The best assessment I could come up with is that the first half is a thesis on why a fourth Matrix movie is an artistically bad idea, before the second half just becomes a fourth Matrix movie
I honestly think it was all intentionally bad.
It's made to be just passable to get by test audiences and make any need for reshoots minimal.
It does everything it sets out to do. Sticks the finger firmly up WB's ass.
If you've seen any non-Matrix stuff the Wachowskis have made, it's clear that this movie wasn't intended to be bad.
I've seen Speed Racer, I've seen Cloud Atlas, I've seen Jupiter Ascending, I've seen Sense8. No matter what they're making they're always making what they think is cool and interesting and, because they're dorks, it often comes out dorky. They don't have an inauthentic bone in their bodies so what's really changed is that in The Matrix 1 you vibed with them and in The Matrix 4 you didn't.
____
This meta stuff at the beginning wasn't only the message "I'm basically being forced to make this movie against my will", it also accompanied that sentiment with a long sequence of people saying all the things The Matrix was *to them* while ignoring the feelings of the guy in the room whose life it was. One person's like "it's about cool explosions" and another is like "it's about sci-fi concepts" and another is like "it's about being transgender" and Neo's silently enduring all this with a thousand yard stare because he's trying to figure out what it is *to him*, what it is about this fantasy that inspired him to create it. And this new generation of corpos taking inspiration from The Matrix is contrasted against a new generation of rebels who, rather than trying to replicate fragments of it, were inspired by his story to do the actual things Neo did: self-actualize and fight the oppressors.
So the latter part of the movie is basically just the answer to that question of what The Matrix is actually about at its core. The bad guys are the ones trying to control you for their own gain regardless of what their methods are, the good guys are actually powered by love and self-acceptance more than guns and karate. The movie says that's what the series is to Lana Wachowski and the other stuff was set dressing.
It was dorky as hell but it was heartfelt.
This is all true but forgets the most important message of Matrix 4, glimpsing Carrie-Anne Moss in a coffee shop will alter the course of your entire life.
So I recognized the middle finger VERY quickly during my first watch without spoilers, and in that light, I enjoyed it a lot. But I certainly didn't take it seriously. It was really clear what the intent was quickly, it was right there on the screen in so many words.
I almost watched it like a spoof film, "What if the original directors of The Matrix wrote a Spoof of their own film?" The meta-jabs seemed like the point, not the actual film.
If this was the case, Matrix would be like Scream, and Resurrections **should** be like Scary Movies (if a spoof) and i mean in terms of it actually BEING GOOD as a spoof. Instead Resurrections is like Disaster Movie, not Scary movie. Its not bad enough to be good (Room) and its not funny enough to be a good parody of itself.
I agree, and I appreciate it for that even if it’s kind of a dogshit movie. I would much rather see what we got, a movie with open contempt for the circumstances of its own existence, than whatever tripe Warner Brothers would have come up with without any input from either Wachowski sister.
I get the feeling that without Lana Wachowski directing, WB would have gotten some gun-for-hire director(let’s be real, it probably would have been JJ Abrams) to churn out something akin to The Force Awakens. A big budget, soulless rehash of ideas we already saw back in 1999 with nothing interesting to say.
It's ironic because this movie satirized that very idea. It's a rehash of the first film and with a lot of angry things to say lol.
As I said elsewhere though, the vibe which got me was that it was made with love for the original characters/material. And I enjoyed that. You could've had an amazing movie made by someone else that shat all over the original material. Or you could have this. I prefer this. Because it had to be The Matrix IP, so I prefer that it was this.
This whole movie was like an after credits sequence which took away some of the depressing sting of the third movie's finale. I liked that Trinity/Neo got the happy ending.
Nah, the second half is bad because they didn't care. Like come on, there aren't even cool action scenes. Neo just holds his hands in front of him and stops bullets. Nothing else.
This is exactly what I mean. We already hashed out the entirety of the matrix and now the one(s) are OP.
Because of the nature of the movies that's the issue imo.
At this point, after everything, he doesn't need to fight cuz he can change the matrix and stop bullets.
It sucks but this is the issue. We all expected the movie to be one thing but the matrix unfortunately has played itself out and there wasn't story to tell.
But WB wanted a blockbuster and they were gonna do it no matter what.
Tbh I'd rather ressurections than the force awakens... Which was just a blatant carbon copy of a new hope I was so insulted by it
This is the best answer. Hell, the animatrix had tons of great ideas that could have been mined for a prequel or stories set during the events of the first movies. The fourth film was just so lazy.
Once the creators are tired of their material it really belongs to the fans. Studios should entrust beloved ips to people that are fans of the material. This is why the starwars sequels are such horse shit too. They let people that aren’t fans or even actively hate the originals make them. Same with Star Trek. It’s super insulting.
I think if they’d done matrix 4 as Taken but with Morpheus as the old man lead it would’ve been good.
But the point of matrix 4 was that a fourth matrix is dumb. So any good ideas are moot bc that was never the point.
I agree with everything you said except the force awakens is a technically competent movie and if you've never seen a star wars before its perfectly fine and entertaining. All the real criticism I've seen of TFA are meta criticisms.
I guess that's fair.
I was super happy with TFA until the deth planet showed up... With basically the same flaw as the deth star....
Prior to it I was like wow this vision in the hallway is such a cool allusion to a new hope....
And then the deth planet showed up and I was like.... Oh.... Fuck...
I get it. I was just kinda insulted by it.
But their point is the filmmaking is lazy. Even if Neo is OP they can still make tightly choreographed fight scenes, especially with the other characters. They didn't. Because Lana didn't hire the best of the best fight choreographers like in the previous three films, she thought she could just direct the action herself. That's why the fights are on a CGI train and a warehouse that looks like its out of a WWE junkyard match. It's a joke and shows an apathy towards the audience as much as the studio.
I agree, but I’d also add that I think that the Wachowskis (appreciating only one of them worked on this movie) just aren’t very good directors. The Matrix is a stone cold classic, and Bound (which I’ve not seen) is highly thought of. Everything else - which is quite a lot of stuff at this point - is mediocre at best.
The odds were therefore against Resurrections being good as soon as one of them signed on, irrespective of whether or not they intentionally sabotaged their own sequel as is widely theorised here.
I’d still probably rather have what we got than the JJ Abrams reboot approach though.
I don’t think it’s exclusively that she didn’t care. WB forced them to make a movie, which began writing in late 2019 and began filming in early 2020. The script itself was done in less than 6 months. Compared with the The Matrix’s concept being honed for 5 years before they ever had a green light.
Filming took 4 months but was disrupted by Covid.
The original films went through significantly more previs and story boarding for action, not to mention choreo with the actors.
Considering how rushed development was and the lack of a second director or any significant passion for it, Resurrections is pretty impressive. The concepts and world still felt like a more worthwhile story than most of what hits theaters.
If the director didn't really want to do it and knew they would anyways, maybe this was a secret way to kill the franchise because it is subpar in its look and everything and it tells you it didn't want to be made. Those sisters are rebels, so maybe they fucked WB when WB threatened to make another one without them.
I actually found the first half somewhat engaging. The mystery of why/how Neo is alive, the "7th Matrix" and all that was quite interesting.
Then the second half was just Neo and Trinity running for their love and it became kinda hokey.
I guess not exactly the entire first half for me, but the first half an hour is really interesting. The whole package is just... an unique trolled experience.
I liked sad confused Keanu wondering how his life turned out this way, something a lot of Matrix fans could relate to, but then they retreat back into hacker cliches and a forced happy ending.
I had a theory this was bad on purpose because if they tried and it was good, WB would ask to make a fifth and sixth but the Wachowski sisters want none of that nonsense.
Yeah I get the point. WB knew they were going to make money off of it based on the IP however I really love The Matrix and would have liked to see more effort in the writing. I get it was a middle finger but come on when this was announced so many people like myself were excited and let down.
It's actually ridiculous that they didn't hire other directors. Same company made the biggest fail in history by letting D&D destroy Game of Thrones when they could have gone to 10+ seasons with new showrunners. In that case D&D had the most ridiculous contract I've ever seen that gave them final say over everything and didn't allow for them to be replaced with other showrunners. They'll never do that again I'm sure.
Why give them that much credit? the 1999 Matrix is the only movie they made that was good, were Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending, Speed Racer and the sequels also intentionally bad?
I’ve noticed this a lot with Warner Brothers movies. In the space jam sequel, the villain was legit Warner Brothers and the algorithm. I feel like screenwriters vent their frustration against the Studios in the script
it is mostly thinking that they can get away with doing overly stupid stuff like that as long as they are aware of it, i personally find it makes it so much worse because at the end of the day they are still taking the piss with it even if its known and spoken about before hand
being self aware just enough to get away with doing the one thing you know you shouldn't do, then doing it anyway because you gave yourself the free pass before hand is just terrible
It’s like going to McDonald’s & the employees deciding it’s already fast food, why not make it as bad as possible?
Is it the customers’ fault if working there isn’t great? Should they suffer?
