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The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
A hard one to judge.
Neo: Why are you here? The Oracle: Same reason. I love candy.
Everybody was shocked and surprised after they saw The Matrix (1999). It had an amazing opening, jaw-dropping special effects and an original plot to die for. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) became a well known modern bad-guy and Keanu Reeves was turned in to a true Hollywood star. I'd doubt that anyone hated the first film. It was just far too unique and amazing and could be compared to the likes of Star Wars. Now it seems the sole film will become a trilogy within a year, and the question many people are asking is if it was a decent idea. The Matrix: Reloaded answers any questions you have about the film. What was the answer?
A new plot is started in Reloaded. As told in The Matrix, there is only one surviving human city named Zion. Zion is heavily relied on as it preserves 250,000 humans who survived the start of the war (Machine VS Man). The story of Reloaded begins in the mini series, Animatrix. A ship and it's crew, named Osiris, are chased up to the surface of Earth where they find the machines are beginning to drill down towards Zion along with 250,000 sentinel machines. One sentinel for each human. The Osiris crew quickly alarm Zion before falling from sentinel attacks. This is where the film, Reloaded, starts. While on their way back to Zion, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) begins to have dreams of his lover's (Trinity played by Carrie Anne Moss) fate, which doesn't seem to be a great one. Morpheus (played my Laurence Fishburne) begins to rely on the proficy to save mankind from the threat the machines are sending, and a time limit is set for how long they have to save Zion. Unfortunately for Neo, Morpheus believes Neo is the only person who can save Zion, as Neo, now The One, has complete power over The Matrix. And so they set off on their adventure, meeting new enemies and even more Agents and introducing a new operator named Link.
Reloaded takes a while to start the action, beginning with a 30 minute segment where Zion and other crews are introduced to the viewer. But once the 30 minutes are over the viewer is pretty munched, with Neo, dropped in to an all action movie with kung-fu fighting, inspired by comics and other films, and the greatest special effects and CGI you will ever see in a decade. There are fight scenes which honestly could compete for the greatest film scenes ever. However, it seems the movie has been slightly hyped up. There are some scenes which seem to go on forever, pretty much explaining every single little detail about what the film's based around and having static lectures for roughly 10 minutes, which isn't really very thrilling at all. I also realized, except for Neo's dreams of Trinity's fate always flashing back, there never seems to be much suspense. The end is also slightly confusing for the dim-minded.. As well as putting on a cliff-hanger which will make you want to swear at the Wachowski Brothers. Although most of the action scenes make up for this anyway.
I honestly don't think i can judge this film properly, as the follow up to it (named The Matrix: Revolution) needs to explain what the hell was going on in Reloaded as the plot simply just cuts off at the end with a nice "To be concluded" message. Reloaded has many ups and downs. Mostly ups, but the downs are quite big mistakes. However, i don't feel let down because i understand what was happening. While the action may of been excessive, it was all beautiful and amazingly crafted. None of it could be predicted, so came as a large surprise. BUT, there's too much static discussion and the story is incomplete which may let down people a lot.
The Truman Show (1998)
'Somebody help me, I'm being spontaneous!'
Truman is an authentic man in a false world.
Truman Burbank, insurance broker, thinks he's living a normal life. However, his life is technically fake, falsely created and showcased on international TV. His wife, Meryl, and acquaintances, Marlon, are all actors and it's all for himself. You're watching The Truman Show, a first hand experience of extreme reality TV. On air and unaware.
Jim Carrey (The Cable Guy, Ace Ventura) acts in an extraordinary, straight role as the unsuspecting Truman and, surprisingly, gives us a commonsensical and elegant performance. The bigoted view of Carrey is not a respected view, but The Truman Show hosts the verification that Carrey in actual fact can act without throwing himself around the set. I couldn't possibly see another actor playing Truman by any means. Jim Carrey has the enthusiasm of a child and something which on no account lets you disregard him, corresponding Truman.
