Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

We have now come to the third and final installment in this trilogy, “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” released in 2014.

Now in its third installment, it’s stronger than ever that this trilogy is based on one joke that has been extended way beyond the breaking point, and not that smartly at that. Fortunately, this movie remembers must of the disturbed silliness that made the second movie completely enjoyable. So it’s watchable even if there aren’t a lot of new ideas, and even if filmmaker Shawn Levy is really happy to settle for unnecessary digital effects work where a small amount of character comedy would have been way more likable.

Back in his previous job as a night security man in New York, Larry is now, as Rich Cline described, “Orchestrating the museum exhibits when they come to life to provide spectacular shows for visitors who think this is all a special effect.” Even his boss, played by Ricky Gervais, doesn’t know what’s really happening. However, when a glitch in the magical Ancient Egyptian powers causes commotion, Larry figures out that he needs to fly to London so he can reunite Ahkmenrah with his father, played by Ben Kingsley, who’s on display at the British Museum. Larry’s teenage son Nick, played by Skyler Gisondo, comes with Larry, as does his exhibit friends Teddy Roosevelt, tiny soldiers Octavius and Jedediah and everyone else. However, in London, while sneaking around the Museum’s night security Tilly (comedian Rebel Wilson), Larry and his team wakes a knight statue Lancelot (Matthew Crawley from “Downton Abbey,” Dan Stevens), who joins in on their journey with rather a lot of enjoyment. Cline mentioned, “Until Lancelot turns up, everything about the film feels oddly tired, from the starry cameos to effects work that strains to be clever. Then Stevens injects a badly needed jolt of blue-eyed charisma and warped comical timing that makes the rest of the movie rather good fun.” Rebel Wilson’s side-plot is actually pretty funny, with some perfectly silly touches. Even the cameos get better, notably a part on a West End stage that’s honestly inspired silliness. Coogan and Wilson give some harsh joking to escort everything that happens, and Stiller, and Cline said, “Kind of hangs on for dear life.” However, the filmmakers don’t really care about these characters. They’re just trying to create something visually remarkable that’s also silly fun.

Cline said, “The quality of the digital trickery is certainly impressive, most notably in some freak-out moments like a room full of broken statues trying to move with missing limbs. And a sequence inside an Escher painting is eye-popping. But there's little coherence between these set-pieces, and no real momentum to the thin plot.” There’s also the problem that the filmmakers are evidently not interested in museums at all. They never make anything of the interaction with history or art (Cline said, “they don't even understand that a historical collection like the British Museum is unlikely to contain a dinosaur skeleton or an Escher painting”). Instead they’re just happy to give a bit of high-budget, middle-brow entertainment.

Unlike the previous two installments where I was there with my sister and one other cousin, this time we had some members in our extended family that came with us to see this movie. Rightfully so, this movie is dedicated to the loving memories of Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams. I applauded when Robin Williams’ name came up, as that man deserved it since he was my favorite comedian. One of my friends joined in when I applauded for him, and I can only imagine what it would have been like if we saw this on opening weekend. Possibly the whole theater would have applauded, but when we went and saw it, only I and one of my friends applauded since he is, and always will be, sorely missed from the movie and comedy world.

In the end, I definitely say to check this movie out since this movie actually comes full circle and ends on a strong note. If you loved the previous two installments, than you will get into this one just fine. Especially if you have small children, they will be fairly entertained when watching this. Check it out and see for yourself.

Now that I have finished the “Night at the Museum” trilogy, stay tuned next week to see what I finish the month of June out with.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

You could probably think of every reason why "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," released in 2009, shouldn't be a good sequel. Normally, sequels just repeats the same story only larger and louder. Some of that is evident here. Yet the change of location from New York's Museum of Natural History to Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Institution, along with the addition of some new characters, is different. Kids will enjoy themselves.

