Legions of fans have been salivating for The Matrix Reloaded for four years since its 1999 debut in movie theaters and now in 2003 we will be given not one, not two, not three, but four new entries into the series in the forms of video games, movies, and animated shorts. Unfortunately those looking to recapture the amazement and magic of the first film won’t find it in this second installment of the series, but we can still hold out hope for the third.

The Matrix Reloaded is not a bad film, far from it in fact, but it certainly isn’t the best film it could have been with the imagination of it’s directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski. The whole movie comes off as a full notch below the original Matrix with amazing fight sequences interspersed between excruciatingly slow story progression and a total disregard for some of the events in the first movie. The MTV Spring Break Rave held in Zion and the “love triangle” only slow down the movie further. In fact the entire first half of the movie doesn’t even need to exist aside from the computer assisted fight sequences and appearance of the uber-cool Agent Smith.

With the addition of new characters and a convoluted storyline, which has more “Huh?” moments than an episode of Star Trek on a techno-babble high, the movie just never catches on with the audience and, instead, throws enough eye candy on the screen to make even the most jaded critic or patron drool on themselves in sheer awe at the physics of these sequences. But it still doesn’t make up for the fact that if you remove the fight and chase sequences from the movie you are left with a mediocre sci-fi film that could pass off as a straight to video release.

Reloaded picks up at an undetermined amount of time after the first movie. After Neo (Keanu Reeves) begins to have disturbing dreams about Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) he awaits word from the Oracle on his next step to save humanity. Just before this, as seen in Final Flight of the Osiris, the machines are drilling from the surface straight down to Zion in order to destroy the last human city. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and the gang are employed with the task of finding the “Keymaker” in order to gain access to the matrix’s mainframe and learn the truth about the program once and for all. Without giving too much away, that is basically how the plot breaks down. Sure there are a few twists here and there, but nothing unexpected, and surely nothing overly dramatic that strays from the tried and true methods of sci-fi fare.

As stated the movie isn’t bad at all, and the aforementioned fight sequences are nothing short of spectacular in technical know-how and visuals. Neo’s fight with over 100 replicas of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is nothing short of awesome but after the battle is over it feels like it never needed to occur, as with all of the battles in the movie. At the end of The Matrix Neo tears Smith apart, literally shattering his “code,” but through Reloaded his plods in battle after battle as though he is just very good at Kung Fu. Except for his tendency to fly around Neo hasn’t changed very much even though he is “the one.”

The car chase scene, obviously sponsored by GM, is the highlight of the movie as Trinity, Morpheus, and the “Keymaker” escape in a Cadillac CTS on a busy freeway all while being shot and chased by Agents and The Twins who were so hyped and so underutilized you wonder why the parts were even written. As with everything else in the movie these new characters, including the lovely Persephone, bring the film to the least common multiple rather than raising it up to the intellectual superiority of the first film.

Reloaded never really comes into its own for the entire length of the movie. You feel as though you are being stringed along with more and more eye candy to a climatic ending but it never happens because that “climax” will supposedly happen in the third film, thereby taking even more money from the public who went into the movie with such high expectations.

Without the drool-drenched special effects the film stumbles on it’s own two feet as the story becomes so clouded from that of the first film. Maybe a desire to cater to a new audience, or a new found sense of freedom after the success of the first film caused the Wachowski brothers to craft this entry in a different light. Maybe Reloaded is simply a bridge to a much bigger, and better, story that we will see see in Revolutions this fall. Let’s just hope the last chapter in the series is able to rekindle the fire of the first.

Comic book movies are a rather quirky device in Hollywood, because no matter how bad the adaptation is, and no matter how awful the acting, plot, direction, etc. are studios will still make millions of dollars from the die hard fans who have waited decades to see their favorite superheroes on screen for the first time. Enter the curiously named X2: X-Men United as it debuts hot off the heals of Spider-Man’s record breaking opening and following the mediocre showing of Ben Affleck’s dark, yet lacking, Daredevil.