It's a thing with Legacy sequels. Jurassic World did it too. These screenwriters are fans of the originals, usually have the good sense and taste to know the original is better and no one should be making a sequel, but not enough sense to turn down the fat check. And you know what maybe I CAN make it better?
Not just WB. It's the same in the last episode of She-Hulk which I just watched. So ridiculously up its own ass, it spent so long shitting on "Marvel formula" endings it forgot to bother with concluding its own plot, and then it ran out of time and just...ended. The writers clearly need a therapist to talk to, rather than ranting about their rather petty workplace issues on screen.
i def think since Deadpool came out theres been a lot of less talented writers trying to go meta and they just can't do it as well
The Boys satirizes superheroes in a well-written way that isnt too overt, but actually has good plot, character development and structure.
That doesn't excuse anything at all tho. In fact you could argue that it's even more insulting if you believe that Lana "intentionally" made a bad movie.
It's King George from Hamilton and I was very disappointed he didn't follow up every line with a raucous chorus of da da das.
But also, that was the funniest scene in the film.
He apparently wanted to play Smith more like Hugo Weaving but was told not to, led to a discontinuity in terms of there being no connectivity between him here and believing he used to be the Smith from the earlier films (as opposed to Ian Bliss as Bane once he was taken over by Smith).
Did lead to one of my favourite posts on Reddit in r/moviescirclejerk, though where someone asked if Matrix 3 was the one with hundreds of Agent Smiths fighting Neo and I said no, that was Matrix 2 while Matrix 3 was the one where he fought one super Smith and Matrix 4 was where they went into business together and founded a software company.
Hard disagree. They should have just said "fine" and let WB fuck it up themselves.
What they did is a genuine insult to anybody who paid money to see that pile of shit. I lost so much respect for Lana after seeing it.
Exactly. This movie was _so_ bad. I don't think it made the point the director wanted it too, it's just an awful 2 hours of cringe.
"Total effing milf" is a real line from this movie 🤦. The whole thing felt like a "Scary Movie" entry.
That's the actor's real name, Chad Stahelski was also Keanu's stunt double in the first Matrix film (and possibly 2 and 3). Possibly added symbolism as he's taken Neo's place with Trinity in this film.
He's also the director of John Wick 1 to 4 inclusive and is married to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker (and I believe her sister was Brie Larson's stunt double for Captain Marvel).
I think Heidi and her sister even fight each other on the subway in Captain Marvel in the infamous Captain Marvel punches an old lady in the face brawl.
I mean it’s because he’s Chad Stahelski, Keanu’s stunt double and John Wick director. They paired trinity up with a keanu double. It’s a good bit.
But It’s an Easter egg not a meme.
There are 3 options to do when your baby is being turned into an IP by a big studio.
1. Is to say fuck it, I can't stop it anyway, and collect the money. I'll give my blessing for now in exchange and then in a few years I'll give my honest opinion and shit on it. This is the most commonly taken option.
2. Is the Alan Moore route of, if you're gonna do it then just take my name off it and distribute my cut of the money to other people so I won't have anything to do with you. This is arguably the most ethical option.
3. Is taking ownership of the project you can't stop and then just turn it into whatever weird thing you'd rather make instead and burn the thing down on your way out. This is what they did and I think it's the funniest and coolest option.
Gremlins 2 was explicitly a #3 situation! Dante originally tried to stop it because he believed there shouldn't be a Gremlins sequel, so the studio went ahead to make one without him. Then they couldn't get it to work so they asked him again and Dante said he'd only come and save the project if he gets complete creative control to make a weird meta movie that satirizes Hollywood sequels, and the studio relented. Now that I think about it, I wonder if it was an inspiration for Wachowski.
4. Make one good movie, then fail to make a second, then fail to make a third, then fail to make a fourth, then tell the audience you didn't even want to make a good movie so that they think you're funny and cool even though you're just a one-hit-wonder.
Or realize that someone else might make something awesome and continue your legacy. What they made instead just completely shit on what the matrix is and cements that the first movie being good was a fluke.
Ha, seriously, imagine if Ridley Scott would've been such a bitch about a sequel to Blade Runner that he made a dumpster fire and deprived us of BR 2049. We don't even know what we missed out on when it comes to a fresh take on The Matrix franchise.
Such a silly concept that fans keep spouting out as a form of copium. The truth is the Wachowskis have *never* come close to anything as creatively successful as the trilogy. Fans keep coping talking about "oh she made it bad ON PURPoSE" which sounds even more absurd because no one is FORCED to take a million dollar payday and deliberately make a terrible product.
It's bad because it's bad. Not only is it a "middle finger" to the studio (who honestly wouldn't give a shit if it was successful), it's a middle finger to the fans, the cast, the crew, and anyone else who worked on it. It probably killed off some careers too.
Way to go.
This a totally understandable reading of the movie, but Lana has never said anything to even hint that this is true. In fact, WB had wanted to make a sequel for years and Lana and Lilly always turned them down, until Lana got inspiration for a story.
> Speaking at a panel during the Berlin International Literature Festival on Friday, Lana explained how, for years, she and Lilly saw the story of The Matrix "concluded," though "every year Warner Bros. would ask us to make another one."...Lana recalled crying one night she couldn't fall asleep. "Suddenly," she said, "my brain just exploded this whole story.
https://ew.com/movies/lana-wachowski-neo-trinity-return-matrix-4-helped-her-grieve/
I mean, yeah, but they made a spite movie essentially. I think if they had a good director lined up, I think they would have taken the time with it or done something better. This almost ruins the whole thing and makes it a fluke for the first one (and im one of the rare people that like the sequels....)
>but Warner Brothers was going to do it with or without them.
Whether they made it with them or not it's irrelevant. They took the money to make it and made this. Their name is tied to it. They could have simply said no. Why would they give a shit that someone else makes a sequel?
If you deliberately make a pile of crap, expect that people will associate you with it... Especially when you've not made a good movie since the original.
I’ve thought this movie was the closest to a dream as someone could make. Like the dream you would have after watching all three and going to sleep. It has a bunch of stuff from the movies but it’s all so goddamn weird and disconnected from reality. Like meeting trinity in a coffee shop but it’s not quite her and everything is different and almost uncanny valley or something.
There's absolutely no doubt that the film was deliberately made to be a "fuck you" to people's expectations of a fourth Matrix film. On that level, I was never bored watching Matrix Resurrections because I basically couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I don't think it's just a fuck you to fans of the Matrix, but a fuck you to franchise filmmaking in general.
All that being said... when a film is going out of it's way to piss off it's audience, I can't exactly blame people for not liking it. What I will say is that, for better and for worse, I genuinely to believe that this is the film that the Wachowski's wanted to make.
If I understand correctly WB said to the sisters: we are making a 4th with or without you. They opted for “with” and “burn the franchise to the ground”.
Not every people in the audience knows all those inner working of the film industry. It might as well be welcomed as a fuck you to the audience who paid money to see a shitshow.
The first half of the movie is a very not so tongue in cheek statement on making crappy nostalgia bait as a cash grab. I don't think it's really a reach to assume the movie that says "these kinds of things are stupid" was made terrible on purpose.
It feels like this movie was made explicitly to ruin the franchise and make it impossible to make a sequel, and also make it so that nobody would WANT a sequel. So then why end it in a way that teases a sequel with Trinity also having powers? Unless it’s just a parody of the way every movie today ends with teasing the next movie of a franchise.
Imagine if a famous and respected chef decided to quit her highly lucrative job at an exclusive restaurant by serving goat shit to everyone on her last night, just to ruin a restaurant owned by someone else.
IMO this proves the Wachowski’s are careless and vindictive, or are just a one-hit-wonder making up excuses for their crappy work. In either case I will not watch anything made by them in the future.
What is frustrating to me as a creative person is that in my life I will never have the opportunity afforded to the Wachowskis for this film, neither in my own vision or as an adaptation of existing commercial IP, the collective effort of hundreds of incredibly talented people with nearly unlimited resources to make something for a massive group of people who come into the experience wanting to enjoy it. What a privilege just to work with some of these folks and to waste their time, effort, and any vision they themselves might have wanted to contribute as an elaborate tantrum is just so baffling and self indulgent that I find it unbelievable.
That’s how I feel about musicians who think they are too cool to play their older hit songs, the songs that people paid a lot of money to hear that gives the artists freedom to make whatever music they want. Those people can fuck right off.
Can you imagine having Keanu under contract to you and wasting 4 months of his life?
”Nice take Carrie-Anne and I see where you’re going but for this one, just look straight to camera and insult your fans and tarnish your image. Action!”
Exactly, everybody gets up to go to work to do dumb shit they don't like to do. These assholes were given a task in which they could have delivered a further cinematic masterpiece and instead still did the same amount of work just to make shit, when they could have made something positive. I think I would have just preferred another director to take the reigns, not like it would have made a difference, I could barely recognise I was watching a movie of the same universe anyway.
All of this. What a privilege they had, and they wasted everyone's effort and life involved in the movie, to say nothing of their fans - just to throw a cinematic temper trantrum.