Ed Harris' amazing feat as Christof completes the movie's stratagem. Harris has an imperative role as the originator of Truman's world and the administrator of the show. Christof, who theoretically plays God, directs the Truman Show and creates story lines. As this God figure he guides Truman through a false life, introducing fresh citizens and unscrambling predicaments as a quantity of plots go wrong. Christof's control room is an impressive element of the movie, as you see hundreds of monitors concerning various cameras, a large screen overlooking the entire room and even computers which manage the habitat's weather and have power over daylight.
The motion picture's plot is an, appreciatively, clear plot. The viewer watches The Truman Show similar to if it is a normal channel on television. concealed cameras first lead you throughout Truman's regular day as an insurance broker, stumbling across people he recognizes and being involved in subtle product placements. Yet, another day he meets his Father who, Truman believed, drowned after boating in a storm (this was a clever way to make Truman petrified of water so he can not escape from Seahaven). Unexpectedly, Truman's Father is taken away by unsystematic people and Truman is left bewildered. Feelings of a previous love-at-first-site, who broke in to the Seahaven studio, confound him more, believing she was taken to Fiji. Truman, in conclusion, decides he will getaway from Seahaven and escape, oblivious that he's in a film studio.
The production begins with introducing the appealing concept of actors. Instead of opening by introducing the authentic actor's names, they are specified two names in the motion picture. for instance, Meryl, Truman's wife in the show, is named Hannah Gill in the real world. This tells us that merely Truman, who's name by opportunity can be pronounced as True-Man) is authentic in Seahaven. As well as these, a succinct interview with the show's foremost actors explains The Truman Show.
The Truman Show is based on reality TV and has an analogous perception to Big Brother. Seahaven, Truman's home town (fashioned for Truman by Christof) has approximately 5000 cameras, several as minuscule as a pin head. The cameras are located where Truman can be seen perpetually. Cameras are even in the most incongruous places, like Truman's office pencil sharpener, in addition to a dog collar. George Orwell's 1984 can strongly be compared to The Truman Show, with the concept of someone being watched all the time and being trapped in one place, in Truman's case, stuck in Seahaven. The issue of voyeurism can also be concerned within The Truman Show, and if a program of such correspondence should actually be aired devoid of Truman's authorization.
The Truman Show is a tremendous film for the whole family, and can be enjoyed even after the 103 minutes. Issues concerning such a product being created in our lives can be safely debated with your family. A second watch is also recommended, as many new features are unlocked after the end is revealed.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Stupid, disappointing, annoying, repetitive, boring.. Just a few words the film critic may use to describe the picture they disliked.
All these are the words i have mentioned will be used to describe The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, possibly one of the worst films i have ever seen.
Stupid: The plot is so annoying. 5 "kids" are going through a deserted Texas looking for a gravesite of relatives. As they wonder into and around an abandoned house, they decide to visit another house not too far away. As they do, they are brutally murdered by a large man in a leather face mask for no reason what-so-ever. The film proceeds with about 20 minutes of chasing through bushes and long grass with the reving of a chainsaw.
Disappointing: I've heard so much about the film, how it's shocking, scary and amazingly violent. Nonsense. When i began watching i expected an amazing film which completely ran all over the genre of Horror and created a new genre. All this hype was stupid an unnecessary. Sometimes i laughed at how poor it was.
Repetitive and boring: The chasing. So much chasing in pitch black, so you're unable to see anything but some light. This chasing goes on for over 10 minutes at least.. With screaming, and the non-stop sound of the chainsaw revving.. That's when i got very bored. After that, yet more chasing happened and long scenes of nothingness repeated themselves.
So? What is good about it? The first 15 minutes or so are entertaining.. When they pick up a crazy hitch hiker. I won't give it away, but i think you may laugh at it.
I can't imagine how the horror fan could like it at all either. I can't imagine how this film can still have the fame today that it had many years ago. It just simply doesn't work.
The Getaway (2002)
I thought it was a movie before i bought it. But it still took me a few days to notice 'The Getaway' is a game.
I'm not going to fool around, i'll get right into the review.
