It tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has all been wiped out by the machines it created to help them, and the only remnants of humanity are stored in little gingerbread man toys, fabricated from clothing, buttons zips, and any material lying about the house, and designated numbers for each one made as their names, our protagonist is number nine.

It stars the voices of Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) as Nine, Christopher Plummer (Dolores Clairbone) as One, the lovely Jennifer Connelly (A beautiful mind) as Seven, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Five, Marin Landau (Ed Wood) as Two, and Crispin Glover (Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle) as Six.

We join our protagonist Nine as he awakens to life, without a voice, looking at his make-up consisting of house-hold items, old cloths, and a zipper which he is conscious of opening (which is a little strange, seeing that there is nothing inside), he sees a little talisman with strange objects on it and picks it up, puts it in his body, and goes out onto the world. The world is typical of a post-apocalyptic version, machinery strewn everywhere, and crumbled buildings littering the streets. He happens to bump into Two, who fixes his voice, and in so doing sees the talisman Nine has brought along with him, but just as Two is about to take him to a sanctuary, there are attacked by a malevolent machine, seizing Two and taking him away to it’s lair, along with the much prized talisman.

As Nine tries to figure out how to save his new found friend, he meets others like himself, led by the careful One, and his body guard, who charades Nine for getting himself in trouble, there is a great exchange between Nine and One the voice of experience and survival, with the voice of youth and adventure. Despite One’s warnings, Nine manages to convince Five to join him on a quest to save Two, it seems a daunting prospect, such small beings against a much powerful and stronger malevolent force, on their journey, they find out that the talisman is a lot more powerful than they ever thought, but is there any hope for them or their remnants?

This is a very enjoyable animated feature film, with brilliant scenery throughout, and a gripping storyline equally well suited to children as well as adults, with the suspense beautiful captured especially for an animated movie.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/10/2009 02:11:00 PM

It again stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) as Neo, Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now) as Morpheus, Carrie Ann Moss(Memento) as Trinity

The war with the A.I. is reaching it’s climax, the last human fortress Zion is under attack by the machines, and unless our protagonists can do something, their life and civilisation will be wiped out.

The antagonist, Agent Smith played by Hugo Weaving(Lord of the rings: The Fellowship of the ring) has somehow managed to get his personality out into the real world, while in the Matrix like a malevolent virus he has taken over everyone, and is waiting for Neo to turn up for their final encounter.

We learn a little about the unfolding in the life of the real world for Morpheus, Neo and Trinity, with people constantly wanting something from Neo in the real world, keeping him away from Trinity more than he would like, to send messages to their loved ones, whose minds haven’t been “unplugged” yet, to constantly protecting his friends and companions from Agents, who like regular software have been given upgrades to combat the threat of Neo. The complicated relationship between Morpheus and his lost love Niobe played by the wife of Will Smith (who was the original choice to play Neo by the Wachowski brothers) Jada-Pinkett Smith is developed a little further.

Less time is given to the other A.I. as was done in the previous sequel, and instead focuses on the main thrust of the story, the war between civilisation and the A.I. and if Neo, Morpheus and Trinity have any say on how it will all end.

The suspense that has been building up for a few years since the original Matrix is well played upon, and the conclusion is a fitting end to the roller coaster of cinematic vision and innovation that hasn’t captured the minds of many movie goers since.

Many saw this final sequel as redeeming some of the disappointments some of the fans saw in the second sequel, and it is not an underestimation to say the Matrix trilogy is to the current I.T. and Internet savvy generation what Star Wars was, to the generation of the late 70′s and 80′s.

The directors Andy and Larry Wachowski better known as the Wachowski brothers have reportedly refused to do any interviews about The Matrix or it’s sequels, possibly to continue and preserve it’s cult status.

As with many sequels, there are never as critically acclaimed or well received by the fans as the originals, and this is no exception. That said for cult fan status it was a long wait, with a superb teaser trailer broadcast during the Super Bowl, that had many fans salivating. This sequel did reveal a little bit more about the composition of the real world our protagonists lived in and the Matrix world the frequented.

In this sequel we are introduced to a whole other A.I. living in the Matrix, Persephone played by the beautiful Monica Bellucci(The brothers Grimm) and her husband Merovingian played by Lambert Wilson(The Lazarus Project, Babylon A.D.), and The Oracle was also revealed as another system of control, unfortunately the original actress Gloria Foster who played The Oracle, died soon after completing her scenes.