Director Bryan Singer should have a statue at Marvel Studios for what he has done with this series. Bringing the comic book to life with such attention to detail should be inspiring for any director looking to make hordes of fan-boys happy. Singer’s direction is a shinning point burns just a bit brighter than the stellar performances by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Alan Cumming’s amazingly accurate depiction of Nightcrawler. Singer may have had a leg up on older directors who might of found it hard to go back to a comic book and learn about these characters enough not to be disemboweled by fans after the first screening. Where X-Men set up the stage, X2 brings down the house.

X2 skips all of the mandatory introduction of characters and gets right into the action. After a similar opening title sequence to the first movie, we are thrust right into nearly two hours of violent mutant fighting that had everyone on the edge of their seats and clapping each time Wolverine skewered a soldier with his claws. The movie opens with Nightcrawler attacking the President in the oval office of the White House. Through some amazing special effects the stunt and motion capturing work comes to life with a familiar “BAMF!”

X2 is actually an adaptation of the X-Men graphic novel “God Loves, Man Kills” which was re-released earlier this year in preparation of the movie’s debut. The story focuses on William Stryker (Brian Cox) a military veteran who calls upon the President to authorize an infiltration into Professor Charles Xavier’s School for the Gifted. Here one of the film’s best action sequences takes place as Wolverine battles dozens of commandos who take orders from the very man who could hold the key to his past. Although the attack on the school is not Stryker’s motive, he wants cerebro, or pieces of it, for a master plan to wipe out every last mutant on the face of the planet.

As mentioned before Alan Cumming and Hugh Jackman’s performances are amazing, they take the characters of Nightcrawler and Wolverine, respectably, to new heights as the drawings come to life with indiscriminate accuracy. The entire cast from X-Men is back to reprise their roles, for the most part. Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford) are served up more screen time than in the first movie while Rogue (Anna Paquin), a staple in the first film, is reduced to somewhat of a bit character role. Storm appears on screen with a new wig and minus the annoying accent from the first film, no doubt in part of Halle Berry’s new found ego at the hands of the Academy. Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen), although key to the story, plays a smaller role than the first film while Mystique’s (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) screen time is nearly doubled. Cyclops (James Marsden) and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) are also sent to the back while the story mainly focuses on Wolverine’s quest to learn about his past and Jean Grey’s (Famke Janssen) internal struggle with her increasing power. Several other X-Men make cameo appearances. Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and a few others I won’t mention liven things up a bit and set up a number of characters to appear in a shoe-in sequel.

With such an large cast you may think it would be confusing to keep track of them all but for fans of the series you should have no trouble. Although with so many characters and such a wide range of specific powers the script does pigeon hole some of the action sequences to take advantage of a specific mutant’s powers. “We have six kids stuck in a hole and we don’t have a key, who can teleport them to safety?” Stuff like that proceeds through most of the film but it hardly detracts from anything because you want to see these characters use their powers. The film also suffers from a somewhat lack of plot, but you aren’t going to see this for a deep emotional triumph over adversity, you are seeing it to watch mutants with kick-ass powers kick some ass, and you get what you paid for.

X2 is based on the X-Men comic book, but takes a much more violent and darker role along the lines of Daredevil as opposed to Sony’s Spider-Man. Several reports even indicated the film carried an R rating through the first couple of cuts until a few scenes were shortened.

Regardless of your quips on the lack of plot or convenient devices that further that paper-thin plot X2 serves just what you want to see. Lots of cool mutants that you grew up with, on the big screen, and killer special effects realistic enough to make you believe your graphic novel has taken a new home. I know a sequel is in the cards, I just hope it is sooner rather than later, three years is a long time to see a certain character “reborn.”

Over this past weekend (January 24), Entertainmentopia was able to attend a sneak preview screening of Shanghai Knights from Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, and it turned out to be an enjoyable film that lives up to the expectations set down by it’s predecessor and previous buddy-comedy flicks.