The story starts off some time after what transpired in the first film. Former museum guard Larry Daley has become successful as the creator of certain valuable products as a glow in the dark flashlight. Visiting his old friends - museum exhibits that come to life at night by a mysterious Egyptian artifact - he learns that a huge renovation is happening and most of them will be stored at the Smithsonian. When he gets a hysterical phone call from the miniature cowboy Jedadiah that they are under attack at the Smithsonian, he flies down to Washington D.C. to try and rescue them. What he finds out is that the plaque also has been put into storage, so the same ancient magic works there. Larry's main enemy is Kahmunrah (the voice of Moe, Chief Wiggum, Apu, Carl, Comic Book Guy, Lou, Professor Frink, Superintendent Chalmers, Bumblebee Man, Crazy Old Man, and Dr. Nick Riviera from "The Simpsons," Hank Azaria), the evil brother of the kindhearted Egyptian pharaoh Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) from the first film. David M. Kimmel said in his review, "Sporting an accent borrowed from Boris Karloff, Kahmunrah announces his plans for world domination once he uses the plaque to open the gate to the underworld." Larry's task is to rescue his friends and ruin Kahmunrah, helped by some new friends, including the famous aviator Amelia Earhart, played by Amy Adams.

Since the Smithsonian is a handful of museums around the famous Washington Mall, there's a wide variety of new characters and exhibits which can come to life, from Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial (Azaria) to the famous World War II photograph of a sailor (Clifton McCabe Murray) and a woman (Alberta Mayne) in a loving kiss. While Kahmunrah has the assistance of Napoleon (Alain Chabat), Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) and Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), Larry is able to call on the Tuskegee Airmen (Keith Powell and Craig Robinson), General Custer (comedian Bill Hader), and a collection of Albert Einstein bobblehead dolls ("American Pie" actor, Eugene Levy). Returning from the first film are old friends, including Teddy Roosevelt and the Roman officer Octavius.

Kimmel mentioned, "It’s a lot of silly, raucous nonsense, but it makes good use of the change of setting, including setting Octavius in a battle with a squirrel on the White House lawn. Best of all are Azaria, a brilliant comic character actor who has yet to get his due outside of his voicework on “The Simpsons,” and Adams as the feisty Earhart, thrilled to be off on a new adventure."

There's no doubt about it that the first sequel in this trilogy is summer fun, targeted for family audiences. This succeeds as well as it does because of no small part to a smart script and some amazing casting choices. The kids won't be disappointed. Their parents may also enjoy it, as well.

When I saw this in the theaters, I instantly liked this one better. I thought it did a good job telling the next story and I think that it's one of the good sequels ever. If you saw the first movie and liked it, then you should watch this one. You will fall in love with this one as well, I promise you. Although my brother doesn't like that this movie didn't get the geographical accuracy of D.C. right, but I think that's serious nit-picking. Just watch this movie and I promise you, you may like this one over the first.

Look out next week when I talk about the final installment in the "Night at the Museum" trilogy. Is the third movie a shameful installment that is the worst in the series like a bunch of third installments in trilogies or is it actually the definitive cap on the series that ends it off well? Only one way to find out: wait until next week to know what I thought.

Night at the Museum

This month I will be looking at a trilogy that I’ve been wanting to review for a couple of years, especially since the latest one didn’t come out that long ago. I’m referring to the “Night at the Museum” trilogy. It will be a tough one to get through since the late Robin Williams was in them, but I’ll try to see how good I can do without breaking. With that said, let’s take a look at the first “Night at the Museum” movie, released in 2006.

“Night at the Museum” has an idea that sounds fantastic until you look closely at it. It’s about a security guard at a large museum who finds out his first night on the job that between sunset and sunrise, everything in the museum comes to life. Eric D. Snider said in his review, “A little close to “Jumanji,” sure, but that’s workable.

The problem is, where can you go with such an idea? Any scenes taken place outside the museum, or set inside the museum during daylight hours, will seem unrelated. Snider said, “Why waste our time with other stuff when there are living dioramas and T-rex skeletons to look at? And furthermore, what’s the actual story going to be?” “A museum where the exhibits come to life” isn’t a story, it’s an idea. You have to DO something with it to turn it into a story.

The “Night at the Museum” writers – who Snider credits as “the hacktastic duo of Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (both so funny as actors on “Reno 911,” and so bad as writers of family dreck like “The Pacifier” and “Herbie Fully Loaded”)” – have brought to life a Milan Trenc’s children’s book to have a trio of retiring security guards (Dick Van Dyke, the late Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs) who tell the new guy, Larry (the hilarious Ben Stiller), the cause of the museum’s secretive power.

