OK, I've got to get my initial Matrix Reloaded impressions into the wide world of the internet....



I suppose I should put a spoiler warning here:



SPOILER ALERT! MAN THE LIFE BOATS!! WOMEN AND ME FIRST!!!



ahem...



So, as you may know after my experience with the game I wasn't holding up much hope for this film, but I have to say I was pleasantly suprised. But before I mention what I liked I feel like I should get the bad points out of my system:



First off... Zion, to be honest I really don't think we needed to be shown it, most of the start of the film could have been dumped, after all we didn't see Zion in the first film and that wasn't any weaker for it - I liked the control room scene that they showed, but the rest of the interior just didn't fit with this initial peek of the human stronghold. The scene with the council reminded me of that one in the Phantom Menace when the leaders of Naboo are talking about the upcoming invasion, I had a horrible feeling Jar Jar Binks was going to rear his ugly head... and as for the rave/softcore porn scene, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...



Besides that the only other slight disappointment was Neo's fight with the hundreds of Agent Smith's, I guess it's over exposure more than anything - but some of the digital Agent Smith's seemed a little ropey to me and it lacked the purity of the other fight scenes. Having said that some of Smith's lines in this scene were great, it's the way he say's "me" that get's me going.



OK, good stuff: the other fight scenes with Neo - the boy's done good, I don't think he'd look too out of place in a Hong Kong action flick - maybe they could have done with a bit more wire work, after all he is The One, and I don't think you can have too much super hero action in his position. Following on from that little comment I quite enjoyed some of the more outlandish 'Superman' stuff with Neo, that last flight of his was just awesome - some people may complain about it being too much, but let's not forget, he is essentially mean't to be pretty close to a god, after all the first film ended with him learning to see and to some extent control the Matrix.



Other stuff off the top of my head: The Twins reminded me no end of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace in a good way (again with the Star Wars comparisons, sorry can't help myself), the freeway sequence was damn impressive, and I fucking loved the scene with The Architect - that threw a couple of well aimed spanners into the works didn't it?



Anyway, I'm sure I'll rant about it more later... but I'm too tired at the moment.



...



before I sign off this is for the members of the kangeroo household: I can get all of two out of this weeks invisibles, note to self: watch more films.