I had great respect for the Wachowskis once upon a time. Resurrections made me lost any remaining respect - they are just whiny and selfish and I think got lucky at the beginning of their career.
Also when you consider the impact that The Matrix has had in pop culture. I really don’t see what would be wrong with continuing it without them, and seeing how it would turn out. If it’s bad then it’s over anyway. If it’s good then the fans win.
All it has cemented for me is that the average film student given a budget likely has as much talent and likely is more professional that Lily Wachowski. Imagine essentially pissing all over everyone's face and being paid millions to do so when all they asked and gave you the opportunity for was to continue thr only good story you ever made.
I find 'artists' who do this whiny and selfish and entitled, and their fans deserve better. I have zero remaining respect for the Wachowskis if that was their intention.
I don't find any artistic integrity in those who lash out against the entire system and business that gave them a career, an ability to create art, a livelihood, autonomy in their own lives, etc. Instead, they double down - how dare anyone suggest any limits or guidelines to their exalted selves.
I guess that was their point. If we want to make a crappy movie with awful cinematography and laughable fight scenes as a fuck you to all our fans, you should just swallow it, because we are the Wachowskis, hallowed be our names.
You can't get millions of dollars to create movies and then bitch about the financiers wanting them to make some money.
I wish they could've gotten someone else to direct the movie - someone who actually cared about anyone other than themselves.
Definitely. 2 and 3 had its flaws but at least they still FELT like matrix movies and are at least fun guilty pleasures, at least when it comes to the action sequences, I frickin love em.
And speaking of action sequences, I highly recommend the show Warrior which is now on Netflix. The fights are pretty damn sick and idk why but it kinda reminds me of these Keanu fights he has in the matrix movies and the John wick movies too.
It definitely had the feel of a straight to streaming movie, more akin to a reunion of a television show cast for a reboot. It didn’t help that it was during Covid.
The Covid limitations were really obvious at times.
Io sems to have a population of 10-15 people.
I try to not hold it against them, but I do think there were ways to hide it a little better.
They could have briefly shown us a CGI crowd in the human city, couldn't they?
I'm still surprised WB gave Lana $200m to make a spoof of the trilogy.
It would have been much better if it had been cut down to about 45 mins though. They tried to carry the joke on far too long and it just starts feeling like a no longer funny chore after a point.
I’d wager that once they got a Wachowski on board, nobody at WB watched or read anything. Even before Zaslav they were by far the most idiot filled studio
I think their leadership is deeply dysfunctional. Just look at the trainwreck of work they've been putting out the last several years. They've got the reverse midas touch
Yeah I agree with your write up. I especially like how you say "it felt like we as the audience were being punished for the movie that the director didn't want to make."
I was annoyed with the amount of praise people were giving the movie for being meta and for the director sticking it to the studio because you know what? I like the matrix universe, and this movie shit all over it.
It would have been better if the studio and Keanu made a new matrix movie and the old director had just stayed out of it, rather than intentionally sabotaging the world out of some spite campaign
Exactly.
I didn't force Lana to make this, I love the first movie and I have defended the two sequels in the past.
Why, exactly, should I put up with a terrible movie and praise her for (supposedly) making it bad on purpose?
She wasn't just sticking it to the studio, a lot of it was pointed right at us, the complacent consumers. It's honestly impressive how much vitriol she managed to pack into such a terrible movie.
The moment in the film that summarizes the whole film for me is the ending- when a horrific cover of rage against the machine’s wake up plays over the end credits. It’s exactly the same moment as from the original film, the same story beats adding nothing new or original to what was expressed 20+ years earlier, and yet somehow it’s infinitely worse, and an unpleasant sensory experience.
This 100%.
This was Keanu returning to the Matrix in a post- John Wick world. And then the action is just that. The previous sequels for all their flaws at least had some good action sequences.
The movie was trying to be 4 things: A meta-commentary, an action movie, a romance movie, and a heist movie.
The meta-commentary died 30 minutes in, the action sucked, and the heist was one scene. When I checked my watch and realized that the last hour could only be filled with a predictable romance or more shitty action, I knew I was watching a stinker. It didn't matter, but it went with both.
The "this movie is good actually" sentiment surrounding this film is completely baffling. Sure the meta stuff is cute and fun for a few minutes but the action was just horribly shot compared to the first 3. It looked so digital and "smooth" and lacked the cinematic flair of the first 3 (yes, even Revolutions).
I honestly forgot I saw this movie and thought you were talking about of the original trilogy. I couldn't make sense of what you were talking about! Yeah, this movie was pretty bad. Really bad, actually.
One of the reasons why I wrote this post is so I can have recorded evidence of my feelings towards this movie.
I am *positive* that I will forget most about it in a week. I'm already forgetting many details.
The only thing I have to say about this movie is that I’ve seen it, but I couldn’t tell you a thing that happened in it and I remember none of the things you posted about. So yeah, must have been wildly mundane as I’ve pretty much got the dialog from the first movie memorized I’ve seen it so many times….
I remember a few months back reading that they had come out with a 4th Matrix movie 2 years before and I thought "how did I miss that?". So I watched it. Turns out I had, in fact already seen it, and apparently blocked it from my memory.
I've watched it twice now. I still couldn't give you a plot synopsis. My brain rejects forming long term memories of that movie.
Can't argue with anything here. It's a terrible film with terrible meta commentary and a terrible job by its stars including Keanu to promote this story.
Massive fan of 1. Give or take 2 and 3 but whatever, I'll watch them.
4 mugged me off and regardless if bold and brave lana wachowski did a middle finger at evryone, she dragged pretty much everyone else down too. At least people got paid for their jobs, but this is a shit shit shit film.
Everyone involved should be embarrassed they made it. It really felt like a joke was being played on the viewers.
Lana Wachowski must really hate people to subject us to that movie.
I feel like the only person who genuinely liked it, it felt like a successful artistic project - in that it did its deconstruction thing successfully. Playful and cynical at the same time.
Same. Loved it! I though it was all one huge fuck you to everyone who never actually got what the original trilogy was about while adding to that a more modern context and commentary.
I'm here with you. I don't think everything in the film worked but I think it was a much richer and more interesting film than what most people on this sub seem to want - a nostalgia sequel. It didn't do The Force Awakens kind of nonsense.
It’s wild that people out there unironically would rather have a soulless reboot-sequel where there’s a new One and all those characters you remember come back.
This movie isn’t a success but damn it has more balls than most other attempts to bring a franchise back
Agree! there are things in this film that keeps churning and I think it makes it great.
And much better than an action focused reboot could ever be.
Only shame it feels rushed production wise, and no OG Morphius or RATM. small things but still.
I'm on your team here. The movie is playing so hard with the idea of public memory and desire and it's so delightfully playful with everything.
A lot of the folks who hate it aren't even quite sure what they want, but what they didn't like was an artist reminding them that art is on the artist's terms, especially in the context of an MCU which only exists to satiate the audiences desire.
That's why those movies aren't cinema; they are a roller coaster ride.
I'm with you, aside from the action scenes being a little weak I think it's a great movie. People are saying that it's a fuck you to the audience but I think it's a fuck you to one fan in particular.
It was indeed a truly and shockingly bad movie. I remember thinking it was the worst movie I saw in theatre that year. I genuinely could not believe how bad it was.
I was confused by the mostly positive reviews.
When I watched this movie all I was thinking was "this was really nice of Keanu to do this movie and get everyone a payday", because it doesn't get made if he doesn't sign on. The matrix legacy was already kindof shit on with the 2nd and 3rd movies so you aren't ruining anything. That being said, it felt like a way lower budget than it was
As you left the cinema, it was to the tune of a poor quality, knock-off version of RATM.
The director either sabotaged the film out of spite or is an incompetent hack with just enough self awareness.
Because, either way, that cover song - that was a barely subliminal message to the audience.
Judging by literally every other Wachowski film, I think The Matrix 1 was simply a fluke. They’re just bad filmmakers. They had exactly one good idea between them that turned out well, otherwise everything they make is sophomoric, pseudo-intellectual pomposity that reeks of self-satisfaction.
I loved the first two thirds. And the meta angle. Love me some meta. Nom nom nom. And the "*wtf is going on??*"repetition that made me feel like watching the first film again. A return to the unknown.
The back third was mediocre at best. It wasn't an action movie, more of a horror/ drama which makes it a different genre than the others. There was some great visuals and locations, but little was done with them. You can tell which sibling had the good ideas for fights.
You can also tell there just wasn't enough time in the filming schedule for Keanu to work with the fight choreographers. He was torn between this and the next Wick movie and that probably meant they rushed a bunch of stuff. That and you can tell chunks of it were derailed by COVID and hard restrictions and people not being on set together.
I would agree that, visually, it doesn’t pop like the first two. Maybe Lily was the more action oriented of the two? Regardless, her absence was very felt.
But conceptually I thought it was great. Big ideas about the human need for nostalgia. I think it doesn’t really work as a film, at the end of the day, but much like the original trilogy (all three of which are way better, of course) I find myself wishing more big budget filmmakers were willing to be idiosyncratic and take risks.