It’s the first special-effects-heavy comedy for star Ben Stiller or director Shawn Levy (“Cheaper by the Dozen,” “The Pink Panther”), but both adjust very well. Snider said, “Perhaps because the many digital effects make rampant improvisation too expensive, Stiller is much more subdued than usual, with the resultant performance for more likable than when he’s sweatily trying to get laughs.” Levy, for his part, keeps the pace sharp and the storytelling simple.

The museum has a wide range of exhibits, including dioramas with tiny Old West figures and ancient Roman warriors. When they come to life, the tiny wax figures – Jedediah (comedian Owen Wilson) the cowboy and Octavius (the great Steve Coogan) the Roman – fight with each other rather hilariously and, according to Snider, “lead their Lilliputian forces to attack Larry.”

On the normal-size deal, there are Huns (Patrick Gallagher, Randy Lee, Darryl Quon, Gerald Wong and Paul Chih-Ping Cheng), lots of vicious African mammals, and a wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) who has a long crush on the wax figure of Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck). Larry talks with all of them and more, at first unable to control the pandemonium that takes place every time at sunset, but soon taking control and leading his responsibilities like a general.

Just about everything else about the movie is insignificant. That includes Larry’s scenes trying to make his only son Nick (Jake Cherry) look up to him, and his attempts to become friends and impress a college lecturer (Carla Gugino). Also, so are the half-hearted attempts to make it look like Larry has taken control of the late-night pandemonium by learning and applying history. Who made the rule that “family movies” must be filled with tacky feeling and life lessons? Can’t a guy just go around a museum being followed by reanimated mastodons and wax-figure Neanderthals (Kerry van der Griend, Dan Rizzuto, Matthew Harrison and Jody Racicot)? When that’s the premise of the movie, “Night at the Museum” is fine.

I saw this movie on New Year’s Day of 2007, I believe, in IMAX. I fell in love with this movie because it was very entertaining and I loved every minute of it. If you can, watch this movie because it is an enjoyment and education for the whole family.

Want to know how the sequels are? Find out next week when I look at the first sequel in “Night at the Museum Month.”

The Matrix Revolutions

The first “Matrix” movie may have been clichéd, but it took old elements and redid them in a great flick focused by an essentially interesting concept and good story subtleties. “The Matrix Reloaded” had its moments of excellence, but to get to them you had to go through many boring fights and endless monologues about choosing from choice and fate. It was a very different film and an overall disappointment. Those who hoped for answers in “The Matrix Revolutions,” also released in 2003, or at least a worthy sequel to the original film, are going to sadly be left with about nothing again.

If this movie came out sooner that year, maybe in July, it could have been in better hands because what you see here is a summer blockbuster – and a very average one to say. Garth Franklin mentioned in his review, “The money is all onscreen, the FX from a technical point of view are utterly tremendous and visually it can't be faulted.” However, the script & dialogues are terrible, the action scenes go on way past the point of dull and the principal flow of the whole movie is that by the end, the audience is left feeling very ripped off. Franklin mentioned that, “Take away the pretty pictures and you have a film as equally problematic as other bad sequels this year ala "Bad Boys" and "Charlie's Angels" but without the playful sense of fun.”

Franklin goes on to say, “For all the complaints about 'Reloaded' being too high brow, the opposite is true with 'Revolutions' - there's almost no depth here.” The first half hour is also the worst. If you haven’t seen the first two films, then don’t even try to understand. If you haven’t seen “The Matrix Reloaded” before this, it’s still going to be tough to sit through the beginning. Franklin mentions, “From a family of programs in a train station limbo, to a new Oracle (Mary Alice) who gives her role dignity but lacks the quirky sense of humour so signature of her predecessor - its a class in exposition 101 with endless talking albeit very little said.”

When the movie gets to Mega City’s Club Hel (an interesting, but desperately theatrical club), we once again meet the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson). Franklin brings up that, “Gone is the dangerous man with a taste of eccentricity, replaced by a Bond-esque olive-sucking baddie complete with trophy wife with just one line” (however, the hot Italian actress and fashion model, Monica Bellucci’s shot of her chest in here is the most impressive FX shot of the whole movie). After that point, the film starts to deteriorate. The one that is the most notable is the main actors of the movie are missing.