Morpheus believing a prophecy told to him by the Oracle, that getting Neo to the source will end the war and set them free from the A.I., along with Trinity try to get Neo to the location of the source, battling some nifty Programs along the way, a pair of them having the ability to move through objects and other people(which is plausible as no one in the Matrix is really flesh and bone, but a kind of simulation).

The Wachowski brothers on the few times they did talk about The Matrix, said they always wanted to make a movie that combined their love of Kung-Fu and the Martial Arts with Science Fiction, and The Matrix captures this beautifully.

The interesting thing about the Matrix and it’s sequels is the hidden meanings littered throughout every scene, going back to look at various scenes again, and reading up about it, the hidden religious references combining key aspects of the world’s major religions is quite interesting, from the “Know thyself” writing when Neo first meets The Oracle to his first encounter with The Oracle’s protector Seraph played by Collin Chou(The Forbidden Kingdom, DOA: Dead or Alive) (apparently The Wachowski brothers tried to get Kung-Fu legend and three times Chinese high kick champion Jet Li to play _ but he declined indicating he didn’t want people to ignore the storyline and focus that he is in the movie)telling Neo “you never truly know anyone until you fight them“.

It stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure) as Neo/Mr Anderson(apparently Will Smith(Independence Day, I. Robot) was asked by the Wachowski brothers to play Neo, but he declined the role saying he wasn’t mature enough as an actor to carry out the role), an I.T. guy seemingly bored with his existence, he is contacted by the mysterious Morpheus played by Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now), wanted by many for alledgedly terrorist activities.

It turns out that Neo isn’t really living in the real world at all, but under slavery, as he and the rest of humanity are under, being hooked up to a machine, providing life source for A.I(Artificial intelligence) that has taken over the planet over a war with humanity, leaving only a few renegades to continue the war against the A.I.

As Morpheus succinctly puts it “What if you were in a dream you couldn’t wake up from, how would you know what is real and what is not?”.

This all makes sense at this point, because as a prelude to this mind boggling discovery, there was an action sequence, where Trinity played by Carrie-Anne Moss(Memento) runs away from a couple of agents, into a phone box, and whilst she has the ear-piece of the phone to her ears, one of the agents runs down the phone box with a truck, with Trinity’s body nowhere to be found in or around the phone box after this encounter(apparently after showing that ten-minute action sequence to their executive producers, they signed up immediately).

Morpheus has been told a prophecy by the Oracle played by Gloria Foster that he will find The One that will put an end to the slavery and set humanity free from A.I., and he believes Neo is that one, however Neo needs some convincing, especially as Morpheus, Trinity and a host of others take him to see the Oracle, to see what predictions she has in store for him.

During this scene an interesting occurrence takes place, that just separates The Matrix from just another science fiction movie, Neo sees a black cat, and sees the cat again, he mutters to himself “deja vu”, immediately everybody in the entourage tenses up and he is asked what he saw, he relays what he saw, and everyone finds a hiding place, weapons at the ready, with Trinity explaining to Neo that deja vu happens when the A.I. change something in the Matrix, and sure enough the antagonist Agent Smith played magnificently by Hugo Heaving(Lord of the rings: The fellowship of the ring), is just around the corner.

It is a ground-breaking story line coupled with some superb action sequences, with great twists along the way makes for a classic science fiction movie.

It stars Tom Hanks as a prison guard Paul Edgecomb, and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey a mysterious gentle giant of a fellow from the deep south at the turn of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately for John Coffey there has been a murder of two little girls, and when John is found holding on to the two girls and crying, he is assumed the culprit, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair in the infamous “Green mile” prison.

What some of the people in the town and notably those in the “Green Mile” prison quarters are about to find out, especially the prison guards is that he has the magic of healing, he proves this on a mouse, who has been stomped on by the jail antagonist “Wild Bill” Wharton whose hero is “Wild Bill” Hitchcock and would not tolerate having anyone say a negative word against him, played by Sam Rockwell(Charlie’s Angels). John breathes on the mouse until its tail begins to twitch again with life, but there is an after effect, whenever he heals someone or something, he has to release the bad energy out of himself somehow.

It turns out that the prison warden, Warden Moores played by james Cromwell(L.A. Confidential) has a sick wife Melinda played by Patricia Clarkson (I must say watching her recently in Phoebe in Wonderland she looks exactly the same as she did almost ten years ago), and when John’s healing ability is discovered, after helping Paul with an embarrassing problem, he proposes that John pays a visit to the Warden’s wife, albeit not telling the Warden at all, only the fellow prison guards who all agree to ship him out at night.

