Change Your Image
ultimatum479
Reviews
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Not bad by movie standards, but bad by Matrix standards.
Movie quality is a relative thing. While Reloaded isn't utterly terrible, it's by far the worst of the series.
The plot is Reloaded's strongest point. It would be rather pathetic for the movie to have a bad plot, after all; it's simply picking up where the Matrix left off, and it's rather difficult to mutilate the storyline of the original movie THAT badly. Without giving away too many spoilers, let's just say that there are enough plot twists to keep you guessing, not an overload to simply annoy you, and the very end has a couple nice ones which will make you want to see Revolutions.
The original Matrix movie wasn't just about action, although that was a major part of it. There was an almost philosophical touch to it all, especially with the dialog of Fishburne's character, Morpheus. While Reloaded has a bit of that, it makes certain that you realize this movie is 99% about the action. And that's a problem, because the action in this one is not up to par. Oh, the choreography is great and all, but fights get rather repetitive when, for example, literally about 40% of the fight between Morpheus and the Agent is slow motion. Neo versus Agent Smith(s) is repetitive as well, and most annoying is the slow motion once more for one simple reason: Neo and the Agents are CGI in many scenes, which would go unnoticed if they didn't show it in slow motion and zoom in on their plastic-toy-like faces! Basically, technology gets in the way of what could otherwise be decent action.
Acting in Reloaded, while not quite as good as the original in a way that is difficult to explain, is still quite satisfactory. Dialogue is good as usual. These and the plot would all bring up the movie's grade enough to counteract the low "Action" score if Reloaded could put less emphasis on action. Granted, its plot makes that more difficult; the original Matrix had much more time in the real world despite never visiting Xion, while Reloaded takes place almost entirely in the Matrix, where the action is. Nonetheless, unless you don't mind a barrage of annoying special effects, it simply distracts too much from the better parts of the movie. A good movie, but a bad Matrix movie.
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996)
Good for a diversion
XvSF is a pretty fun game to play for short periods of time when you're bored. It's fast paced on Turbo mode and there are plenty of moves and combos to figure out.
But if you're looking for a Capcom game which tests your skill, this is NOT it. It's ridiculously unbalanced. There are some characters which just slaughter all others, such as Cyclops. Cyclops' ranged attack instantly cancels out all enemy projectiles and hits the opponent, moving way faster than any other projectile -- plus, it has very good recovery time, can be done high, low, or as an anti-air, and can be fired from the air as well; Cyclops is also extremely good at melee, good enough to knock his opponent far away and continue blasting them into pieces. Juggernaut is also way too strong, and a team of those two can obliterate all opponents.
Other than its imbalance, though, XvSF is fun if you're looking not for a challenge but rather for a way to relieve some stress.