Franklin speculates, “Maybe we've been spoiled by TV or films like "Return of the Jedi" or "LOTR: The Two Towers" where there's constant cutting between 2-3 separate subplots but its an effective storytelling method which helps keep the pace moving and add tension.” For an hour or so in the middle of the movie, we see the defense of Zion and that’s it. Franklin says, “Sure Morpheus' head appears at times and Jada Pinkett Smith puts in a far better turn this time out, but they're the B-story to what is one of the longest non-stop action sequences on film.”

Franklin goes on to say, “Yes its random faces (such as the overly eager kid (Clayton Watson) and the old warhorse general (Nathaniel Lees)) in CG tonka toy gun suits shooting non-stop at squids.” It’s fierce and furious to be sure, and impressive but also tiring and insistent to the point it becomes tiresome. Zee (Nona Gaye) and her masculine army friend (Laurence Fishburne’s wife, Gina Torres) (Franklin calls her “a Vasquez wannabe”) fire rockets and more rockets, the council contemplates, the shooting continues, some gets killed by Sentinels, something random crashes and falls over, etc.

Eventually, we get a breath of fresh air from this and return to Neo, Trinity, the machine world and, obviously, the much commercialized fight of Smith and Neo in the rain. The outsides of the machine world look great, likewise there’s a nice moment in here when Trinity sees a natural beauty for the first time in her life and comments on it before it disappears. Yet, it also leads a moment of the film that was designed to be emotional is actually ends up being laughable in the extreme for both what is said and how long it bores you.

Even though the Neo/Smith fight again looks visually great, it’s also completely flat. These two can’t hurt each other, but they keep going on and on in different ways to the point where you are saying, “Finish the fight, guys.” Franklin mentions, “Indeed if there's one thing this whole sequence does well is that it inspires you to think about possibilities - not about what's happening on-screen but rather how cool would a Superman movie be using the filmmaking techniques used here. The ending I'm not going to even comment on, suffice it to say it renders the point of pretty much everything before it moot and cheats the audience - its a stop gap measure at best and leaves open way too many sequel possibilities for a film that it was claimed would always be "the last".”

Is this movie worth seeing? Maybe for the fans. Even though the action felt like something you would see in a cartoon in the second film, it does have more weight here and by having things take place in the real world, it does give it a bit more brutality and a real sense of desperation at times, it’s interesting to see a movie where the idea of people praying for a better tomorrow comes off sincere (for the most part, at least).

Bruce Spence has a nice little turn as a wild-eyed traveler program named the Train Man, and Hugo Weaving does quite the best antagonist work ever as Smith. The main convincing reason though is eye candy – this is what $200 million and a boatload of CG machines can buy and filming techniques give in these scenes will probably never be used again. For cinematographers and filmmakers of different skill who have a liking for visuals, this movie is for you.

Sadly, it’s just flat for the rest of the audience. Those who found “The Matrix Reloaded” not “sci-fi action worthy” enough for them will get into this more. Yes, it’s designed as more of a crowd pleasing film than the last. I agree with Franklin when he says, “Yet I honestly prefer "Reloaded" myself and think with the failure of many of this years bad sequels its been shown that people are getting tired of these bloated blockbusters with little or no point.” Don’t believe any of the talk from the producers that “this is actually the second half of one big movie,” saying and look smartly this feels very different to the other two, Franklin says, “far more glossier and vapid best sums it up.” A nice empty ending to a film series which should’ve just ended at the first movie.

My brother was the only one who went and saw this in the theaters. My sister and I didn’t see this until I got it from the library, I say when I was in late high school, early college. You can believe we fast forwarded through a good majority of this movie since it was just boring us to death with so much dialogue and what action there was, it felt flat. Undeniably, this is the worst one of the three. If you want to see this, go ahead, but I say you should just watch the first one and “The Animatrix,” and that’s it. However, Nostalgia Critic is right when he says that none of these movies, even this one, is god-awful. All of them are still watchable and I credit them for at least making an impact in cinema.

So that ends “The Matrix Month.” I hope I gave you good recommendations, although I think anyone could tell you that it was obvious that they should have left the series off at the first movie and not continue it on. Look out next month to see what else I have in store for everyone.