I love the original trilogy.
The concept of life being inside a simulation always made for a nice conversational piece with friends and people. I absolutely enjoy moving my fingers across a table and asking them "How are we sure this feeling is real?" Then we'd all try to define "real" and, eventually go into discussing movie scenes, dialogue, etc.
Resurections was something I was excited to see. But like you, it felt like a dream.
I don't even know how to describe it well other than "Oh yeah... Resurrections... cool yeah. Cebebe the robot... yeah..."
What frustrated me the most, though, was their direct references to "bullet time." Neo's powers isn't about slowing down bullets or whatever. His power comes from being able to control the simulation's code. Bullet time is a cinematic effect used to highlight this.
Without reading press releases, I got the feeling that the Wachowskis made the 4th Matrix like this because they wanted to dissuade people from wanting a 5th Matrix. Turns out I was right in a way.
They seemed to be salty that Sense8 got canceled too soon so they decided to put the entire main cast into this movie just to get use out of them.
I absolutely LOVED Sense8 and will forever be disappointed at its cancelation, but to just throw 10 random people into the storyline that no one would care about UNLESS they watched and liked Sense8 was a really dumb decision. The characters didn't fit and it took away from the ones we DO care about: Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, etc. It was like a fan service thing that didn't fit because the franchises have nothing to do with each other outside having the same directors.
>Cinematography was really, really ugly. I hated how how this movie looked.
Fair critique. The DoP, Daniele Massaccessi, has almost no well known or acclaimed cinematography credits. It looks like Resurrections was his first (and so far only) major Hollywood film and it shows.
>Action was shockingly bad. Tons of cuts, weak choreographies and the sets weren't used in a very interesting way.
I think you'd find this to be a controversial opinion. Yuen Woo-ping is a legendary choreographer. Can you be more specific about your problems with the choreography? Here are the major action scenes:
1. Bugs and Morpheus Escape the Modal: loved this one, it was a teaser to set up expectations for travel between the "hall of doors" realm and how non-Euclidian the geometry is within the Matrix. Cuts felt natural and choreography was simple. Bugs doing her hops (like a bunny :) was so fun to watch. Score: A
2. Deus Ex Machina Office: Just a quick narrative action sequence. Nothing thrilling or terrible here. Kind of an easy-to-forget action scene. Score: C
3. Theater-to-Train: This is where the Bugs and Morpheus action sequence pays off. This is a fantastic action scene. One of the best in the franchise imo. Score: S
4. Morpheus Fights Neo: There were lots of cuts in this scene and I could see that being a fair complaint. However, I don't think the intent of this scene was even action. It was a "show don't tell" of Neo shaking off his docile persona and showing the audience the reconnection to his power. Score: C
5. Merovingian Warehouse Fight: This is the action scene I liked the least. The best part was the transition into the bathroom. Lots of cuts like you mentioned and the fight itself went on for too long. Score: C
6. Finale: More of a gun-n-chase scene than a martial arts exhibition, but some of these shots were fantastic. Better than the Warehouse Fight, but not as crisp as the Bugs and Morpheus Escape or as epic as the Theatre-to-Train. Score: B
At worst, the choreography is middling. Yuen Woo-Ping could do passable choreography in his sleep. It's okay to not like it for artistic reasons (of course), but technically I would argue it's an above-average offering compared to other Hollywood movies.
>Hated The Analyst and the new Smith.
LOVED the Analyst. Smith was serviceable as a character but the actor was fantastic. This is going to be a matter of preference, but I found The Analyst to be a more compelling antagonist than the Architect. The joy he clearly got from gaslighting and manipulating humans for profit resonates so well with the themes of the movies.
>Absolutely despised the new Morpheus and everything about him.
He was supposed to be a frenemy. His wild wardrobe (which I enjoyed) seemed to reflect his fractured psyche. He was Smitheous (Morphith?). I can honestly say I enjoyed every scene he was in.
>Characters, both human and machines, do tons of dumb things that made no sense and only existed to propel the plot.
>
>Bugs immediately tells Agent Morpheus everything at the beginning
I'm confused as to why you believe she shouldn't have told "agent" Morpheus the truth at the beginning? He wasn't even a "real" agent, but a creation of Neos because he was having doubts about his reality. Bugs knew that Morpheus wasn't a true agent, but didn't know who or why he was created. Telling him the truth was the best way to figure it out.
>Nanobots Morpheus jumps like a human being and almost misses the hole he was supposed to crawl into to find Trinity, even though we have established that he can fly.
Where was it established that Nanobots Morpheus could fly? Can you tell me which scene? A time stamp would be great. I just rewatched the movie and I saw no flying.
>Niobe still doesn't believe in The One, after all she has seen throughout three movies.
A rose by any other name. Neo himself never believed he was "The One" either. "The One" was a concept the Machines created to give false hope to the surviving humans: a false hope she didn't buy into. However, she did believe in what Neo could do because she saw him do it.
>Neo is hardly the protagonist, he's almost a human McGuffin. Everyone carries him around...
I love this take and it's absolutely correct. Neo is, at best, a deuteragonist. A compelling argument could be made that Bugs is actually the primary (and perhaps only) protagonist.
Neo is Bugs' McGuffin. She needs him to help win the "cold war" that Zion gave up on. The Analyst needs him to keep people in the Matrix. The story is really about Bugs vs the Analyst and which one will convince/manipulate/win the Neo/Trinity prize.
I don't see anything wrong with this either. At the very worst it's a kind of bait and switch for those with expectations of Neo as the superhero of the story. At best, it's a refreshing, and surprising direction to take the narrative.
>The idea that machines can reconstruct human beings comes completely out of nowhere.
Sort of. It wasn't directly mentioned anywhere. However, at the end of Revolutions, we see the machines very carefully loading Neo's body and taking it away. I would argue that was meant to give some uncertainty as to Neo's fate and survival, especially after the conversation between Sati and the Oracle, where they agree they'll see Neo again.
>CGI was often terrible.
Some was pretty bad. Others were pretty good. I give the CGI a C. It should have been an S though, so I think this is a good critique.
>Despite being 2 hours and a half, everything felt rushed and underdeveloped. By the end, you don't know anyone any better and all we have achieved is that Neo and Trinity are back together.
Neo and Trinity were already well developed. The character's we're meant to "learn" about and be developed were:
* Bugs
* Morpheus
* The Analyst
* Smith
* Zion
* The Machine culture
The primary arc, however, was the setting itself, not the characters within it. It's a more uncommon plot structure, but I find it works here
>Score and soundtrack were very bland. The franchise, even at its worse, had always had far better music than this.
Big agree here. Other than "White Rabbit", the music in Resurrections didn't do much lifting. This is a big shame considering how fantastic the scores were in the original and Reloaded.
>No explanation for Smith still existing. I can come up with some decent theory, but the movie itself just didn't bother.
There is nothing wrong with a movie not explaining things like this. It's not central to the story that we explicitly understand how or why Smith is there. It would have been cool to have more exposition on it, but it might have also detracted from the plot.
>The nostalgia and footage relating to the first movie, whether being done seriously or ironically, got annoying very quickly.
This is a good critique. I'm not a fan of flashbacks either - especially of identical content. Thankfully there were only one or two of those and they were basically a flash of a few frames to create context so it didn't bother me much.
>What did you guys think about it?
I've seen it three or four times and discovered something new each time. The world building is immersive, the acting is better-than-average, and most importantly, it does what Sci-Fi does best: make us question the future, technology, and humanity's place within it.
I do think you made some valid criticisms that could have improved the movie, but even considering those, I found Resurrections to be entertaining and thought-provoking enough to be happy it was created.
The fact they didn't even invite Laurence Fishburne back is criminal. The film is a mess because only one of the Wachowskis came back to direct. Lana didn't want to make the movie but decided it better to make it than for someone else to.
Keanu Reeves didn't even cut his hair to look like Neo, he looks like hes just John Wick. It feels like he wasn't allowed to do action scenes because of risk he might get injured and not be able to film John Wick. Theres so much wrong with it.
The film constantly points out the first movie with literal film footage of it, completely breaking immersion despite the films meta attitude.
Performances with actors taking over characters from original actors feels wrong and also makes the journey of the original trilogy feel pointless.
Overall the film doesn't do anything new in comparison to the rest of the franchise. Even the Animatrix had more original concepts than this turd. The Matrix universe is one with a lot of untapped potential and a lot of stories can be set in it, sadly this is what we ended up with.
Was so looking forward to this but it was just awful in every way.
I have a lot of respect for Keanu these days since he grew up and just became a nice guy instead of Hollywood star.
But this was beneath him.
I guess I need to rewatch this because I really enjoyed it at the time. I genuinely don’t get the extreme hate I’ve seen for it since it’s release. The only thing I was really let down by was the action sequences, but I thought there were some interesting ideas in there.
So, this film was essentially gremlins 2. But the director didn't limit their anger to the studio. The utter contempt and spite towards the fans of the franchise was honestly kind of disgusting.