Shanghai Knights takes place, for a majority of the movie, in ye ole England where villainous Lord Rathbone (Aiden Gillen) has conspired to steal the Imperial Seal and assassinate every member of the crown in line before him so that he can become King of England. The catch is that the protector of the Imperial Seal is Chon Wang’s (Jackie Chan) father, and when he is killed, Chon must head to England to meet his beautiful sister (Fann Wong) and avenge his father’s death. In order to get to England, Chon must find Ray O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) and get his half of the emperor’s gold they received in the first movie.

The film suffers through a very hackneyed and unoriginal plot for a better part of the movie, but most of the better jokes and amazing fight scenes make up for lame-brained story. Adding to the plus side of things is the amazingly stunning beauty of Fann Wong in the role of Chon Wang’s sister, Chon Lin. She is just not on the screen for eye candy either, she delivers some of the more memorable fight scenes throughout the course of the movie.

The film itself is full of very funny jokes, but some of them seemed very forced, and a noticeable downturn into lower realms of humor may turn off some movie goers who found the first film’s jokes more high-brow and sophisticated. The “potty-humor” is more evident this time around with jokes touching on STDs, erections, and other bodily functions, and while you won’t see any pie-humping, you do see the difference in the jokes.

Acting, for the most part, is as well done as it can be. Jackie Chan just looks tired through a better part of the movie, and Owen Wilson too. Chan may have done too many buddy movies in his lifetime, or he just may be starting to show his age, but he looks as though he is only on the set to get a paycheck and get a workout. Wilson is probably hoping that everyone doesn’t remember his escapades with Eddie Murphy in I-Spy, and plays the same basic character that he plays in every single movie he has been in (Shanghai Noon, Meet the Parents, I-Spy), he never really changes his style. To his credit, he is still very funny delivering sarcastic comments at the right time, and the right way.

The fight scenes are just as amazing as those in Shanghai Noon. The most notable are the ones that place in a London Market and on a barge near the end of the film. The final battle between Wu Yip (Donnie Yen) and Chon Wang is easily one of the coolest you will see on film this year. The experience and finesse of both Chan and Yen shows just how good they really are, and just how underused Yen was in Blade II.

Plot holes may also detract for the overall experience. During the course of the movie, O’Bannon, Lin, and Wang are put into a number of precarious positions where they are able to escape, but for some reason only Roy and Chon are shown, and Lin has vanished into the shadows. This is most noticeable when they escape from the burning barn about halfway through the movie. We know Lin mad it to the roof, but then we don’t see her till the next day. Where the hell did she go?

Overall I was very surprised how well Shanghai Knights turned out. I knew it would be a great follow-up to Shanghai Noon, but I wasn’t sure what kind of follow-up it would be. Would it rip off jokes from the first movie and just switch them around (a la Men in Black II) or would it try to invent new ways to make us laugh while keeping us watching (a la American Pie 2)? Thankfully Knights came out as one of the movies that tries new things and, for the most part, succeeds.

Everyone knows the way things work with Star Trek movies. With the notable exception of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, all odd ones are mediocre, while the evens really shine. Even after the original crew moved on and made way for “The Next Generation” on the big screen, things have always been kept a constant. Regardless of how I, or any other critic rate this movie, the fans will still see it, and it will be the fans who tell the studio just how good or bad this movie is. A franchise’s fans are it’s biggest critics, and in the case of Star Trek, the critics reign supreme.

Many film critics with preview screenings, something the studios haven’t decided to let our fine website in on, had called the movie “awful,” “tedious,” and “stupid.” Furthermore, they said that Nemesis broke the “even/odd” streak that had been in place since the late 1970s. Well in my own opinion, and you can take what you want from that, Star Trek: Nemesis wasn’t the greatest Trek movie to ever be released, but it is far from the worst, and I found it entirely enjoyable from start to finish..