Story: 9/10
Mark Hammond, a retired Collins gangster from Soho, has recently been released from prison and is now managing his own night club in central London. He has a wife (Suzie) and one son (Alex). His life is brilliant and he is in a great position. But one day his life turns from brilliant to horrid. Early one morning an old rival of the Bethnal Green Mob, Charlie Jolson, kills his wife and kidnaps his son. Mark immediately hears the gun shots and rushes to the street to find Suzie dying. As on lookers scream, Mark rushes to his car to chase after the Bethnal Green Mob through an early rush hour in London. This starts the longest day Mark will ever remember. The story advances with excellent twists which i won't spoil for you. There's also D.C. Frank Carter, a detective working at Snow Hill for D.C.I McCormack. He's been working on a case to bring Charlie and Jake Jolson into prison. You can play as both characters.What can i say? The story is supreme, however a bit unoriginal. Still, it definitely creates enough tension to keep you playing through the game from the first level to the 24th level.
Graphics: 9/10
Wow. The graphics are amazing and compete along side 'Metal Gear Solid 2' and 'Rachet and Clank'. Just look at the screen shots. The characters details are amazing and the streets look real. If that's not enough, you just have to switch on Progressive Scan Mode (Only on certain TVs - I haven't seen the results) which i can only imagine make the graphics 10 out of 10 quality. So why 9? Of course, with over 500,000 digital photos put in the game as textures the quality of the buildings had to be dimmed down. Also, often the graphics are slow to appear or just lag in certain areas of London. To sum it up - The game uses every ounce of power the Playstation 2 gives away.
Gameplay: 8/10
There's a hell of a lot of things to mention, but the most clear thing is that's there's no on screen details. Team Soho have very cleverly worked around this to give it more of a realistic/movie feel. There's no on screen map which will be noticed first. This has brilliantly been worked around and you navigate your way around London by using the vehicle's indicators which will automatically flash telling you what to do. Great, huh? Another obvious loss is the health bar. Now this one is amazing. Each time the character is injured, bloodstains will appear on his clothes and he will be visually crippled, limping around or dragging himself. This is a huge step up in games. On most other games you can be on 1% of health and the character will look the same as it does at 100%. There's also no ammunition notification. The only sign of this is the controller vibration when you have no ammo left. All this does make the game a lot harder than it would be if there was on screen detail, however, you get used to it very, very quickly.
Some of you may be disappointed with the skinny weapon range. This includes a Baseball Bat, Police Baton, a Crowbar, a Knife, Pistols (Also dual pistols), Shotguns, an AK-47 and some nice MP5s (Also available as dual). Yes, it's skinny, but i guarantee you won't notice with the amazing gun fights and gang wars going on. To make up for the small range of weapons there's a massive range of movements to do with stealth. The most important in the game has to be the wall lean which leads to the jump out movement, blind gun shot movement, jump out shots and wall to wall stealth. You can also do all this behind small boxes while crouching too. But that's not all. There's rolling and hostage taking (Which leads to immediate shot, neck breaking, pistols whip and arrests) which are really fun. Add this to the game detail, the gun range and such, and you can shoot gas cannisters underneath stairs to make the stairs collapse and poison gas in the hospitals which can poison enemies. Awesome, huh?I can only find a few flaws in the game. The major one is the camera. It's quite awful, you have to manually move it often, unfortunately. However, i got over this quickly but i realized many other people haven't. This one flaw prevented this game from getting 10/10 in the Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK. Just to show off more, there's around 50 fully licensed vehicles in the game (Like Mazdas, Rovers and even TVRs and Lotus')! There's also 10 great hidden cars. There's a hell of a lot more in depth things, like in the car chases.. But if you buy 'The Getaway', you'll find out.
Rent or Buy?
I noticed that on some of the games forums that some people love the game and some people hate the game. This is why i'll call it 'The Marmite Of Video Games'. The reason for this is because they expect a copy of 'Grand Theft Auto'. Well, you're all wrong, as you hopefully just noticed. The two games shouldn't even be in the same category. Try and catch a demo, if you can. Failing that, rent it, and decide for yourself.
- Luke Hudson