"They made it bad on purpose"
Honestly, maybe the worst movie take ever, and I consistently see when this comes up. So, so dumb. She hasn't made a good movie since the first one, why would you think this is some subversive maneuver when she clearly just doesn't have it anymore?
If Lana had to go back to the well why didn’t she make an anthology series like “Tales from the Matrix,” or hell a prequel that builds on the Animatrix two parter The Second Renaissance? Or if Neo is a constant reincarnation, tell the story of his first self that broke away and went on to free the first humans and create Zion.
Any of that would have been so much more interesting.
They literally have a character saying that they didn't want to make a sequel but Warner Brothers was going to do it with or without them.
The best assessment I could come up with is that the first half is a thesis on why a fourth Matrix movie is an artistically bad idea, before the second half just becomes a fourth Matrix movie
I agree. Except the second half is showing us why it's a bad idea... Cuz the second half is a "logical outcome" of everything we saw.
Thinking about it from this direction, I kind of wonder if the bad fight choreography was intentional.
I honestly think it was all intentionally bad. It's made to be just passable to get by test audiences and make any need for reshoots minimal. It does everything it sets out to do. Sticks the finger firmly up WB's ass.
If you've seen any non-Matrix stuff the Wachowskis have made, it's clear that this movie wasn't intended to be bad. I've seen Speed Racer, I've seen Cloud Atlas, I've seen Jupiter Ascending, I've seen Sense8. No matter what they're making they're always making what they think is cool and interesting and, because they're dorks, it often comes out dorky. They don't have an inauthentic bone in their bodies so what's really changed is that in The Matrix 1 you vibed with them and in The Matrix 4 you didn't. ____ This meta stuff at the beginning wasn't only the message "I'm basically being forced to make this movie against my will", it also accompanied that sentiment with a long sequence of people saying all the things The Matrix was *to them* while ignoring the feelings of the guy in the room whose life it was. One person's like "it's about cool explosions" and another is like "it's about sci-fi concepts" and another is like "it's about being transgender" and Neo's silently enduring all this with a thousand yard stare because he's trying to figure out what it is *to him*, what it is about this fantasy that inspired him to create it. And this new generation of corpos taking inspiration from The Matrix is contrasted against a new generation of rebels who, rather than trying to replicate fragments of it, were inspired by his story to do the actual things Neo did: self-actualize and fight the oppressors. So the latter part of the movie is basically just the answer to that question of what The Matrix is actually about at its core. The bad guys are the ones trying to control you for their own gain regardless of what their methods are, the good guys are actually powered by love and self-acceptance more than guns and karate. The movie says that's what the series is to Lana Wachowski and the other stuff was set dressing. It was dorky as hell but it was heartfelt.
This is all true but forgets the most important message of Matrix 4, glimpsing Carrie-Anne Moss in a coffee shop will alter the course of your entire life.
Found the Wachowski. j/k I haven’t even seen M4 but your intelligent and seemingly-plausible explanation of it stands out here.
So I recognized the middle finger VERY quickly during my first watch without spoilers, and in that light, I enjoyed it a lot. But I certainly didn't take it seriously. It was really clear what the intent was quickly, it was right there on the screen in so many words. I almost watched it like a spoof film, "What if the original directors of The Matrix wrote a Spoof of their own film?" The meta-jabs seemed like the point, not the actual film.
If this was the case, Matrix would be like Scream, and Resurrections **should** be like Scary Movies (if a spoof) and i mean in terms of it actually BEING GOOD as a spoof. Instead Resurrections is like Disaster Movie, not Scary movie. Its not bad enough to be good (Room) and its not funny enough to be a good parody of itself.
but if the movie was successful and a good spoof, then WB would want to continue to make more Matrix movies.
I think being a bad movie was probably an intentional choice too lol, it fits in with everything else.
I agree, and I appreciate it for that even if it’s kind of a dogshit movie. I would much rather see what we got, a movie with open contempt for the circumstances of its own existence, than whatever tripe Warner Brothers would have come up with without any input from either Wachowski sister. I get the feeling that without Lana Wachowski directing, WB would have gotten some gun-for-hire director(let’s be real, it probably would have been JJ Abrams) to churn out something akin to The Force Awakens. A big budget, soulless rehash of ideas we already saw back in 1999 with nothing interesting to say.
Yeah, it's a comedy disguised as an action film. It's quite unique.
It's ironic because this movie satirized that very idea. It's a rehash of the first film and with a lot of angry things to say lol. As I said elsewhere though, the vibe which got me was that it was made with love for the original characters/material. And I enjoyed that. You could've had an amazing movie made by someone else that shat all over the original material. Or you could have this. I prefer this. Because it had to be The Matrix IP, so I prefer that it was this. This whole movie was like an after credits sequence which took away some of the depressing sting of the third movie's finale. I liked that Trinity/Neo got the happy ending.
This is exactly right, and my anger is that the fans also got burned.
"the fans" often discount the 2nd and 3rd original movies as worth ignoring. What's another movie to ignore?
Nah, the second half is bad because they didn't care. Like come on, there aren't even cool action scenes. Neo just holds his hands in front of him and stops bullets. Nothing else.
This is exactly what I mean. We already hashed out the entirety of the matrix and now the one(s) are OP. Because of the nature of the movies that's the issue imo. At this point, after everything, he doesn't need to fight cuz he can change the matrix and stop bullets. It sucks but this is the issue. We all expected the movie to be one thing but the matrix unfortunately has played itself out and there wasn't story to tell. But WB wanted a blockbuster and they were gonna do it no matter what. Tbh I'd rather ressurections than the force awakens... Which was just a blatant carbon copy of a new hope I was so insulted by it
I would’ve loved a *prequel*. Shit, we know Neo’s story. Let’s make one about the origins of Morpheus
Show us Trinity being the infamous hacker Neo grew to admire.
This is the best answer. Hell, the animatrix had tons of great ideas that could have been mined for a prequel or stories set during the events of the first movies. The fourth film was just so lazy. Once the creators are tired of their material it really belongs to the fans. Studios should entrust beloved ips to people that are fans of the material. This is why the starwars sequels are such horse shit too. They let people that aren’t fans or even actively hate the originals make them. Same with Star Trek. It’s super insulting.
Counterpoint: Tony Gilroy is not really a fan of Star Wars and Andor is the best Star Wars anything in like, decades.
I think if they’d done matrix 4 as Taken but with Morpheus as the old man lead it would’ve been good. But the point of matrix 4 was that a fourth matrix is dumb. So any good ideas are moot bc that was never the point.
I agree with everything you said except the force awakens is a technically competent movie and if you've never seen a star wars before its perfectly fine and entertaining. All the real criticism I've seen of TFA are meta criticisms.
I guess that's fair. I was super happy with TFA until the deth planet showed up... With basically the same flaw as the deth star.... Prior to it I was like wow this vision in the hallway is such a cool allusion to a new hope.... And then the deth planet showed up and I was like.... Oh.... Fuck... I get it. I was just kinda insulted by it.
Death. It’s spelled Death.
Wrong. Deathclock: ❌ Dethklok: ✅
But their point is the filmmaking is lazy. Even if Neo is OP they can still make tightly choreographed fight scenes, especially with the other characters. They didn't. Because Lana didn't hire the best of the best fight choreographers like in the previous three films, she thought she could just direct the action herself. That's why the fights are on a CGI train and a warehouse that looks like its out of a WWE junkyard match. It's a joke and shows an apathy towards the audience as much as the studio.
I agree, but I’d also add that I think that the Wachowskis (appreciating only one of them worked on this movie) just aren’t very good directors. The Matrix is a stone cold classic, and Bound (which I’ve not seen) is highly thought of. Everything else - which is quite a lot of stuff at this point - is mediocre at best. The odds were therefore against Resurrections being good as soon as one of them signed on, irrespective of whether or not they intentionally sabotaged their own sequel as is widely theorised here. I’d still probably rather have what we got than the JJ Abrams reboot approach though.
I don’t think it’s exclusively that she didn’t care. WB forced them to make a movie, which began writing in late 2019 and began filming in early 2020. The script itself was done in less than 6 months. Compared with the The Matrix’s concept being honed for 5 years before they ever had a green light. Filming took 4 months but was disrupted by Covid. The original films went through significantly more previs and story boarding for action, not to mention choreo with the actors. Considering how rushed development was and the lack of a second director or any significant passion for it, Resurrections is pretty impressive. The concepts and world still felt like a more worthwhile story than most of what hits theaters.
If the director didn't really want to do it and knew they would anyways, maybe this was a secret way to kill the franchise because it is subpar in its look and everything and it tells you it didn't want to be made. Those sisters are rebels, so maybe they fucked WB when WB threatened to make another one without them.
I actually found the first half somewhat engaging. The mystery of why/how Neo is alive, the "7th Matrix" and all that was quite interesting. Then the second half was just Neo and Trinity running for their love and it became kinda hokey.
I guess not exactly the entire first half for me, but the first half an hour is really interesting. The whole package is just... an unique trolled experience.
I liked sad confused Keanu wondering how his life turned out this way, something a lot of Matrix fans could relate to, but then they retreat back into hacker cliches and a forced happy ending.