Star Trek: Nemesis is billed as the final journey of the Next Generation crew which essentially are broken up at the end of the movie, all for different reasons. Captain Riker (Jonathon Frakes) has been promoted (finally) and given command of the USS Titan, and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis), his new wife, will accompany him, other members of the crew are not present, but for means of keeping this review free from major spoilers I won’t get into that part.

The storyline centers around the Romulan empire, whom share a solar system with the Remans, a goblin-like race that are forced to work in the Dylithium Mines of Remus under a coat of darkness as one side of the planet always faces the sun. When the Federation is given a call by the new Romulan Praetor asking for a long-sought peace treaty, Starfleet is quick to act and send it its most experienced crew, and their captain. Once at Romulus, the Enterprise and crew are given a look at a new massive battleship, the Scimitar, created by Shinzon (Tom Hardy). It is soon discovered that that Shinzon wants nothing of peace, and has created a weapon that can destroy life on a planet in a matter of minutes, so it is up to the Picard and company to foil this new “nemesis'” plan.

The movie takes on two different storylines, but they aren’t as they seem in the trailers. The first is the main one involving Shinzon who is actually the bi-product of a past Romulan exercise to get an agent into the Federation. Shinzon is a clone of Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), but in order for him to take over Picard’s position in Starfleet, his aging would have to be vastly accelerated, therefore he suffers from a debilitating ailment that calls for him to transfuse his DNA with that of the real Picard’s.

The second storyline, is more of a minor subplot till you get to the end of the film. The crew discovers an android on a remote planet that has been disassembled and scattered. This gives Picard, Data, and Worf a chance to try out Starfleet’s latest toy in the form of a dune-buggy mounted with particle weapons, the chances of finding one at your local dealer are slim to none at this point, but who knows what time will tell. The android, dubbed B4 (as a play on words), is a primitive prototype of Data (Brent Spiner). Since Data has evolved through the course of his 15 years on the Enterprise he is more advanced in cognitive functions than B4, but tries to make the new android learn about his world by transferring his memories.

The movies storyline itself is very well done, and series-rookie John Logan (Gladiator) has done a number on fleshing out the story and having the characters play well off of each other. The excellent rapport between the senior staff is very likable, and makes the movie enjoyable by adding a bit of humor to it all. The movie’s beginning starts off slow and it muddles through the first hour until the Enterprise crew finally realizes what Shinzon’s plan is, then the movie kicks into high gear with one of the coolest space battle sequences you will ever seen on film. The battle involves the new Reman battle cruiser and the Enterprise which is dwarfed in size compared to the massive-cloaking vessel. The battle progresses and ends with the trailer-included starship collision that cripples both vessels. While this battle sequence is full of writing flaws, many of which we have found, it is still one of the most enjoyable parts of the film.

The problem that I found with the movie was it felt cut-up. It was made publicly available that director Stuart Baird was forced to cut nearly a hour from the film to make it fit Paramount’s two hour run time, and while the movie never feels like a clip-show it still feels like there was a lot missing, most notably Shinzon’s back-story. Another notable problem was the fact that many characters are reduced to no more than a few lines. Doctor Crusher (Gates McFadden), Lt. Commander La Forge (LeVar Burton), and Worf (Michael Dorn) are reduced to bit characters and only used sparingly throughout the entire movie.

I felt that some critics were too harsh on the film, it proved to be an enjoyable experience that got me in the Star Trek mood. I felt it was especially appropriate to include characters from other series (Admiral Janeway gets the ball rolling), but with the series trying to break the Star Trek mold it created a great amount of technical flaws and plot inconsistencies. While the villain will never be the nemesis that Khan was to Kirk, the movie pays for itself with one of the coolest space battles you will ever see. So after seeing the latest “even” movie to turn out well, what does Star Trek XI have in store for us? Only time will tell, and hopefully, it isn’t a great amount of time.

