Record Books 'Reloaded' [Matrix triples 1st Night BO record]

Variety ^ | May 16, 2003 | Carl DiOrio

[ewing]

The Matrix Reloaded appears to me a true monster-bigger than even Godzilla.

Warner Brothers much hyped mega action sequel bowed to record grossed Wednesday night prior to its formal opening Thursday, and first day matinees were ringning up what executives called unprecented numbers despite the pics 'R' rating.

Early performance made it clear there is virtually zero chance that 'Reloaded' will fail to match the enormous pre release expectations.

'Its become an event. The numbers I'm looking at on a hourly basis--nobody has ever seen anything like it before, Warners distrubution proxy Dan Fellman said. 'The film is really a cultural phenomenon.'

In keeping with usual practice, Warners wont fully report seperate figures for Wednesday night box office but instead will add those grosses into Thursday totals. However, industry sites do track 1st night performance, and a well placed source says it is clear that 'Reloaded' has blown away the prvious high mark.

The original Jurassic Park rang up 3.1 million in first night BO and no pic has reached that until now. It is believed that 'Reloaded' rang up more than 10 million from Wednesday night grosses alone.

[ewing]

Saw it on Wed. and liked it..ive heard the total for Wednesday was somewhere around the high 9 million mark

[smith288]

I heard there was a Bush-Hitler comparison in the movie. Any truth?

[William McKinley]

Apparently there is a scene where Morpheus gives a speech while there are walls of TV monitors flashing images. The monitors show Mussolini, then Hitler, and then Bush.

There is also a cameo by Cornell West.

Sadly, it does not appear that my one man boycott of the sequel will be effective.

[ewing]

I didn't see it, I think there is also a lot of material alluding to the Bible and Christianity..and issues dealing with faith as well

[ewing]

Yep Cornell West is in the movie, thankfully not for long..

[smith288]

Sadly, it does not appear that my one man boycott of the sequel will be effective.

Perhaps not but your conviction still holds firm.

[William McKinley]

I was looking forward to seeing the movie too; the first is a favorite of mine. But no way will I pay to see a movie that has West in it.

And the Bush thing is just plain stupid.

[InvisibleChurch]

mancow sez there's a dance number haffway through the movie... izit true?

[Paul C. Jesup]

Sadly, it does not appear that my one man boycott of the sequel will be effective

Look at it this way, if it is just one frame out of the whole movie then it is was probably some whack-job FX guy in Hollywood that did this and not the W. brothers fault. If it was the W. brothers fault, they would have done it more openingly.

And I can forgive that one scene for an otherwise great movie.

Also from what I hear, the W. brothers are NOT part of the mainstream Hollywood leftest nut jobs. I am sure if 10,000 freepers asked NICELY and brought this to the attention of the W. brothers, they might change the scene from Bush to Clinton for the DVD release. ;)

[CaptainK]

The architect of the Matrix is talking about the perfections and "grotesqueries" that appear within the Matrix. When he speaks of the perfections a room full of tv screens show puppies and flowers etc. When he speaks of the grotesque you see scenes of war and brutality and Bush.
It happens in a split second but I didn't see an image of Hitler.

[chouli]

There were no TV monitors when Morpheus was speaking - just a massive crowd with torches and the urge to dance. Almost like a Hitler rally. However, when Neo met the architect the room was surrounded with TV monitors which flashed Neo's life. Could have been some flashes of dictators in those scenes.

[RightFighter]

No, it's not true at all. It's a lie!!! The dance scene is about a THIRD of the way through the movie. Mancow is a liar! hehe

[LanPB01]

I thought I saw an image of Hitler, but I didn't see any image of Bush.

Either way, it was a lousy sequel to a fine original.

[chouli]

Yes, following Morpheus's speech. Along with it is Neo's love scene with Trinity.

[LanPB01]

There's a scene where the entire underground city of Zion is having a celebration. It turns into a combination dance/sex scene (Neo and Trinity sneak away from the group for some time together). It was a long, tedious, drawn out scene that made me wonder if it was ever going to end.

[Lorenb420]

There is also a cameo by Cornell West.

The reason for that:

But I did run into the very important and serious writer/philosopher Cornel West, who has a small role in Reloaded.

Dr. West, now at Princeton University, is renowned for his 30-year-old book called Race Matters, as well as many other books on race, religion and philosophy. So how did he get involved in a sci-fi movie about machines and humans fighting each other in the galaxies?

"They [the Wachowskis] called me up and told me the first Matrix was inspired by my writing. They'd read Race Matters. They're intellectuals," he said. "You can talk Schopenhauer with them for hours."

Dr. West was surprised by all this; he didn't even know about the first Matrix. But that's how stars are born, isn't it?

Source: FoxNews.com

[bvw]

A group freak dance in the stalactite-hung caves of Zion, with massive jungle drums while Neo and Trinity make love. No one worries about the stalactites dropping on the under-dressed freak-a-zoids of Zion from all the drumming, though. Strange, animalistic, muddite masses yearning to freak freely stuff.

Very curiously there is one out-of-place scence where a group of white-room, fully-dressed and scrubbed people -- like out of Kurbrick's 2001 -- act like air traffic controllers to allow Neo and Morpheus's ship to dock at Zion.

As if the film-makers considered two concepts for Zion -- a 2001-ish antiseptic techo-heaven, or a fish-canning ship sexual freak farm.

[ClearCase_guy]

I didn't see it, I think there is also a lot of material alluding to the Bible and Christianity..and issues dealing with faith as well

Although I do not have a problem with it (I believe in freedom of religion) I will point out that the religion in The Matrix is Gnosticism -- which is an heretical form of Christianity. It has a lot in common with the Bible (on a superficial level) but I don't think Gnosticism will get you into Christ's Heaven.

I think people are silly to protest Harry Potter. Protesting Gnosticism actually does make more sense -- because some folks (perhaps not the movie producers) actually do see it, and promote it, as the True Path. It isn't, IMO.

[bvw]

In the movie race-dividing maven Cornell West's hair is dyed black and his teeth are straightened by digital editing magic as I remember..

[E Rocc]

Are they saying that the people who went to this movie were techno-geeks that didn't shower first? >:)

-Eric