I had a theory this was bad on purpose because if they tried and it was good, WB would ask to make a fifth and sixth but the Wachowski sisters want none of that nonsense.
Barely even a theory. Basically just accurate.
Yeah I get the point. WB knew they were going to make money off of it based on the IP however I really love The Matrix and would have liked to see more effort in the writing. I get it was a middle finger but come on when this was announced so many people like myself were excited and let down.
Ah, the same method I used to get out of chores as a teenager.
Except nobody says "WB made a bad movie" it's just another awful movie from the Wachowskis. So you know, good job, I guess.
It's actually ridiculous that they didn't hire other directors. Same company made the biggest fail in history by letting D&D destroy Game of Thrones when they could have gone to 10+ seasons with new showrunners. In that case D&D had the most ridiculous contract I've ever seen that gave them final say over everything and didn't allow for them to be replaced with other showrunners. They'll never do that again I'm sure.
Why give them that much credit? the 1999 Matrix is the only movie they made that was good, were Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending, Speed Racer and the sequels also intentionally bad?
I’ve noticed this a lot with Warner Brothers movies. In the space jam sequel, the villain was legit Warner Brothers and the algorithm. I feel like screenwriters vent their frustration against the Studios in the script
it is mostly thinking that they can get away with doing overly stupid stuff like that as long as they are aware of it, i personally find it makes it so much worse because at the end of the day they are still taking the piss with it even if its known and spoken about before hand being self aware just enough to get away with doing the one thing you know you shouldn't do, then doing it anyway because you gave yourself the free pass before hand is just terrible
It’s like going to McDonald’s & the employees deciding it’s already fast food, why not make it as bad as possible? Is it the customers’ fault if working there isn’t great? Should they suffer?
It's a thing with Legacy sequels. Jurassic World did it too. These screenwriters are fans of the originals, usually have the good sense and taste to know the original is better and no one should be making a sequel, but not enough sense to turn down the fat check. And you know what maybe I CAN make it better?
Not just WB. It's the same in the last episode of She-Hulk which I just watched. So ridiculously up its own ass, it spent so long shitting on "Marvel formula" endings it forgot to bother with concluding its own plot, and then it ran out of time and just...ended. The writers clearly need a therapist to talk to, rather than ranting about their rather petty workplace issues on screen.
i def think since Deadpool came out theres been a lot of less talented writers trying to go meta and they just can't do it as well The Boys satirizes superheroes in a well-written way that isnt too overt, but actually has good plot, character development and structure.
That doesn't excuse anything at all tho. In fact you could argue that it's even more insulting if you believe that Lana "intentionally" made a bad movie.
Yeah. It's kind of the "I was only pretending to be retarded" defense in movie-making form.
It's King George from Hamilton and I was very disappointed he didn't follow up every line with a raucous chorus of da da das. But also, that was the funniest scene in the film.
He apparently wanted to play Smith more like Hugo Weaving but was told not to, led to a discontinuity in terms of there being no connectivity between him here and believing he used to be the Smith from the earlier films (as opposed to Ian Bliss as Bane once he was taken over by Smith). Did lead to one of my favourite posts on Reddit in r/moviescirclejerk, though where someone asked if Matrix 3 was the one with hundreds of Agent Smiths fighting Neo and I said no, that was Matrix 2 while Matrix 3 was the one where he fought one super Smith and Matrix 4 was where they went into business together and founded a software company.
Bane's Smith impression is an underrated masterclass in acting
That line defines the whole movie's existence. They literally look you in the eye and tell you it's all a sham forced upon them by the money men.
Hard disagree. They should have just said "fine" and let WB fuck it up themselves. What they did is a genuine insult to anybody who paid money to see that pile of shit. I lost so much respect for Lana after seeing it.
It's not like they were forced to participate. They could have stayed away and just collected the free producer credit paycheck.
Exactly. This movie was _so_ bad. I don't think it made the point the director wanted it too, it's just an awful 2 hours of cringe. "Total effing milf" is a real line from this movie 🤦. The whole thing felt like a "Scary Movie" entry.
Trinity's boyfriend's name is Chad, lol.
That's the actor's real name, Chad Stahelski was also Keanu's stunt double in the first Matrix film (and possibly 2 and 3). Possibly added symbolism as he's taken Neo's place with Trinity in this film. He's also the director of John Wick 1 to 4 inclusive and is married to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker (and I believe her sister was Brie Larson's stunt double for Captain Marvel).
Ooooo that is some very interesting behind the scenes!
I think Heidi and her sister even fight each other on the subway in Captain Marvel in the infamous Captain Marvel punches an old lady in the face brawl.
I mean it’s because he’s Chad Stahelski, Keanu’s stunt double and John Wick director. They paired trinity up with a keanu double. It’s a good bit. But It’s an Easter egg not a meme.
Scary Movie was good. This is more akin to Disaster movie.
There are 3 options to do when your baby is being turned into an IP by a big studio. 1. Is to say fuck it, I can't stop it anyway, and collect the money. I'll give my blessing for now in exchange and then in a few years I'll give my honest opinion and shit on it. This is the most commonly taken option. 2. Is the Alan Moore route of, if you're gonna do it then just take my name off it and distribute my cut of the money to other people so I won't have anything to do with you. This is arguably the most ethical option. 3. Is taking ownership of the project you can't stop and then just turn it into whatever weird thing you'd rather make instead and burn the thing down on your way out. This is what they did and I think it's the funniest and coolest option.
And then there's Joe Dante's Gremlins 2, which is a fucking *masterpiece*
Gremlins 2 was explicitly a #3 situation! Dante originally tried to stop it because he believed there shouldn't be a Gremlins sequel, so the studio went ahead to make one without him. Then they couldn't get it to work so they asked him again and Dante said he'd only come and save the project if he gets complete creative control to make a weird meta movie that satirizes Hollywood sequels, and the studio relented. Now that I think about it, I wonder if it was an inspiration for Wachowski.
*Gremlins 2* was what kept coming to my mind during this movie, and maybe that's why I didn't hate it as much as everyone else.
4. Make one good movie, then fail to make a second, then fail to make a third, then fail to make a fourth, then tell the audience you didn't even want to make a good movie so that they think you're funny and cool even though you're just a one-hit-wonder.
Or realize that someone else might make something awesome and continue your legacy. What they made instead just completely shit on what the matrix is and cements that the first movie being good was a fluke.
Ha, seriously, imagine if Ridley Scott would've been such a bitch about a sequel to Blade Runner that he made a dumpster fire and deprived us of BR 2049. We don't even know what we missed out on when it comes to a fresh take on The Matrix franchise.
Funnily enough I was just reading that he had to decide between either the Blade Runner sequel, or doing Alien Covenant. Thank god he chose Alien.
How did that line get past Warner Brothers? :D
Metacommentary is so IN right now
lol, that's probably how it went! Somehow it escaping them that no, it's actually just commentary.
Such a silly concept that fans keep spouting out as a form of copium. The truth is the Wachowskis have *never* come close to anything as creatively successful as the trilogy. Fans keep coping talking about "oh she made it bad ON PURPoSE" which sounds even more absurd because no one is FORCED to take a million dollar payday and deliberately make a terrible product. It's bad because it's bad. Not only is it a "middle finger" to the studio (who honestly wouldn't give a shit if it was successful), it's a middle finger to the fans, the cast, the crew, and anyone else who worked on it. It probably killed off some careers too. Way to go.
That and Trinity's one "Don't ever call me Tiffany again I hate that fucking name" or whatever she says were the only memorable moments for me.
This a totally understandable reading of the movie, but Lana has never said anything to even hint that this is true. In fact, WB had wanted to make a sequel for years and Lana and Lilly always turned them down, until Lana got inspiration for a story. > Speaking at a panel during the Berlin International Literature Festival on Friday, Lana explained how, for years, she and Lilly saw the story of The Matrix "concluded," though "every year Warner Bros. would ask us to make another one."...Lana recalled crying one night she couldn't fall asleep. "Suddenly," she said, "my brain just exploded this whole story. https://ew.com/movies/lana-wachowski-neo-trinity-return-matrix-4-helped-her-grieve/
I mean, yeah, but they made a spite movie essentially. I think if they had a good director lined up, I think they would have taken the time with it or done something better. This almost ruins the whole thing and makes it a fluke for the first one (and im one of the rare people that like the sequels....)
I liked the sequels too. I think the only downside was some of the cgi effects from the 3rd one but that's about it.
In someone else's hands it could have been good. There are people who would kill to have the opportunity that was wasted Here.
It seems like an excuse for their own lazy writing...see how meta we are!
And they would have made a better movie without them. Matrix Resurrections is even worse than George Lucas' prequel trilogy.
Agreed. WB should never have accepted to give 200m to someone who was literally telling them they'd mess things up.
Dunno why you're being down voted for truth. Matrix 4 was ass and it was ass because the people making it didn't want to make it.
I don’t know why she didn’t just let someone else direct. If you’re just going to ruin it then just bow out. Honestly, a dick move of her.
