I was telling YLB that one of the things that prevents me from ever permanently leaving Interference, for now at least, is waiting for the lead-up to and then your review of Avatar. I feel that either way, whether it is awesome, or horrible, you're going to die after seeing it.
Awesome or Horrible, it almost doesn't matter at this point, it's already making its mark as one of the most
important films in a long time, and I'll likely be satisfied in many ways regardless of its actual quality.
As for The Matrix (this thread might as well remain slightly off topic considering it's now 50+ pages), I'm one of the VERY few people to prefer Reloaded to the original. Now, don't get me wrong, neither of the sequels compare to the original in terms of pure cinematic quality (script, mystery, suspense, characterizations, tension, action, innovation, etc.) and few experiences are going to compare to seeing that movie for the first time. However, at this point I am much more inclined to watch Reloaded over the original (and especially the comparatively disappointing third chapter). Sure there are flaws, it lacks the mystery and charm of the original, the plot is incredibly convoluted, and Neo is basically a superhero, but I simply can't get enough of it.
Many people complain about the lack of drama in the action sequences, and I understand. However, I absolutely love them for their rhythm, their beauty and choreography, and visual spectacular bliss. I guess, just like Speed Racer, I just completely buy into the Wachowskis' vision for the franchise at this point, and really admire their living-anime homage style in the series, Reloaded in particular. And yeah, these days (and even admittedly when the film first came out to an extent) the use of CG doubles in the film, particularly Neo during the Burly Brawl and the Freeway Chase rescue, can be distracting. But the brothers gambled on using some groundbreaking new techniques to achieve something nobody had seen before, and while they may have over-reached or misjudged the level of what they could convincingly pull off in those cases, I'm more inclined to reward their ambitions than penalize them for not quite pulling it all off (for the record Spiderman 2 used the same technique much more convincingly a year or so later).
So there.