Ten Years Ago This Week!

[RichWS]

I always love looking back to see what movies opened at #1 in years past. You could chalk it up to nostalgia since I saw many of those forgotten #1's in theaters myself. It evokes a different time in your life. The theater where you saw it, the friends who saw it with. It reminds of you what the culture once enjoyed and how's it changed.

 

This morning, I was somewhat stunned to read that The Matrix Revolutions was released ten years ago today. I can vividly remember being at that 9 AM show with my best friend, both of us still willing to believe the Wachowskis could pull it off even after the crushing disappointment of Reloaded. Needless to say, it extinguished the remaining flames of our shared fandom. 

 

I was an acne-riddled young buck of 17 then, a college freshman. The Matrix sequels were to me what the Star Wars prequels were to older fanboys at the time. Bitterness reigned within, and I've long since forgotten about the franchise. I haven't sat through the whole movie since its release. The 10-year anniversary got me interested in re-watching it. Just it alone, not with Reloaded before it.

 

 

OPENING: 11/5/03 (opened at #1)

RT: 36%

 

For all the painfully stilted acting and dialogue and narrative missteps, I thought it was very mildly diverting. Who knows? Maybe I'm being easy on it because I don't give the same shit about this stuff anymore. At least it moves. I remember Reloaded dragging its ass. Of course, it's still bizarre how it gives its main characters the short shrift. Morpheus becomes a bit player, Trinity ends up as "Neo's Girlfriend".The emotional stakes never feel high enough. The Zion siege, while impressively mounted, is repetitive. Same goes for the climatic fight, although I totally forget about the hilarious Big Super Punch. All in all, it was interesting revisiting a film I disdained for so many years. It's got some big issues, but I wouldn't call it a disaster. Just an eternal letdown.

 

I'll go 5/10.

 

Starting with Revolutions, I plan on re-watching the #1 movie from ten years ago every week (next week's #1 would be Elf, which opened on this coming weekend). If time and my own interest permit, I'd like to catch up with other releases from back then, but the #1's are mandatory. This means in two weeks time, I'll be forcing myself to watch The Cat in the Hat. How stupid is that?

[AniNate]

This was the first R-rated movie I got to see on the big screen. 

 

Nice thread idea, but I say if you want to catch up on classics, just go down the IMDB 250.

[Dementeleus]

I recently caught part of REVOLUTIONS again (for the first time since I first saw it) and felt largely the same way you did (although I'm a much bigger RELOADED fan than you, by the sound of it). The key failure, IMO, was the relegation of main characters to supporting status, with far less interesting people elevated front and center.

[AniNate]

Trinity's death was laughable then and still is now

[Webslinger]

The Matrix mania and its sudden death were so odd to watch. Everyone and their dog was interested in seeing Reloaded (hence why it still has the biggest opening weekend ever for an R-rated movie, and why it would have challenged Spider-Man's weekend record had it opened on a Friday), but the buzz for Revolutions was very muted by comparison. Then, adding insult to injury, Revolutions was an afterthought less than a month after its release.

 

It was the second R-rated movie I saw in the theatre, after - you guessed it - Reloaded. At the time, I liked it a bit less than the first two movies. When I rewatched it a few years ago, I didn't care for much outside of the super burly brawl. If Reloaded didn't have its share of awesome moments, I'd probably just pretend that The Matrix never actually got any sequels, but rather still exists as a standalone movie.

[cookie]

Out of that movie I only remember two things:

1. The final battle, which is by far the best part of the film.

2. Trinity's lousy death scene.

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Why was Revolutions so frontloaded?

[CoolioD1]

I like Reloaded a lot and there are some bits and pieces of Revolutions I like quite a lot too.

[ladyevenstar22]

i think like everyone mostly matrix blew my mind away , and like everyone the sequels didnt quite live up to the awesomeness 

 

its like a metaphor or something once we were unplugged from the matrix reality was a letdown , can you really hate the guy who wanted to be plugged back in but with a better life

 

well i for one would love for trinity not to die! that's one reason i haven't watched the film in such a long time , i have the dvds and did watch all then once or twice but in past decade i've only rewatched the first one 

 

pretty sure i watched the matrix on tv at some point last year

 

say what you will about them but the first one was a game changer i still remember how in following years people mimicked to death the slow-motion bullet scene, i even remember when scary movie did it (one of the first imitators i believe) and everyone went wild in the theatre , then shrek did it too and it got stale real fast as it became a staple in some actions films

 

still no one did the slo-mo better than the watchowskis siblings in their sequels, neo vs gazillion mr smith was super cool

for all its faults i still have affection for the trilogy even if i haven't sat down to watch all 3 like in forever and probably wont i'm more likely to sit through 12 hours of LOTR which i never fail to do at least 3 times a year now , it was much more a few years back 

Edited November 6, 2013 by ladyevenstar22

[chasmmi]

 

Starting with Revolutions, I plan on re-watching the #1 movie from ten years ago every week (next week's #1 would be Elf, which opened on this coming weekend). If time and my own interest permit, I'd like to catch up with other releases from back then, but the #1's are mandatory. This means in two weeks time, I'll be forcing myself to watch The Cat in the Hat. How stupid is that?

 

You're lucky this isn't 2007, otherwise you'd be looking forward to embarking on watching Titanic an ungodly amount of times over the winter.

[RichWS]

You're lucky this isn't 1997, otherwise you'd be looking forward to embarking on watching Titanic an ungodly amount of times over the winter.

 

If a movie repeated as #1, like Return of the King did in Dec '03, I'm only watching it once during the week it came out. For weeks that had no new #1, I'll either watch another film that was released that week or skip it altogether. 