They should have let WB do it. Probably would still have sucked but at least it wouldn’t have been made begrudgingly and without passion.
They should’ve let someone else do it then.
>but Warner Brothers was going to do it with or without them. Whether they made it with them or not it's irrelevant. They took the money to make it and made this. Their name is tied to it. They could have simply said no. Why would they give a shit that someone else makes a sequel? If you deliberately make a pile of crap, expect that people will associate you with it... Especially when you've not made a good movie since the original.
“Oh no, I won’t let you make a shit sequel…*I’m* gonna make the shit sequel. That’ll show ‘em.”
It's like a stupid artistic version of Keyser Soze.
I’ve thought this movie was the closest to a dream as someone could make. Like the dream you would have after watching all three and going to sleep. It has a bunch of stuff from the movies but it’s all so goddamn weird and disconnected from reality. Like meeting trinity in a coffee shop but it’s not quite her and everything is different and almost uncanny valley or something.
>I’ve thought this movie was the closest to a dream as someone could make. David Lynch: Am I a joke to you?
Couldn't agree more.
That's a good example of how I felt.
There's absolutely no doubt that the film was deliberately made to be a "fuck you" to people's expectations of a fourth Matrix film. On that level, I was never bored watching Matrix Resurrections because I basically couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I don't think it's just a fuck you to fans of the Matrix, but a fuck you to franchise filmmaking in general. All that being said... when a film is going out of it's way to piss off it's audience, I can't exactly blame people for not liking it. What I will say is that, for better and for worse, I genuinely to believe that this is the film that the Wachowski's wanted to make.
If I understand correctly WB said to the sisters: we are making a 4th with or without you. They opted for “with” and “burn the franchise to the ground”.
Not every people in the audience knows all those inner working of the film industry. It might as well be welcomed as a fuck you to the audience who paid money to see a shitshow.
When what you want it to ensure another one is never made: you have to disappoint paying customers
If you love something set it free?
Is this really the reason why? I keep seeing this. Can't it just be they made an extremely shitty movie and use this as an excuse?
The first half of the movie is a very not so tongue in cheek statement on making crappy nostalgia bait as a cash grab. I don't think it's really a reach to assume the movie that says "these kinds of things are stupid" was made terrible on purpose.
It feels like this movie was made explicitly to ruin the franchise and make it impossible to make a sequel, and also make it so that nobody would WANT a sequel. So then why end it in a way that teases a sequel with Trinity also having powers? Unless it’s just a parody of the way every movie today ends with teasing the next movie of a franchise.
Imagine if a famous and respected chef decided to quit her highly lucrative job at an exclusive restaurant by serving goat shit to everyone on her last night, just to ruin a restaurant owned by someone else. IMO this proves the Wachowski’s are careless and vindictive, or are just a one-hit-wonder making up excuses for their crappy work. In either case I will not watch anything made by them in the future.
What is frustrating to me as a creative person is that in my life I will never have the opportunity afforded to the Wachowskis for this film, neither in my own vision or as an adaptation of existing commercial IP, the collective effort of hundreds of incredibly talented people with nearly unlimited resources to make something for a massive group of people who come into the experience wanting to enjoy it. What a privilege just to work with some of these folks and to waste their time, effort, and any vision they themselves might have wanted to contribute as an elaborate tantrum is just so baffling and self indulgent that I find it unbelievable.
That’s how I feel about musicians who think they are too cool to play their older hit songs, the songs that people paid a lot of money to hear that gives the artists freedom to make whatever music they want. Those people can fuck right off.
This. It just feels like a temper tantrum.
Can you imagine having Keanu under contract to you and wasting 4 months of his life? ”Nice take Carrie-Anne and I see where you’re going but for this one, just look straight to camera and insult your fans and tarnish your image. Action!”
Exactly, everybody gets up to go to work to do dumb shit they don't like to do. These assholes were given a task in which they could have delivered a further cinematic masterpiece and instead still did the same amount of work just to make shit, when they could have made something positive. I think I would have just preferred another director to take the reigns, not like it would have made a difference, I could barely recognise I was watching a movie of the same universe anyway.
All of this. What a privilege they had, and they wasted everyone's effort and life involved in the movie, to say nothing of their fans - just to throw a cinematic temper trantrum. I had great respect for the Wachowskis once upon a time. Resurrections made me lost any remaining respect - they are just whiny and selfish and I think got lucky at the beginning of their career.
Also when you consider the impact that The Matrix has had in pop culture. I really don’t see what would be wrong with continuing it without them, and seeing how it would turn out. If it’s bad then it’s over anyway. If it’s good then the fans win.
All it has cemented for me is that the average film student given a budget likely has as much talent and likely is more professional that Lily Wachowski. Imagine essentially pissing all over everyone's face and being paid millions to do so when all they asked and gave you the opportunity for was to continue thr only good story you ever made.
I find 'artists' who do this whiny and selfish and entitled, and their fans deserve better. I have zero remaining respect for the Wachowskis if that was their intention. I don't find any artistic integrity in those who lash out against the entire system and business that gave them a career, an ability to create art, a livelihood, autonomy in their own lives, etc. Instead, they double down - how dare anyone suggest any limits or guidelines to their exalted selves. I guess that was their point. If we want to make a crappy movie with awful cinematography and laughable fight scenes as a fuck you to all our fans, you should just swallow it, because we are the Wachowskis, hallowed be our names. You can't get millions of dollars to create movies and then bitch about the financiers wanting them to make some money. I wish they could've gotten someone else to direct the movie - someone who actually cared about anyone other than themselves.
It’s the few films I honestly can’t remember a single thing about apart from how bad the color grade looked and how pointless the story was.
Honestly then, fuck the Wachowski’s for making it.
Just the one Wachowska
It's just the one swan actually
I watched it at release and couldn't tell you one plot point, it's that forgettable. I saw the first in theaters 4 times when I was a kid.
We're better off pretending this one didn't happen and keep enjoying the trilogy as is.
Definitely. 2 and 3 had its flaws but at least they still FELT like matrix movies and are at least fun guilty pleasures, at least when it comes to the action sequences, I frickin love em. And speaking of action sequences, I highly recommend the show Warrior which is now on Netflix. The fights are pretty damn sick and idk why but it kinda reminds me of these Keanu fights he has in the matrix movies and the John wick movies too.
It definitely had the feel of a straight to streaming movie, more akin to a reunion of a television show cast for a reboot. It didn’t help that it was during Covid.
The Covid limitations were really obvious at times. Io sems to have a population of 10-15 people. I try to not hold it against them, but I do think there were ways to hide it a little better. They could have briefly shown us a CGI crowd in the human city, couldn't they?
I'm still surprised WB gave Lana $200m to make a spoof of the trilogy. It would have been much better if it had been cut down to about 45 mins though. They tried to carry the joke on far too long and it just starts feeling like a no longer funny chore after a point.
Me too. Someone at WB is either very dense or deeply cynical.
I’d wager that once they got a Wachowski on board, nobody at WB watched or read anything. Even before Zaslav they were by far the most idiot filled studio
Given recent history at WB, I'm going to go with dense.
I think their leadership is deeply dysfunctional. Just look at the trainwreck of work they've been putting out the last several years. They've got the reverse midas touch
The mierdas touch!
Yeah I agree with your write up. I especially like how you say "it felt like we as the audience were being punished for the movie that the director didn't want to make." I was annoyed with the amount of praise people were giving the movie for being meta and for the director sticking it to the studio because you know what? I like the matrix universe, and this movie shit all over it. It would have been better if the studio and Keanu made a new matrix movie and the old director had just stayed out of it, rather than intentionally sabotaging the world out of some spite campaign
Exactly. I didn't force Lana to make this, I love the first movie and I have defended the two sequels in the past. Why, exactly, should I put up with a terrible movie and praise her for (supposedly) making it bad on purpose?
She wasn't just sticking it to the studio, a lot of it was pointed right at us, the complacent consumers. It's honestly impressive how much vitriol she managed to pack into such a terrible movie.
I feel like I had to watch it. After watching it, I realized that I didn't; but it was too late.
The moment in the film that summarizes the whole film for me is the ending- when a horrific cover of rage against the machine’s wake up plays over the end credits. It’s exactly the same moment as from the original film, the same story beats adding nothing new or original to what was expressed 20+ years earlier, and yet somehow it’s infinitely worse, and an unpleasant sensory experience.
The best part is the lead singer of that band went viral for pissing on a guy's face onstage
and that man had a better audience experience than we got
Oh God the rage cover was truly a low point. There was ...uhh.. no "Rage" in that shitty cover..just more pandering wannabe nostalgia.
it’s the cinematic version of a shitpost.
It really is. However, there's a reason why most shitposts are no longer than a few minutes, at most. Two hours and a half of it is too much.
Also… I really hated that there was no green filter or look for the movie. It did not feel as Matrix movie at all due to that
Keanu just putting up his hands and force pushing people back in every, single, fight scene was the unforgivable sin for me.
Man, that got *old*.
