Fans clamoring for entrance to 'Matrix' world

[Matrix]

from USA Today.com
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...3-matrix_x.htm



Whoa. Keanu Reeves' favorite catchphrase seems more apt than ever as anticipation builds for The Matrix Reloaded, coming May 15. A second sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, opens Nov. 5.

The Animatrix DVD

Enter the Matrix

Matrix Reloaded: 2-Disc Soundtrack


"The most anticipated movie of the summer is definitely The Matrix Reloaded. It excites millions of moviegoers on a very basic level," says Greg Dean Schmitz, who monitors Matrix mania at Yahoo's Greg's Previews site (movies.yahoo.com/upcoming).

Consider:

-Box office buzz. Analysts agree that the film will bring in $200 million to $300 million. The original Matrix grossed $171.4 million in 1999. If Reloaded hits $300 million, it would be the No. 15 movie of all time.

-Internet traffic. "It was the No. 1 most-visited page for all of 2000, 2001 and 2002," Schmitz says. Tickets go on sale online through AOL Moviefone, Fandango and Movietickets.com May 1.
The coming-attractions trailer. Nearly 4.5 million people have downloaded the final trailer at thematrix.com, putting it on course to be Warner Bros.' most downloaded trailer ever.

-The secrecy campaign. Fans curse Warner's tantalizing reluctance to give away details. "How do I know their game plan is working?" asks columnist Jeffrey Wells, who has railed on about it on moviepoopshoot.com. "Because I wish like hell they would show me this thing as soon as possible."

-The game Enter the Matrix. Scripted by filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski and due the same day as the film, it's "the No. 1 best-selling pre-order in Xbox and GameCube games, and the No. 3 in PC games and PlayStation 2 games," says Wendell South, senior buyer at Amazon.com. Though not yet matching pre-orders for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings games, "pre-orders have doubled week over week for the past three."

-Curiosity about this story is inspiring near-religious fervor, Wells says.

"All the kids in the world suspect they're living in some kind of plastic, affluent penal colony, and maybe half believe that real life is perhaps more real and vivid on their hard drives than out in the street," he says.

But in one area, The Matrix can't compete with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings collectibles.

"There's no blip on the toy-collecting radar screen," says Sharon Korbeck, editorial director of Toy Shop magazine.

That could change now that the Wachowskis have a deal with McFarlane Toys, pioneers in selling toys for R-rated movies such as Spawn.

But Korbeck is skeptical: "The Matrix may have more of a cult following. Maybe in 20 years, it will have that mainstream following — but I doubt it."

:big grin: :big grin: :big grin:

[wirm]

It's pretty clear that the movie is very much anticipated. I'm not entirely sure why they're releasing Reloaded and Revolutions in the same year. It seems like they could have made a lot more money doing what LotR did, and wait 1 year to milk it for everything it's worth. Video, DVD, extended DVD...

[redbear]

i think they are waiting long enough between the takes. i had heard that they wanted them to open like a month apart, which would have been bad.

this way, every1 sees it in the theater multiple times (i know i will) and has to build up tension for the DVD to come out. that comes out around the 3rd matrix, which will build up another fever to see part 3.

with the over marketing, toys, dvds,comic books and such...this is really going to be the year of the matrix....

...unless the movie blows.

[Matrix]

Originally posted by wirm
It's pretty clear that the movie is very much anticipated. I'm not entirely sure why they're releasing Reloaded and Revolutions in the same year. It seems like they could have made a lot more money doing what LotR did, and wait 1 year to milk it for everything it's worth. Video, DVD, extended DVD...

The Wachowskis doesnst want to milk the matrix otherwise they would had done it like lotr...
also they could get more oney if they are rating it pg 13 but they refused..
so from them it is not all about the money...
and i like that

[Gaumont]

Originally posted by Matrix
The Wachowskis doesnst want to milk the matrix otherwise they would had done it like lotr...
also they could get more oney if they are rating it pg 13 but they refused..
so from them it is not all about the money...
and i like that

no fan ever think its about the money

[Matrix]

Well they arent making these posters and toys just for fun...

the 300 million $ production cost should pay back so if it is a good product placement like the powerade ad or the action figures i am ok with that but if it is going to far like g.-lucas does it with all the merchandise products...:big grin:

[Matrix]

from Alternet
New Yorkers are usually a little tougher than this but the city has lost 200,000 jobs in the past two years. And snow in April? Damn.

There is one bright spot on the horizon. Everywhere I go, people are counting the days 'til the new Matrix comes out. The first movie was a surprise hit. But Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, scheduled for May and November releases respectively, are already cult phenomena.

They're also all too real.

Every morning I walk past a scene straight out of The Matrix. Remember those cops, the ones on the roof, with the helicopter? Full riot gear, dorky helmet ... yeah, them. They're on Wall Street just off of Broadway, guarding the New York Stock Exchange. Every morning I walk down Wall Street to work, I expect Keanu and Carrie-Ann to jump out in their nouveau bondage gear, tha-thwacking the riot cops on the head and using up a zillion rounds of ammo.

But these cops are the good guys, not the bad guys. I think. Seeing men with enormous guns rarely makes me feel safe. I guess they'll protect the brokers from the random crazy with a Saturday Night Special, but from an attacker with anthrax or a hijacked plane – nah. Meanwhile, it makes me profoundly aware that I'm living in a war zone. I don't know if I'm an observer, hostage, or combatant.

It's hard to imagine the endgame for a post-terror America. Will we one day decide that we don't need assault rifles on our streets? Or does it seem like street corner surveillance cameras and office buildings fingerprinting employees (which I will soon have to undergo), are a part of the New World Order that's here to stay?

I turn to my Oracle – The Matrix. Not only stylish and sophisticated, The Matrix says quite a lot about our barely veiled rage against the modern state. It takes leaps a movie set in contemporary times would never get away with.


In The Matrix, the state is the enemy, not protector. One of the climactic scenes takes place in a sterile glass-and-steel office tower whose clones clutter financial districts around America. Keanu Reeves' Neo, staging a daring rescue of guru Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), first guns down the uniformed guards by the metal detector. The he blows the place up from the inside out, setting off a powerful bomb in the elevator shaft.

The symbol of America's power explodes, here, from the inside out, not from the outside in as with the September 11 attacks. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but let me ride for a bit. How many movies have you seen where the massive office tower – the place in which the American worker is symbolically trapped – explodes in a shower of steel and glass? From Die Hard to Spiderman, the impregnable fortresses of commerce seem to be the first to go. Take the Westin Bonaventure, a monstrous set of mirrored-glass cylinders plopped in Downtown L.A. On weekends, there are a few homeless people on the streets, which are otherwise nearly empty of both foot and car traffic. In the auto lobby, you can see posters of all the movies in which the building exploded or threatened to.

Watching the business world literally explode seems to be one of the top American fantasies. It's a nice distraction from watching the actual implosion of the American economy. Frankly, I feel less scared in the theatre.

Farai Chideya is the founder of Pop and Politics.com