The Animatrix

There’s been plenty of hype around the Matrix in the Year of the Architect, 2003. While “The Animatrix” was mainly a marketing gig targeted to increase the hype fans, some of its parts are bright and magnificent examples of animation. Brian McKay said in his review, “Unfortunately, like the average music CD, for every great track there's usually a "filler" song.”

This isn’t going to be a review, but nine individual reviews with the verdict being hinted at towards the end. Without anymore digressing…. 

1.      Final Flight of the Osiris: The absolute best of the segments. The characters, even though they are short, are interesting (and beautiful – especially Jue, voiced by Pamela Adlon, who also did the voice of Bobby Hill on "King of the Hill," Ashley in "Recess," Sam in the "Pajama Sam" PC games, Moose on "Pepper Ann," Otto Osworth on "Time Squad," Derek Generic on "Bobby's World" and Rusty on "The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot"). The action scenes are as exciting as anything in the chapters, and the animation is close to flawless. Several moments look complete lifelike. This one almost makes the film worth buying on Blu-Ray. Strange that it’s the first chapter in this film. You would think that they would make this last since it’s the best. 

2.      Second Renaissance Part 1: Visually, it doesn’t hold a candle to the universe of “The Matrix” in any way. However, it is a breathtaking part of animation with a fairly thoughtful and, sometimes, instinctively disturbing story. You may feel a type of chill go down your back as a bunch of humans destroy a female robot to death, when she is screaming, “Please, I’m real!” (Think of “Short Circuit,” did you?), and McKay said, “The ‘Schindler's List’ holocaust theme of humans persecuting millions of sentient machines is handled very well.” 

3.      Second Renaissance Part 2: The conclusion that shows us how man eventually was the reason for his own mistake by making machines more powerful than them. Not quite as fascinating as part 1, and McKay admitted, “some of the music video battle sequences were a little over the top and reminded me of the campy animation style of Heavy Metal.” Still, it’s an interesting follow up. 

4.      Program: A standard Samurai-theme training simulation goes completely haywire, and a soldier of Zion, voiced by Hedy Burress (who also voiced Yuna in Final Fantasy X and X-2), has both her ability and her loyalty put to the ultimate test. Again, the visual style doesn’t quite fit together, and the result is a bit of a way around. Not bad, but pretty forgettable. 

5.      World Record: An athlete, voiced by Victor Williams, pushes himself too far, and begins to see beyond the mask of the Matrix when his adrenaline reaches the maximum levels. Interesting idea, but not well executed, and while most of these segments can be blamed of having a visual style that doesn’t really fit the Matrix universe, this one brightly fights with it. McKay mentions, “Too many hard lines and square features make the characters look unappealing, the athlete's Slim Shady wannabe sidekick, voiced by Alex Fernandez, is annoying, and what is up with the agents in this one?” The way they dress and wear their hair, they look more like the Joker’s minions from a mediocre Batman cartoon. This is one you can pass. 

6.      Beyond: Taken place in an unnamed city that McKay describes, “looks like a hybrid of Tokyo and Los Angeles,” a teenage girl named Yoko, voiced by Hedy Burress, loss her cat. A trio of neighborhood kids, voiced by Jack and Julie Fletcher, Dwight Schultz (Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock from "The A-Team) and Jill Talley, think they saw it wandering into the neighborhood “haunted house” – which, unbeknownst to them, is a faulting segment of the Matrix. Once inside, they can bend the laws of gravity and physics, and program failures clear themselves as strange and indistinct visions. A pretty cool idea, with some cute characters, but it does drag in places. Not a bad segment. 

7.      Kid’s story: McKay said, “Why the tagalong kid in Matrix Reloaded got as much screen time as he did is a mystery to me. Not only was the kid annoying, but his character made no sense to viewers because his back story hadn't even been released yet.” Surprisingly, though, “Kid’s Story” is a pretty decent animated cartoon. When a teenager, played by Clayton Watson, begins to sense that his “real world” may not be so real after all, he begins to hunt chat rooms looking for the answer. However, when he gets a phone call from Neo, voiced by Keanu Reeves, in the middle of class, and suddenly finds his school surrounded by agents, voiced by James Arnold Taylor – well, what can he do but make some kind of escape on his skateboard? While the story isn’t really interesting, the animation is mesmerizing – especially the skateboarding parts with lots of unclear lines to emphasize motion and speed. 