The original Jeepers Creepers was a surprisingly good horror movie two years ago when it was released. The cliché of the masked killer was brought to a new level by The Creeper (Jonathan Breck), a seemingly immortal being who collected bodies and made tools and wallpaper out of them. The scare factor of the first movie wasn’t jump-out-of-your-soiled-seat but the film did introduce us to a good time. Now, two years later, in a summer where sequels have continued to under perform and leave fans displeased Jeepers Creepers 2 continues the tradition.

Think about everything you liked about the first Jeepers Creepers, delete it, and you have Jeepers Creepers 2 a film lacking any of the coolest parts of the original, instead putting a group of teenagers (how original) in a situation where they are picked off one by one (again, how original). The innovation and originality of the first film were plucked from their happy home and replaced with standard horror-fare that leaves you groaning on just how bad a script can be, and still get made.

JC2 is nothing more than a B-movie wrapped in a franchise name and force feed to a set group of moviegoers who, not just two weeks ago, saw a much more impressive Freddy vs. Jason. Truth be told MGM is smart for releasing this film so close to New Line’s Freddy vs. Jason as to cash in on the inevitable demand for new horror after the two titans of terror fight to the “death.”

The main problem with JC2 is that it can’t even stand tall enough to even think about holding a torch to the original. Aside from a short cameo by Darry (Justin Long) you wouldn’t even know this movie is connected to the franchise. Gone is the immensely cool, fear-producing truck. Gone is the home of the Creeper complete with hundreds of bodies sown together on the walls, although the house is mentioned as having gone up in flames earlier in the movie. Gone is the creepiness of the Creeper who is now just flying around picking people off the ground while avoiding spears to the head. Hell, they don’t even play the infamous song associated with every death in the original film.

It doesn’t help that the script is full of enough holes to satisfy the porn industry. No name characters disappear and reappear from time to time. During the film’s climax a girl is pushed from a truck just before it crashes and explodes. We never see her again. Before the aforementioned truck explodes we see the driver crawl out of the wreckage, but we never see him again. Plus the entire side-plot of a farmer, Jack Taggart (Ray Wise) going after the Creeper because he killed his son looks as though it was tacked on to put more action in a film that only needs to be 20 minutes long to get the point across.

Try as I might I couldn’t find anything redeeming for my $6.50. The badness of the bad guy is gone. The coolness of the truck and hide-out are gone. The characters are nothing more than canon fodder, and while some other movies at least attempt to interject some story into the mix, JC2‘s writers don’t even give them names, and when they do, they are called Minxie (Nicki Lynn Aycox).

The whole film is just a very disappointing experience with it’s only bright spot being great cinematography, especially the opening cornfield sequence. Jeepers Creepers 2 should be avoid by fans and horror patrons as it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. See Freddy vs. Jason again if you just need some horror in your life, or venture to a discount theater and glimpse 28 Days Later once again.

So here we are five days after the release of Men in Black II and I’m just finally getting out of the house to see it. Why did it take me so long to get off my lazy ass an off to the theatre? Because I’m beginning to hate going to the movies on opening day and getting trampled by people who just got off of the “net” and read some “reviews” and can tell me every plot point before it finally happens. See I don’t need someone to tell me because those of us with brains bigger than a dog’s left-nut can figure out movies for ourselves. Anyway, I’m becoming skewed…

Men in Black II is the latest and supposedly greatest in the line of summer movies, I even predicted it would be the biggest movie of the summer, but who really expected Spider-Man to destroy records like it did, I sure didn’t. The movie stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as agents of the top secret organization that polices alien activity on the planet earth. When seeing the first movie five years ago you wondered how they would get Agent K back into the line-up and in the movie, and how they would get agent L to drop out (which was done very stupidly by the way).

Anyway when a mysterious light is hidden on earth and the universe’s biggest bad-ass-lingerie-model comes looking for it, things get heated and the only man who knows how to stop it had his memory erased five years earlier. After bringing K back, the movie really picks up because of the on-screen duo between Smith and Jones.

