I went to the 10 p.m. showing of Reloaded last night. Here's my observations from the night:
* The movie started at 10, and when I called the theatre the day before, they told me that they would start letting people in the theatre at around 9:30. I figured getting there at 9:15 would suffice, but apparently people had been waiting since about _5:30_. Freaks. We still got good seats, tho.
* There were two guys I saw that dressed up. One as Neo with a "Trenchcoat Mafia" leather duster, and the other guy was wearing a suit and looking like an agent (except that he had a double-breasted suit... ick).
Everything else contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, I wouldn't read any further.
The fight scenes throughout the movie were pretty incredible, but I have to say I was dissapointed by the "Burly Brawl". The hype was that you wouldn't be able to tell which actors were CG, and which were real, but I think most of the time it was painfully obvious, especially with shots that were pulled pretty far back, or ones where the "camera" was whipping around the action. It certainly helps that both Neo and the Smiths wear sunglasses, because trying to create the eyes would make it look much more fake. Even still, some of the shots had the characters looking very blank, like a marble statue with sunglasses.
The freeway chase scene was pretty amazing, and The Twins were pretty neat characters, although you pretty much saw everything about them in the trailer. Maybe they'll be back for the next one.
I was amazed at how much the plot relied on elements from The Animatrix, especially since the DVD isn't out for another month. Luckily I _ahem_ "acquired" an advance copy. Especially The Final Flight of The Osiris, which as been dubbed "Matrix 1.5", the episodes are pretty key to explaining why things are how they are in Reloaded. The fact that they know the machines are tunneling to Zion isn't explained, and you don't even see the drilling machine until the very end. Also, the annoying kid that keeps pestering Neo shows up with *no* introduction, unless you've seen "A Kid's Story" on Animatrix and know that he basically _got himself_ out of the Matrix. I'm sure he'll be around a bit more in Revolutions. Jada Pinkett Smiff's character also was barely there, but I know she's the main character in the videogame. Harumph.
Neo flying was just a little bit too close to Superman, including the one fist out thing. When Trinity "died", the SLF(Special Lady Friend) said "if he flies backwards around the Earth a few times I'm going to laugh out loud".
Harold Perrineau was good, but a little bit too much comic-relief-ey.
There was a lot more cursing in this one. I didn't really care, I just noticed it, is all.
The whole scene with The Architect was interesting. The idea that this was the 6th iteration of Zion wasn't quite the mindfuck of the original concept of the Matrix, but it was close. In any case, I don't know how reviewers were able to say it was all action and no plot, because it definitely set up some interesting possibilities for the final movie.
I don't know how I feel about Neo's new ability to "EMP" Sentinels in the real world. His whole deal was that he was a hax0r that could manipulate the code of the Matrix, but this introduces a whole new level of diety to him.
The trailer for Revolutions at the end of the credits looked really cool. Especially the scene in the rain with Neo facing off against Smith, with *hundreds* of Smiths lining the sides of the street. Sort of the Old West showdown on the subway platform from the first movie taken to the extreme.