8.      Detective Story: Apparently, part of the Matrix is an anachronistic world of 1940s clothing styles and architecture, combined with computers and hacking. When a private detective (James Arnold Taylor) is hired to track down a hacker named “Trinity” (Carrie-Anne Moss), his investigation takes him all over the city trying to pick up “his” trail. “A case to end all cases,” he calls it. Don’t try to over-exaggerate this. Again, we have an interesting story, and watching a fedora-wearing detective meet Trinity in her attire of black leather is kind of cool. McKay pointed out, “Also, the scenes of a snowy New York City with towering skyscrapers that look more like something out of Metropolis is a nice touch. But the story just didn't quite convince me, the ending was a bit flat, and all the anachronisms just didn't quite fit.” This gets credit for trying something different, but in the end you can say this was a “nice try.” 

9.      Matriculated: Since they put the best part on the movie first, it makes sense that they put the worst last. McKay said, “I couldn't even tell you what the story is really about, as convoluted as it was. From what I could gather, some people from Zion capture a machine and jack into a simulation program with it, hoping to convert it to their human way of thinking.” This plan backfires, but who really cares? Again, the animation doesn’t really look anything like from “The Matrix,” and while it is evidently busy and eye-candy, it can’t hide the fact that the story is boring and clumsily told. McKay asks, “And what is up with these new "sentinels" that chirp and walk around with big antennae and look about as menacing as a cybernetic Jiminy Cricket?” Once you get through the eighth segment, you can turn the movie off.

In the end, when you really look at it, this is a nicely solid anthology, with some strong ideas and excellent animation, and they transferred even the weakest stories. “The Animatrix” is pretty average. You can see this movie, and if you would like, you can copy the good segments onto your files, then return it. I saw this movie about 3-4 years ago when my brother rented it from the library, and I thought it was nice and I'm glad I saw it.

Now hold on to your vomit bags everyone because next week we will be finishing off “The Matrix Month” with the absolute worst in the series.

The Matrix Reloaded

This is the really fast review of “The Matrix Reloaded,” released in 2003: One incredibly cool, gravity-resisting, CGI-helped, spinning-camera kung-fu fight; one jaw-dropping, 100 MPH, against-traffic freeway chase; and too much long-winded, expository, circular, self-important, pseudo-philosophical talk.

Rob Blackwelder stated in his review, “Writing-directing brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski saddle their cast with endless equivocal prattle while toiling to buttress the complex plot and metaphysical undertone of this picture's uber-stylish 1999 predecessor, which saw what we think is the real world exposed as an elaborate virtual reality prison for the minds of all humanity.” Mankind’s suspended bodies give a power source for a tribe of machines, which a small group of escapees want to destroy in the post-apocalyptic world outside the Matrix.

“We can never see past the choices we don’t understand,” wise but vague computer-prophet The Oracle says secretly to Neo, the computer-Messianic hero whose realization that physical laws don’t apply in the Matrix which was mentioned in the first film’s groundbreaking wire-work martial arts fights and bullet-dodging slow-motion stunts.

In another scene, Neo says to a slippery, French-accented villain, “You know why we’re here.” This man, played by Lambert Wilson, replies, “Yes, but do you? You think you do, but you do not.”

This type of boredom drags on for three to four minutes at a time, in scene after scene, throughout the movie – which comes to feel empty and meaningless in the end. Blackwelder admitted, “Sometimes it was all I could do to keep from going cross-eyed and zoning out.”

Even when this movie takes a break from all this sleepy talk, the Wachowskis give only two action scenes that are on the same level as the breathtaking standard made in the first movie. The first is when Neo (who can now “see” in flowing green computer code made into the tech world) fighting a countless amount of Agent Smith, the slippery responsive computer program in a Secret Service suit who was the first film’s antagonist and now has gone rouge inside the Matrix, like a virus.