[CoolioD1]

If a movie repeated as #1, like Return of the King did in Dec '03, I'm only watching it once during the week it came out. For weeks that had no new #1, I'll either watch another film that was released that week or skip it altogether. 

Except Cat in the Hat of course. That's something you should definitely watch two weeks in a row.

[Jake Gittes]

Last time I saw The Matrix sequels (around three years ago), I still enjoyed them a lot - even the Wachowskis' more misguided ideas always go hand in hand with original, daring stuff, and especially in this day and age I appreciate Reloaded and Revolutions as $150 million blockbusters that never stop being interesting on some level. They go all-out in terms of action, too, and they get away with it - all the action sequences in Reloaded and the final, ridiculously epic (but not quite epically ridiculous) fight in Revolutions could still make me all giddy, whereas the destruction in something like STID would sooner put me to sleep than excite me. Regarding Trinity's death, I agree that it could've been handled better, but I think it's worth it just for that beautiful tiny moment when she sees the sun for the first and the last time. That bit honestly never failed to make me tear up.

[The Futurist]

I think most people were too stupid ( I don't mean it harshly) or lacking the cultural knowledge to begin to grasp the meanings and symbolisms and philisophical themes in Matrix 2&3.

Me included.

I think people really underestimate how brilliant the Wacho are intellectually, they do have the credentials to talk philosophy with scholars especially Lana it seems. Nobody could have attempted Cloud Atlas except them.

How many moviegoers knew, read or digested Baudrillard's work when they saw the Matrix which was based on.

 

Matrix 2&3 were saying that everything that happened in the first movie didn't matter, that it was a fairy tale designed to lure people into thinking that the jesus saves syndrom was real. There is no savior, the"One" never existed. And that s what fascinated people in the first movie, believing you could be a "GOD" inside a world created by a computer.

The architect basically told to the audiences (=people of Zion=us) at the end of Reloaded that they (we) were retarted to think a savior ever existed.

The machines, knowing how much Humanity wants to have faith into something, to believe in a savior, created Neo to maintain the stability of the Matrix because without hope, humanity can't live too long, and without humanity, the machines didn't have battery to function so they had to found a way to keep humans' souls working a little, or something like that...

 

The first Matrix was a perfect pop corn movie and moment but it was still the same story we ( & George Lucas & everyone else) always knew, presented in a "then" modern way with bullet time, cool action, cool looking heroes and kung fu moves, with computers and machines.

 

People don't want to believe this but the Wacho came to Warner with a trilogy, it was always their intention to kill the first movie's meaning, or lack thereof.

Warner executives  admitted after the success of the first movie they didn't even understand the first movie's script. I wonder what they thought when they read the scripts from episode 2&3 ...

Don't get me wrong, Matrix 2&3 are messy but I found them fascinating for their ambition, from pop culture ( super heroes, sci, fi, action, kunk fu), to computers, to the Lumiere philosophers, to religions, to greek philosophy and everything in between, the movies just tried to incompass the entire history of worldwide culture.

 

And I dare you to find any other strudio movie that tried that  on that scale.

 

Plus, the Wacho NEVER spoke about Matrix 2 & 3, they NEVER answered to ANY questions about the movies. They never tried to explain them, which gives these movies a mysterious aura that flies over most people's heads.

I think they weren't there at BOTH movie premieres and they were nowhere to be seen in the hours and hours of extras in Matrix 2&3's bluray's bonuses.

Edited November 6, 2013 by The Futurist

[Ozymandias]

I've always thought Reloaded was serviceable, there is some undeniably good stuff in it even though it never reaches the greatness of the first movie. 

 

Revolutions is brutally bad though.  Just dog shit.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Ozymandias

[dashrendar44]

The only thing I fondly remember from Matrix Reloaded is Don Davis music.

 

That main titles with greenish WB logo and the green code invading the black screen like computer rain with Davis mysterious cue blaring, it was kinda like Williams fanfare blasting with the big Star Wars logo flashing over the stars. I remember having chills when Reloaded main titles started out...Oh god, I ended up being numb out of my mind and feeling an incredible urge to take a piss.

Edited November 6, 2013 by dashrendar44

[Dementeleus]

 ...the movies just tried to incompass the entire history of worldwide culture.

 

I admire your passion for these movies, but no, I don't agree with that at all. It's a bit of a pastiche of elements taken from a variety of cultures and/or philosophies, but even that's not particularly new (look at Star Wars, for instance). I don't think I'm diminishing or taking anything away from the Matrix movies by saying they're action movies with a dash of pop-philosophy added. That's not bad... but it's not tremendously deep.

[RichWS]

Maybe I'll re-watch Reloaded someday.

 

Futurist, I take minuscule offense to your claim that people were "too stupid" to grasp these films. Look, the symbolism is right there. It's fairly heavy-handed. I admire the Wachowskis' ambition, but ultimately the execution falls flat. 

[Dementeleus]

Maybe I'll re-watch Reloaded someday.

 

Futurist, I take minuscule offense to your claim that people were "too stupid" to grasp these films. Look, the symbolism is right there. It's fairly heavy-handed. I admire the Wachowskis' ambition, but ultimately the execution falls flat. 

 

You should. Zion falls flat, but the Burly Brawl is hilarious fun (though ludicrous and pointless), the Freeway Chase is up there with the best action chases ever, as a sequel the movie opens up the original Matrix universe in many fascinating ways (all the various programs and codes with their own agendas), and it wraps up with a very clever and elegant dilemma. What knocks it down is the abrupt ending and the fact that REVOLUTIONS doesn't really step up and pay off the various interesting complications that RELOADED introduced.

[4815162342]

One thing that bugs me about Reloaded and Revolutions is that the most interesting aspect of the films: Agent Smith entering the Real World, gets almost no development at all.