Earlier this week the press was invited to tour the set of The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions and interview the films’ stars. The first online outlet to post their report of the set visit is Sci-Fi Wire, and they provide some nifty new quotes from Keanu Reeves about the changes between his character, Neo, from the first Matrix film to the second and third.
“The story kind of goes outside of the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines in Zion…So it’s almost [that] what he can do in the Matrix is not enough. And he’s still on the path of discovery and choice. He’s told by the Oracle that … he has some choices that he’ll have to make that will affect the survival of the human race,” said Reeves. “And there are some hardships. And all of us are trying to save the world. And the development between Neo and Trinity [Carrie-Anne Moss] is explored, and with Morpheus [Laurence Fishburne] and [Agent] Smith [Hugo Weaving]. And so I think that’s just about it. It’s the development of the hero journey for my character, which is new challenges and choices. And it’s not so much about being born. He wanted to find out where he was. Now he knows. Or he thinks he knows.”
Sounds ominous, doesn’t it?
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the bullet-time FX sequences pioneered in the first Matrix film are without a doubt one of the most beloved forms of special effect today. Joel Silver tackled the question about what the Wachowski brothers feel that just about every new action movie is mimicing the bullet-time effects seen in The Matrix, and how the forthcoming sequels will once again reset the bar for what can be done in films. “For a while … I bet they thought it was flattering. But after a while, they kind of got angry about it. So they decided that, in these two movies, they would create visual effects that could never be copied. So we have done visual effects for the movie that, because of the time that we took to make them and the cost, will never be seen again. So I really think that the bar has been raised so high that, you know, there is no bar. This will end the way movies have been made up to now, because they can go no further.”