Blackwelder mentioned, “The scene is choreographed and computer-enhanced within an inch of its highly-stylized life, with Neo knocking Smiths across courtyards and up several floors into the sides of adjacent buildings while the camera circles around him wildly, using the Wachowskis' trademark of speed-up-slow-down trick photography. This fight doesn't have the "wow" factor that such moments did in 1999, but it's the first time "Reloaded" really comes to life (even if it is inundated with a cheesy, over-orchestrated, metal-guitars-and-angel-choruses musical score).”

The second adrenaline-rushing action scene is the freeway chase that sees seriously spiritual leader Morpheus fighting another Agent (Daniel Bernhardt) on top of a speeding 18-wheeler while the eye-candy that looks super-hot in leather heroine Trinity outruns cops, Agents (David A. Kilde and Matt McColm) and the Frenchman’s henchmen (two indestructible, ghost-looking albino twins in white suits and dreadlocks (Neil and Adrian Rayment)) by speeding in and out of head-on traffic on a Ducati motorcycle. Along with its countless amazing slow-motion crashes and explosions, this scene is the movie’s only real showstopper.

A good amount of the story takes place in Zion, the deep-underground last fortress of mankind in the real world. Blackwelder said, “The place looks like a sci-fi version of a 1950s biblical epic -- complete with wide-eyed worshipers, women carrying bread baskets to lay at Neo's feet and men in military tunics, many of whom are doubters in the prophecy of Neo as their savior.” (One of the clichéd people says, “Morpheus, I don’t care about Oracles or prophecies or Messiahs! I only care about saving our city!”)

Zion is preparing for an attack by 250,000 sentinels (the scary, giant-squid-like robots from the first film) that are digging toward the city, and it looks like the only hope is for Neo to fulfill his destiny by sneaking through digital “back doors” in the Matrix program and attacking the system’s mainframe. Once he is there, he will have to face a complete surprise and what might look like an impossible choice – if only the scene didn’t have another five minutes of tedious, tightly packed dialogue.

Blackwelder is right when he says, “Often hard to follow (one character with less than four minutes of screen time turns out to be pivotal -- if you can remember what he looks like), "The Matrix Reloaded" is further burdened by the franchise's monotoned acting style, by atmospheric scenes that serve no purpose (Neo and Trinity make love during a Burning Man-styled rave in Zion) and by effects sequences that have so many layers of soft-focus CGI they look more like a videogame than a movie.”

Aside from that, is it worth actually watching for the action alone? For fans, yes but just barely. Blackwelder suggested at the time this was released, “But if you're anywhere near an IMAX theater, you might want to wait until June when the film will be released in large-format -- and mercifully 20 minutes shorter because IMAX projectors can only run films under two hours.” However, I would not recommend anyone to watch this movie at all because you will hate it so much and be bored by it easily. If you do, just watch it for the action.

If you do succumb to the torture of this film, be sure to fast forward through the unresolved ending and closing credits for a preview of the last in this trilogy, “The Matrix Revolutions.”

I saw this in the theaters when I was 13, after only seeing parts of the first movie. At the time, I liked it since, like Nostalgia Critic stated, this was a “No Holds Barred Movie” with being over-the top. My siblings didn’t like it, and after I saw the first movie the whole way through months later, I didn’t quite understand the horrendousness of this movie until I was older and thought about it more. I never saw the movie again, and watching the Nostalgia Critic’s review, I started to notice all the problems that people talked about with it. Except for those two action scenes, the rest of this movie is not even worth checking out with its long-winded, boring philosophical talks. Even though there were problems like that in the first film, at least that movie kept a central focus, unlike this one where all the problems that were in the first film just escalated more and more.

Before I get to the third in this “Shameful Trilogy that didn’t need to be made into a trilogy,” there is an animated movie that came out a month after this one that I would like to talk about. Is it any good compared to how good the first one was and how horrible this movie turned out to be? Find out next week in my continuation of “The Matrix Month.”

Captain America: Civil War

Today I got a chance to see “Captain America: Civil War,” which was released yesterday. In 2014’s “Captain America: The Winder Soldier,” directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, gave a first-rate political thriller in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The same directing/writing team is back to start Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Captain America: Civil War,” and they don’t disappoint.