Paul believes in his innocence, and in turn so do the other prison guards, Brutus “Brutal” Howell played by the stalwart David Morse(The Negotiator, Twelve Monkeys), Dean Stanton played by Barry Pepper(Saving Private Ryan) who all see John Coffee’s behaviour for themselves and realise he cannot hurt a fly, but is there anything he can do to prevent John Coffee from “riding the light” i.e. the electric chair?

This is a lovely science fiction and fantasy movie, with some unforeseen twists, and viewers will not miss the symbolism of John Coffey whose name is an acronym of Jesus Christ.

It stars the lovely Dakota Fanning(The secret lives of Bees, I believe that was her sister in Phoebe in Wonderland) as Cassie Holmes and Chris Evans(Street Kings, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four) as Nick Gant. Two Americans who have found themselves in Hong Kong, in a race against time to find another girl Kira Bird played by the lovely Camille Belle( you might find something about her eyes being strangely familiar, ofcourse she was Evolet in 10,000 BC) in the hope to bring down the secret agency that has been hunting them down, and making their lives and those of their families hell.

They all have special abilities, and this is where it can get a little confusing, Pushers can push thoughts into people making them believe what they want, and do what they want, Movers can move objects, Watchers can predict the future(ofcourse the future is subject to change), Stitchers can stitch people back together that have been injured even those injured by Bleeders, who have the ability to echo high auditory screams that can smash glasses, damage ear drums, blood vessels, and literally move objects and people, Sniffers can literally find anyone just from touching their belongings, just like a dog, Wipers can wipe memories, Shifters can move patterns of light around objects to change the shape and appearance, we get to meet a shifter played by the fantastic Cliff “The Chameleon” Curtis as Hook Waters, and Shadows can prevent people by being found by Sniffers.

From the all action beginning where the young Nick Gant has to run away from the antagonist Henry Carver played by Djimon Hounsou(Amistad, Never Back Down), to the confrontations between Nick and Victor Budarin played by Neil Jackson(Quantun of Solace, Blade: The series), it is a non-stop action flick, with interesting plot twists many are sure to enjoy.

We join our protagonists Claire “Bear” Bennet played by the lovely Hayden
Panetierre(Malcolm in the middle) those lovely clear hazel eyes, and baby soft
cheeks can do no wrong, her foster father Noah Bennet aka “man with the horn
rimmed glasses” played by Jack Coleman(Spawn) who is trying to play it straight
this time with his wife Sandra Bennet played by Ashley Crow(American Dreamz),
Hiro Nakamura(Masi Oka, a local Japanese would be able to tell that he speaks
japanese with a slight accent) with his hilarious sidekick Ando Masahashi(James
Kyson Lee) there is a hilarious segment where Ando has to make a face to keep a
baby quiet, priceless, Mohinder Suresh played by Sendhil Ramamurthy(was in an
episode of Grey’s anatomy, and studied drama in England as part of the Ryal
Shakepeare Society hence the english accent) senator Nathan Petrelli played by
Adrian Pasdar(Carlito’s way, Top Gun), and his difficult relationship with his
younger sibling Peter Petrelli played by Milo Ventimiglia(Rocky Balboa, many may
have seen his father John ventimiglia the chef in the Sopranos) watched over my
their mother Angela Petrelli played by Cristine Rose(almost didn’t recognise her
in He’s just not that into you), the clarificaiton on exactly her powers are
elaborated a little in this series, there is a surprise for mind reader Matt
Parkman played by Greg Grunberg(Mission Impossible 3, Hollow man) in more ways
than one, we also get to meet Micah Sanders again played by Noah Gray-Gabey
whose in for quite a surprise, the Haitian played by Jimmy Jean-Louis(must be
seen in Diary of a tired blackman, he is fluent in five languages, and you can
tell he was a model) meets his nemesis.

This series starts off with a formula that can give powers to anybody, half of the formula was
guarded by Hiro’s father which is now in the charge of Hiro, but you just know
some villain may get their hands on it and it will be up to our protagonists and
their associates to save the world.
There is the usual mix of heroes and villains, and it is always fascinating to
find out what new characters may popup and more imporantly just what their
ability(as Sylar likes to put it) is, and if Sylar(playing the young Spock in
the new Star Trek movie, and I must admit he has an uncanny resemblance to a
young Leonard Nimoy) will finally get his comeuppance, we get to see Elle Bishop
played by Kristin Bell(pretty hilarious in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, particular
in one scene where she attacks the spiritual values of her boyfriend played by
Russell Brand).

It is a nice fun film, especially the scenes with the US military up against the bad autobots.