Reloaded for return of Matrix

Spoilers! -- Transcript of an article in Metro

News : Movies : The Matrix: Reloaded :

Thanks to there_is_no_sp00n who posted this over in our Spoiler forum of The Zion Switchboard.

Sequel need no longer be a euphemism for anticlimax. After several summers of Hollywood blockbusters arriving on a flood of hype, The Matrix Reloaded looks like it might just live up to its billing. The feverishly anticipated movie is generating all kinds of excitement, if Internet chatrooms are anything to go by.
The first Matrix movie set new standards in sci-fi/action special effects and the second part, due for a UK release early next year (no official date has been set), promises to deliver an even more spectacular feast for the eyes.

In a recent interview with the Sydney Daily Telegraph, producer Joel Silver described a 14-minute set-piece for the new movie where a helicopter flies around central Sydney below building height as the most complicated sequence put on film. Ever. Coming from a professional whose production credits include the first Matrix film, the Lethal Weapon series and Die Hard, these words have gravitas.

Directorial duo Andy and Larry Wachowski pioneered the effects developed for the original film and changed the way motion pictures would be made forever: These included the new technique known as bullet-time, where hundreds of still images captured from different angles are animated together so it appears the camera is rotating 360 degrees around a single point of action.

While producing the first film, visual effects supervisor John Gaeta explained that this technology is the next stage in cinema evolution. It'll be as revolutionary as when cameras came off sticks and went to cranes, or when they came off cranes and became steadicams. Cameras can now be broken from the subject matter - they are virtual.
This technology has already been imitated by a number of other filmmakers. For a while it was flattering, said Silver. But soon the Wachowski brothers became annoyed at the constant swiping and decided that in the two, sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, they would create visual effects that could never be copied.

The word on the street is that star Keanu Reeves will be fighting multiple copies of the evil Agent Smith, human computer viruses, and taking part in a car chase that will be as innovative as the kung fu fights in the original. It is also rumoured that a state-of-the-art 3D blue-screen developed for the sequels enables the actors to become more convincingly immersed in special effects environments.

Already, The Matrix Reloaded is one of the most eagerly awaited films of recent years, as the interest it's generating on movie fan-sites and Internet chatrooms reflects. Don't let the excitement get too much. Next year is not that far away.

What is bullet-time?

Many could legitimately claim to have invented the time-freezing photographic technique used in The Matrix. It might have been French director Michel Gondry, who used it in an insurance company commercial and then in a video clip for Bjork It was also used in a commercial for Capital Radio on lTV showing numerous frozen scenes of London, one of which was pigeons in Trafalgar Square. The sense of depth between birds in the foreground and background was revolutionary. It may be that each of them, and others, invented it.
Web Test

Trix of the Trade
Its fair to say The Matrix in some small way was inspired by the internet. So you'd expect the films and all that surrounds them to have a strong presence on the Web. And they do.

Matrix Official Website
The film is all about fighting the system, so how can it have an official site? Never mind. This must have had a fair few quid thrown at it because it looks as slicj as Agent Smith's hair. There's the standard fare: interviews, photo gallery and the latest news. It also has the latest teaser trailer sure to get the saliva glands active.
http://www.whatisthematrix.com/

Matrix character test
OK, it's a shameless rip-off of Find Your Star Wars Twin but who cares. It has no scientific basis, the questions have no input from any psychologists and the whole thing was probably put together by a spotty kid who only leaves his bedroom for school. But you're going to do it anyway. Hurrah, I'm Morpheus.
http://swankyspork.com/tests/matrix
Matrix Factfile
• Ewan McGregor was originally offered the part of Neo, but turned it down, as did Will Smith, who was busy making the sci-fi western flop Wild Wild West.
• Val Kilmer was at one time approached to play Morpheus.
• Some of the new characters appearing in The Matrix sequel include: Allah, Kain, Lazarus and Niobe (morpheus's love interest, played by none other than Will Smith's wife Jada Pinkett).
• The Glyphs on the computer screens, with the exception of the call traces, consists of reversed letters, numbers, and Japanese katakana characters.
• Neo is often referred to as The One; Neo is an anagram of 'One'.

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Thanks again to there_is_no_sp00n for posting this over in the Spoilers forum


Goto: The Matrix Online.com

Reported By: Dark_Ph0enix