The film takes place one year after what happened in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and opens with a split of the Avengers – Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson/The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) – on a mission in Africa to stop a group of terrorists, and it doesn’t end well. On the side, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) has a guilt trip (not underserved!) put on him by the grieving mother of an American (Alfre Woodard) caught in the battle during “Avengers: Age of the Ultron’s” climactic Battle of Sokovia.

Stark brings in the man who wants the Hulk, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, played by William Hurt, now the US Secretary of State, to the Avengers headquarters’ to tell his soldiers about the threatening “Sokovia Accords,” which will turn over regulation and control of “enhanced” individuals to a United Nations committee. Allan Bourdius said in his review, “As if the United Nations (in our own real world knowledge) has ever shown itself capable of anything productive.”

The sides quickly head up with the most uncontrolled, Stark, leading the case to have the Avengers put under international control. He immediately has his friend James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) and the Vision (Paul Bettany), who’s basically a Stark creation as well.

How many times can you recall hearing Stark’s argument when it comes to expanding government in our lifetime? Acquiesce a little, so you don’t give up a lot – except the acquiescing never is so miniscule. Captain America is firm that he won’t sign on, and The Falcon and Scarlet Witch are on his side, the latter ending up on effective house arrest in the Avengers’ headquarters.

As the Sokovia Accords are about to be approved during the UN session in Vienna, Austria, a bomb goes off killing a handful at the conference including King T’Chaka of Wakanda, played by John Kani, who was the main international shot of the Accords (Bourdius mentioned, “Wakanda is the nation which is the sole source of the fictional “vibranium”, of which Cap’s shield is made”). The attack is blamed on the Winter Soldier, better known as Cap’s friend James “Bucky” Barnes, played by Sebastian Stan. Cap decides to kidnap Bucky, which starts some issues between Team Iron Man and Team Captain America.

As the between the Avengers starts, we also get introduced to Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), as well as seeing once again Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).

Bourdius admitted, “Unfortunately, I can’t really give much more detail without spoilers. Suffice to say that the story arcs presupposed from watching the trailers aren’t exactly correct, so there are plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep everyone interested. Civil War is the longest MCU film to date (2:26), but it never drags.”

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s” themes of absolute power damaging absolutely and some distrust of power can be fine are continued by “Captain America: Civil War,” and adds in the rights of the individual to make choices for themselves being higher to the needs of authority to control those choices. One character says, “Compromise where you can, but where you can’t: don’t.”

That’s a feeling many of us will be thinking about in our politics as we are getting closer to November’s election. I agree with Bourdius when he says, “Civil War earns its place among libertarian-leaning cultural offerings that “our side” would be well to use in bringing people towards a limited government/limited authority viewpoint. A government with the power to protect you absolutely is also powerful enough to deprive you of everything that makes life worth living.”

Bourdius goes on to say, “And it’s a film like CA:CW which shows how conservatives and libertarians regularly fail cultural tests. I can envision conservatives of several different stripes discarding the film simply because it has a character named “Black Panther” (“Oh! This must be a racial justice effort!”), and that’s a total shame. As in our own lives, politics, and cultural interactions, lines do get blurred in the movie, but in the end, inalienable truths on life and liberty turn out to be, well, inalienable.” There will be people who don’t like the message the film delivers, particularly those who think picking the side that isn’t as evil is a continued path to success.

In the end, all of us have choices to make, and we can break down this year’s election to, “Are you ‘Team Captain America,’ or are you ‘Team Iron Man’?” Are you for everyone as individuals, or for authority? I know for sure that I will always be Team Captain America.

Spoiler Alert: in the post-credits scene, Parker is recovering from injuries, with his Aunt May, played by Marisa Tomei, giving him an ice-pack, when his web-shooters project a Spider-Man symbol on his ceiling.

You have to go see this movie in the theater, if you are Marvel fan, an Avengers fan, and/or a Captain America or Iron Man fan. As a sequel to “Winter Soldier” and “Age of Ultron,” this movie succeeded on every level. This is the best of the “Captain America” movies, and is by far, the best superhero movie this year. I consider this another one of my favorites. Phase 3 is off to an excellent start and I’m looking forward to the other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hope Davis and John Slattery are in here playing Iron Man's parents and Emily VanCamp reprises her role as Sharon Carter.

Stay tuned next Friday when I continue “The Matrix Month.”