reeves framed against a wall of TV screens that show multiple versions of himself--that it's easy to be distracted by the decor and miss the point of what's being said. --Kim Newman
On the DVD: The Matrix Reloaded two-disc set amazingly has very little in-depth stuff on this physically impressive movie; there's not even a commentary track. Perhaps the Wachowski Brothers want to keep their enigmatic aura, or perhaps there's a better DVD coming after the trilogy ends? Best here is the 30-minute feature on the incredible freeway chase: here you get the inside scoop on how the titanic 12-minute sequence was put together. There's plenty of material on the second disc, but it's just filler, with the actors talking about how great it is to work again with the Matrix team and plenty of quick edits of explosions and other "cool" things. There's a segment on product placement, 30 minutes on how the video game was created and the MTV Movie Awards parody. The features feel more like pre-movie hype than post-film deconstruction. Dolby 5.1 sound is suitably spectacular--but there's no DTS option--and the super-wide 2.40:1 picture is, of course, pin-sharp, bringing out all the lavish detail and highlighting the contrast between the green-hued Matrix and the grimy grey real world. --Doug Thomas
Special Features
- Preload – get behind the scenes
- The Freeway Chase – how they did it
- The Matrix Unfolds – a look at the Matrix phenomenon
- MTV Movie Awards Reloaded
- What is "The Animatrix"?
- Enter The Matrix – making the game
- Get Me An Exit – inspired design and advertising
DVD Technical Information:
- Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 widescreen
- Languages: English, German
- Hearing impaired: English, German
- Subtitles: English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, = Icelandic
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing but worth a look,
By Sam Anders (Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Matrix Reloaded (2 Disc Edition) [2003] [DVD] (DVD)
Let's get something clear before I begin - I love The Matrix, love it, one of the greatest films of all time without a doubt. The reason I mention this is that some of the reviews being critical of this (and the abysmal second sequel) are being critical of the Matrix trilogy.
So, Reloaded. This film follows the surviving members of the original crew from the first film; as a massive machine army works its way toward the last human city of Zion, Morpheus feels certain that Neo's fate will soon be realized, Trinity and Neo struggle to deal with his new-found messianic fame whilst maintaining any sort of relationship, and the mysterious return of Smith prompts the search for 'the keymaker' a program who may be able to lead Neo to his destiny (or at least show him the door). So, the plot sounds just as strange and action-scene-ready as the first doesn't it? Wrong. The story ranges from horribly convoluted to barely sensible, with the philosophical edges so beyond our comprehension I still have no idea what it's about thematically. As for the storyline, well I can sort of follow it but it's not really that interesting, complicated yes, but not interesting, there is no Cypher-like twist here, only slow progression down a bizarre road with no interruption or change of stakes. This far it sounds like a one-star review, that's because the film has a one-star plot. It's the action that saves this film, and even that's not as good as the last film. The action comes a lot more in Reloaded, a good thing since the plot's rubbish and there's no character development of any kind. The first movie's claustrophobic old hallways and desperate chases have been replaced with wide arenas and full blown battles as Neo's powers now allow him to take agents head on and the other characters are forced into the open. The action scenes are for the most part great, the directors have become very ambitious and it's a good thing, with two stand-out scenes as Neo fights a private army of 'rejected programs' around and with a collection of medieval weaponry or when Trinity and Morpheus battle agents and ghosts (don't ask) whilst protecting the Keymaker and doing ninety down the freeway. But there's something missing, something essential they've forgotten; these fights are just way too clean. In the Matrix people bled, got covered in dust and debris and blows really felt like they hurt, here no-one really bleeds (except that one time), blows knock people back but don't seem to hurt at all, and there's not much of a sense of danger. So while the action scenes are brilliantly choreographed and constructed, they're essentially soulless. What more can I say? It's got an OK but not very interesting plot that just becomes incomprehensible whenever it tries to be smart. It's got well done but soulless action scenes. It's a reasonable action movie that I watch from time to time and would be fine if only it didn't carry with it inevitable comparison to it's predecessor. This is reasonable as an action film, but as a sequel it's deeply disapointing. If you've not seen it it's worth a look but don't expect the originals quality.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Definately the 'middle' one! (Slight Spoiler Alert!),
By
This review is from: The Matrix Reloaded (2 Disc Edition) [2003] [DVD] (DVD)
'The Matrix' was so original and so innovative that it was always going to be hard to follow up on it. Not only this, but it could have been a stand-alone film with an ending that is left to our imagination. However, 'Reloaded' is a case of 'mid-trilogy' syndrome - something that must be done to get to the final part. In this respect, 'Reloaded' works quite well (with a decent twist involving Smith's "real life" clone). There's certainly a feeling that you're witnessing a real spectacle or that one is around the corner. As a stand-alone, it doesn't work so well. There's a good 40 minutes in Zion (the last human city) before an real action - aside from an extremely pointless 30 second punch up with a few Agents... oh and another extremely pointless 30 second punch up with another good guy! But then Smith returns, thank God, "a new man, so to speak". But this time, he is also a rebel and begins to real inject some much-needed fun into the film. As soon as he shows up, there's one of the most entertaining fight scenes ever made with God-knows-how-many Smiths! Then a 15 minute car chase, ending with a REAL CLOSE CALL that just makes you sigh with relief! Much like The 'Empire Strikes Back', the ending is quite grim and holds one or two twists. The DVD extras are unremarkable and could have been a real spectacle... well, there's bound to be a 'Reloaded Revisited'! Anyway, definately worth buying if you watch all three (somehow) in a short amount of time...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Why the sequel ?,
This review is from: The Matrix Reloaded (2 Disc Edition) [2003] [DVD] (DVD)
The Matrix was a classic , as cutting edge as ' Star Wars ' was in it's time ,a film that no matter how many times you saw it , you would always see something new .It had people talking right up to the moment that 'Reloaded' was announced .The public naturally craved more of this feast that The Wachowski Brothers were happy to feed them .But what was the secret that made 'The Matrix ' a classic ?, was it the fight scenes , the romance between Neo and Trinity , or was is Agent Smith - 'the mother of all baddies ' ? . Either way , 'Reloaded' was what we got , and with an ending that was openly ambiguous , some of us just prayed that the end would come sooner rather than later .'Revolutions ' would prove that some endings would be more painfull thatn others - thank G_d that 'everything that has a beggining has an end ' .
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
