>> Is it fair to mention that the first had revolutionary special effects, and
>> the other two didn't bring that much to the table? The "burly brawl" scene
>> in particular had very fake looking CG people.
> 
> What impressed me most about that scene was the choreography. Sure, the CGI
> looked a little fake in a couple of shots, but the overall effect was
> incredible. You can watch Neo wallop a Smith into the distance, watch that
> Smith get up, dust himself down, and make his way back into the fray for
> another wallop. And they're *all* doing that, over and over! Probably works
> better as a music video than a movie scene tho.

Heh. Every time I watch it, I can't help noticing that there's, like, 
200 Smiths, but only 3 of them are actually trying to attack him at any 
one moment. The rest of them are all standing there "winding up" to do 
something. They got it so that it doesn't look like anybody is standing 
around waiting, but in reality they all are. Only a tiny number of them 
are actually attacking at any moment.

I guess it's like the battle scenes in the new Star Wars films. They're 
so absurdly over the top that you just loose interest. I think for SciFi 
to work well, there has to be an implicit set of "rules". If you have a 
universe where absolutely *anything* is possible, there's not much 
causality. The best films you always know what the characters can and 
can't do - and hence you know when they do or don't have a problem, and 
when they've overcome it. But give a character unlimited power and you 
now have a rather uninteresting situation. He has unlimited power. Of 
*course* he's going to win.

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