Wow, I thought they looked pretty cool, I'm sure as in Animatrix that they will be moving (at least I hope so).

I myself may have bought a DVD or two I didn't 'like' to complete Criterion collection or Best Picture or AFI or the like, but to so vitriously hate a movie like Matrix Reloaded and then proclaim you can't wait to buy it doesn't make sense to me...

I thought the movie was rather good, like a fine wine, subtle and not like 'The Rock' which I'm guessing some of you sourpusses were hoping for.

Extremely borin'. Same with the cover and features.
BAH!

I smell a special-special-super-duper edition in the makin'.

buying it as long as the transfer is good.

I like a nice menu system but I prefer a good transfer.

i just burned a Divx copy of this on dvd the other day and have seen it a few more times now...

i'm pretty firmly in the same camp as the "test of time" comparison to Empire Strikes Back and the "subtle" comment above. While every writing or directorial decision may not have been the exact one i would have made, i don't think that's the point. any movie that makes you think and still kicks ass is ok in my book.

can't wait to buy this on release day.

Anybody who doesn't like these menus doesn't understand them.

As well as "A puppet as a jedi master?!" and "where are all the aliens?"

As a result, Return of the Jedi was more like the first movie, loved at the time... and now people don't like it!

It's funny how people change!

I truthfully have problems with Reloaded, but going back and watching the first movie I see a lot of faults in that too... maybe less faults, but damn, some of those faults are huge... Reloaded's faults are longer and drawn out... but nothing is as bad as Tank's little "preflight announcment" at least "Does that include a bullet from this gun?" was over in two seconds

I guess it helps that I'm not a die hard Matrix fan. I'd never dream of visiting a Matrix site, and I don't think I even went in the forum here.

In the end though, we all knew this bickering would happen. Everyone knows what hypes does to movies that fan boys obsess over.

Oh, and those menus look kind of silly, but if they're animated, I'm sure they'll look great. The cover on the other hand? yuck.

I couldn't agree more.

yea... they are probably real... that doesn't mean they aren't crap. See I actually like the movie... and to me these menus are really dissapointing... but then I am a menus freak.

Ok... then I officially don't understand the hell out of them... they suck!

Yeah, I kinda wondered the same thing. I have yet to see Reloaded, so I cannot comment on that. As for completing collections, it kind of puzzles me also. I always WANT to do it, but then I think twice about it.

I started collecting the Halloween movies, but I love horror stuff, so that's ok, and I like them. Actually, there are a few horror series I wanted to collect, but have yet to do so. (children of the corn, Wishmaster...some other i'm sure)

However, I have Rambo II and III, and I keep wanting to get the first one for completion, but i felt it sucked....so nope. And I got the Friday trilogy for REALLY cheap. However, parts 2 and 3 suck also. I debated about trading/selling them, but I said the hell with it....I'll never watch it again. I guess i'm realizing I do not need to "collect" everything.

People who like Rambo III and think First Blood sucks baffle me.

those aren't too bad. not great, but not crap either.

an emphatic second to that.

the menus are...well...just menus. as long as the transfer and sound are good, no complaints here.

Wow, crappy screen grabs with ugly photoshopped menus on top of them!

Can someone say "rushed out the door"?

Look good to me, even though they don't appear to be animated, but that's okay.

At least no one complains here.....

The movie or the DVD menus?

Ouch, baby.

But let's not take the time to trash the movie. This is the thread where we trash the crappy *menus*.

Once again, I'll wonder aloud who is working QC at WB...

They should hire people who have made some of those fan sites. Some of their composites are *wonderful*.

-- Jough

Okay, I'll bite.



The menus don't look that exciting, but *IF* I was buying this movie I would much rather have still, simple to navigate menus that the crap that you have to deal with on most DVDs these days. See: Superbit DVD Menus.

OK... I'll bite back.
Can you give me an example of menus that you consider "crap you have to deal with these days" and why. I do menu design for a living (no I didn't do Matrix) and I am always curious what people are thinking of the menus. Ok I know it is a little off topic... but if people like menus like this... I might as well pack up and go back into catalog design (at least there we had no higher aspirations)

The simpler the menu the better.. when I put a movie in I don't want to sit through numerous animations, or have long animated transitions to get from page to page. Most are not too bad, and actually tolerable..

Harry Potter 2 comes to mind, Red Dragon I think was another bad one..

I don't mind animated menus as long as they are not horribly obnoxious, but nothing cheers me up more than to put a disc in and to be taken straight to the option to "Play Movie" and not have to watch mice jump up and down and sing when I press enter to select "Play Movie".. (even better are the older discs that you put in and they play the movie at once, no menu).

Contributing to the OT discussion...

Menus aren't "cool" unless they do job #1 correctly: make it easy to navigate the features on the disc and get to where you're going both as quickly *and* as stylishly as possible. If it's not fast to switch between screens, they're not working as menus.

And most animated "cool-looking" menus grow old very quickly. They may be neat the first time you pop a disc in, but when you're putting in the player for the fifth time to show a scene to a friend, you won't want to have to wade through too much animation to get to the film.

Ditto for menu transitions. Sometimes I'll click on the wrong menu item by accident. I don't want to have to wait 30 seconds just to get back to where I was.

And don't get me started on colour choices, where I sometimes can't tell which option is selected.

There's a DVD review site that actually lists the start-up time of each disc. I think Red Dragon took 45 seconds before you could press "Play" to watch the movie.

-- Jough

if you can post that link... I am curious...

I think simple pictures as menus are boring. Lots of times, exciting menus make me rate/value a DVD's content much higher. A good example maybe is the new Robin Hood release (I just watched it). The main menu is pretty static, but it has a candle glowing in the background, and each time you "click" a button, you get a cool animation.

Doesn't it have to do more with encoding (or whatever)?

Like, some movies I own have Red Dragon-esque menu-intros, but if I hit the 'menu' or 'track skip' button on my remote it allows me to skip it. I'm fine with intros as long as it allows me to skip them.

Yeah those menus are pretty boring. I'm not a menu freak or anything, but couldn't they have done something a little more"visually pleasing"?

yea... that is usually part of the programming/authoring of the disc... Personally I have been campaigning for some time to put a "skip intro" button on discs, discreetly in a corner (like what most flash sights include) so that the consumer can decide if they want to watch it, especially the fifth time you put the disc in to show something to a friend. I also like the idea of doing a quicknav page off the main menu that allows you to access all the features without having to go through multiple pages (and transitions) Ok sorry... way off topic!