What directory Barry Sonnenfeld seemed like he was doing for the the sequel was take the best parts of the first movie and give them bigger parts in the second. The highlight of the movie is Frank the Pug, who is giving a much elongated part in this sequel compared to his two minutes of screen time in the first. But, unfortunately, along with some of the better characters that are broadened, some of the same old jokes are returned and reversed to either A) try them again or B) see if anyone remembers. For the most part they clicked, but some, most the regurgitated stuff from before, didn’t work out so well and seemed to fall flat.

I was a bit concerned when I saw the initial trailer for the movie because it lacked the outstanding humor of the first, but I’m safe in saying that, while not as funny as the first, Men in Black II is a very funny movie and is the perfect mix between action and comedy.

My only complaint? The movie is over way to quickly. We got through five trailers, the movie, and half of the credits in under two hours which is far too short for a movie competing this summer for attention with so many dynamic movies, and those who already downloaded them from net (but that is another story). While I may have been very presumptuous when I stated this would be the biggest movie of the summer, it did break some records for a July 4th opening, and just may very well stay around to make a whole lot of money, but in the end it still can’t compare to the original, and not many things do.

Final Destination 2 opens with one of the best action sequences you will ever seen on film. The pile-up sequence puts this movie in a class with The Matrix’s lobby scene as just one of the coolest things ever shot on film. The writers of FD2 should be patting themselves on the back for thinking up such a clever, amazingly fun way to see a chain of events unfold with so much precision and absolute amazement from the audience. I was left with my mouth wide open as the cars exploded, crashed, and impaled members of the cast and opened the sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the original Final Destination featured Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) seeing a premonition of his plane exploding just after take off one year before the events of this movie. By him seeing Death’s design and cheating his way out of that design he caused a rift of events the put everyone he saved in danger. This lead to some very creative death sequences and a generally great movie in a genre that had become stale with too many Scream-wannabe’s and slasher-bore-fests.

Final Destination 2 picks up, as mentioned, one year after the events of Flight 180 in the first movie (you will see a reoccurring theme of 180 throughout the film). Kimberly Corman (the beautiful A.J. Cook) has a premonition while waiting to get onto the freeway about a huge pileup that claims her life, and the lives of everyone behind her on the on-ramp. So she positions her car to block traffic and spare the people’s lives from a horrible death, but what she does is start a chain reaction that causes Death to catch up to each and every one of the survivors and take what is his.

Final Destination 2 left me with an overwhelming sense of awe as the movie played out better than I could have hoped. I knew it would be hard to top the original, in my mind, and the mind’s of the casual movie fans. FD2 managed to impress me, and everyone in the nearly packed theatre that I saw it in over the weekend. The script, clearly and cleverly done, features many throwbacks and acknowledgements to the first movie, something that I was initially worried about. For those of you who saw the first movie, you know that the ending was both open ended and closed at the same time, so would FD2 go back and explain what happened after Final Destination faded to black? Yes, and no.

Yes, comes from the fact that they acknowledge what happened to each of the remaining principle characters by way of references, newspaper articles, and what Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) explains to Kimberly early in the film. No, stems from the way they went about doing it. While the death of one character is completely obvious at the end of Final Destination, the death of another is unforeseen and it seems as more of a way to cop-out of having him in the movie than anything else. It feels like a cheesy off-screen death that is briefly mentioned and forgotten.

To those of out there that are worried about having no creative death sequences, let me assure you that Final Destination 2 tops the original in both creativity and gruesomeness. We have decapitation, disembowelments, crushings, skull penetrations (yes more than one), and drownings to contend with this time around and through several of these the audience all cringed at the same time, while highly enjoying the whole thing.

Final Destination 2 ranks very highly with me because of it’s excellent, creative nature and how it breaks the mold for the generic horror type movie. FD2 sports an unknown, but talented cast who are able to give some characterization before becoming canon fodder. The original Final Destination reached cult status fairly quickly and see the sequel doing the same as a very successful, and enjoyable follow-up to a very entertaining original.