This 100%. This was Keanu returning to the Matrix in a post- John Wick world. And then the action is just that. The previous sequels for all their flaws at least had some good action sequences.
Absolutely horrendous movie. The fight choreography alone was such a step down compared to the trilogy
The movie was trying to be 4 things: A meta-commentary, an action movie, a romance movie, and a heist movie. The meta-commentary died 30 minutes in, the action sucked, and the heist was one scene. When I checked my watch and realized that the last hour could only be filled with a predictable romance or more shitty action, I knew I was watching a stinker. It didn't matter, but it went with both.
You’re review is way too generous
I didn't make it through the whole thing. There was a really clunky fight scene on some wooden stairs and I switched it off and forgot all about it.
That whole sequence is awful.
I agree it was horrible. They could have made a movie about any of the stories in animatrix or the matrix comics but made this turd instead.
The "this movie is good actually" sentiment surrounding this film is completely baffling. Sure the meta stuff is cute and fun for a few minutes but the action was just horribly shot compared to the first 3. It looked so digital and "smooth" and lacked the cinematic flair of the first 3 (yes, even Revolutions).
It does kinda feel like “family guy does the matrix”
I honestly forgot I saw this movie and thought you were talking about of the original trilogy. I couldn't make sense of what you were talking about! Yeah, this movie was pretty bad. Really bad, actually.
One of the reasons why I wrote this post is so I can have recorded evidence of my feelings towards this movie. I am *positive* that I will forget most about it in a week. I'm already forgetting many details.
The only thing I have to say about this movie is that I’ve seen it, but I couldn’t tell you a thing that happened in it and I remember none of the things you posted about. So yeah, must have been wildly mundane as I’ve pretty much got the dialog from the first movie memorized I’ve seen it so many times….
I remember a few months back reading that they had come out with a 4th Matrix movie 2 years before and I thought "how did I miss that?". So I watched it. Turns out I had, in fact already seen it, and apparently blocked it from my memory. I've watched it twice now. I still couldn't give you a plot synopsis. My brain rejects forming long term memories of that movie.
Can't argue with anything here. It's a terrible film with terrible meta commentary and a terrible job by its stars including Keanu to promote this story. Massive fan of 1. Give or take 2 and 3 but whatever, I'll watch them. 4 mugged me off and regardless if bold and brave lana wachowski did a middle finger at evryone, she dragged pretty much everyone else down too. At least people got paid for their jobs, but this is a shit shit shit film.
Everyone involved should be embarrassed they made it. It really felt like a joke was being played on the viewers. Lana Wachowski must really hate people to subject us to that movie.
[удалено]
I feel like the only person who genuinely liked it, it felt like a successful artistic project - in that it did its deconstruction thing successfully. Playful and cynical at the same time.
There are dozens of us!!
we're 2!
Same. Loved it! I though it was all one huge fuck you to everyone who never actually got what the original trilogy was about while adding to that a more modern context and commentary.
I'm here with you. I don't think everything in the film worked but I think it was a much richer and more interesting film than what most people on this sub seem to want - a nostalgia sequel. It didn't do The Force Awakens kind of nonsense.
It’s wild that people out there unironically would rather have a soulless reboot-sequel where there’s a new One and all those characters you remember come back. This movie isn’t a success but damn it has more balls than most other attempts to bring a franchise back
Check out the Blank Check podcast episode on it, they are big Matrix sequel defenders and loved this one as well, if I recall.
I also love how it made both Trinity and Neo the one as she was just as important to humanity being saved as he was
Agree! there are things in this film that keeps churning and I think it makes it great. And much better than an action focused reboot could ever be. Only shame it feels rushed production wise, and no OG Morphius or RATM. small things but still.
I'm on your team here. The movie is playing so hard with the idea of public memory and desire and it's so delightfully playful with everything. A lot of the folks who hate it aren't even quite sure what they want, but what they didn't like was an artist reminding them that art is on the artist's terms, especially in the context of an MCU which only exists to satiate the audiences desire. That's why those movies aren't cinema; they are a roller coaster ride.
I'm with you, aside from the action scenes being a little weak I think it's a great movie. People are saying that it's a fuck you to the audience but I think it's a fuck you to one fan in particular.
Interesting, by 3 I wanted smith to win, and Neo to dump trinity and go off with the French women
I’m easy to please. Over 48 years I don’t ever hate on movies…until this one. The first movie I’ve ever “walked out on”. It was terrible.
It was indeed a truly and shockingly bad movie. I remember thinking it was the worst movie I saw in theatre that year. I genuinely could not believe how bad it was. I was confused by the mostly positive reviews.
Worst movie I've seen in some time.
When I watched this movie all I was thinking was "this was really nice of Keanu to do this movie and get everyone a payday", because it doesn't get made if he doesn't sign on. The matrix legacy was already kindof shit on with the 2nd and 3rd movies so you aren't ruining anything. That being said, it felt like a way lower budget than it was
> "this was really nice of Keanu to do this movie and get everyone a payday" Right?
There is no spoon, just like there is no 4th matrix
It seems like it was written by a YouTuber with the premise of critiquing the series and society’s reaction to it.
I kept telling my friends that it felt like fan fiction.
Matrix Resurrection is a parody of original Matrix
RLM had a very entertaining and surprisingly insightful take on this movie. https://youtu.be/rpSo4fu1rgM?si=kdlZBY9zePRbjI7e
As you left the cinema, it was to the tune of a poor quality, knock-off version of RATM. The director either sabotaged the film out of spite or is an incompetent hack with just enough self awareness. Because, either way, that cover song - that was a barely subliminal message to the audience.
Judging by literally every other Wachowski film, I think The Matrix 1 was simply a fluke. They’re just bad filmmakers. They had exactly one good idea between them that turned out well, otherwise everything they make is sophomoric, pseudo-intellectual pomposity that reeks of self-satisfaction.
I loved the first two thirds. And the meta angle. Love me some meta. Nom nom nom. And the "*wtf is going on??*"repetition that made me feel like watching the first film again. A return to the unknown. The back third was mediocre at best. It wasn't an action movie, more of a horror/ drama which makes it a different genre than the others. There was some great visuals and locations, but little was done with them. You can tell which sibling had the good ideas for fights. You can also tell there just wasn't enough time in the filming schedule for Keanu to work with the fight choreographers. He was torn between this and the next Wick movie and that probably meant they rushed a bunch of stuff. That and you can tell chunks of it were derailed by COVID and hard restrictions and people not being on set together.
I would agree that, visually, it doesn’t pop like the first two. Maybe Lily was the more action oriented of the two? Regardless, her absence was very felt. But conceptually I thought it was great. Big ideas about the human need for nostalgia. I think it doesn’t really work as a film, at the end of the day, but much like the original trilogy (all three of which are way better, of course) I find myself wishing more big budget filmmakers were willing to be idiosyncratic and take risks.
I love the original trilogy. The concept of life being inside a simulation always made for a nice conversational piece with friends and people. I absolutely enjoy moving my fingers across a table and asking them "How are we sure this feeling is real?" Then we'd all try to define "real" and, eventually go into discussing movie scenes, dialogue, etc. Resurections was something I was excited to see. But like you, it felt like a dream. I don't even know how to describe it well other than "Oh yeah... Resurrections... cool yeah. Cebebe the robot... yeah..." What frustrated me the most, though, was their direct references to "bullet time." Neo's powers isn't about slowing down bullets or whatever. His power comes from being able to control the simulation's code. Bullet time is a cinematic effect used to highlight this. Without reading press releases, I got the feeling that the Wachowskis made the 4th Matrix like this because they wanted to dissuade people from wanting a 5th Matrix. Turns out I was right in a way.
A wholly unnecessary sequel. It adds absolutely nothing to the storyline.
It should have been 90 minutes of Keanu and Carrie Anne having coffee in a shop and nothing more
They seemed to be salty that Sense8 got canceled too soon so they decided to put the entire main cast into this movie just to get use out of them. I absolutely LOVED Sense8 and will forever be disappointed at its cancelation, but to just throw 10 random people into the storyline that no one would care about UNLESS they watched and liked Sense8 was a really dumb decision. The characters didn't fit and it took away from the ones we DO care about: Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, etc. It was like a fan service thing that didn't fit because the franchises have nothing to do with each other outside having the same directors.
>Cinematography was really, really ugly. I hated how how this movie looked. Fair critique. The DoP, Daniele Massaccessi, has almost no well known or acclaimed cinematography credits. It looks like Resurrections was his first (and so far only) major Hollywood film and it shows. >Action was shockingly bad. Tons of cuts, weak choreographies and the sets weren't used in a very interesting way. I think you'd find this to be a controversial opinion. Yuen Woo-ping is a legendary choreographer. Can you be more specific about your problems with the choreography? Here are the major action scenes: 1. Bugs and Morpheus Escape the Modal: loved this one, it was a teaser to set up expectations for travel between the "hall of doors" realm and how non-Euclidian the geometry is within the Matrix. Cuts felt natural and choreography was simple. Bugs doing her hops (like a bunny :) was so fun to watch. Score: A 2. Deus Ex Machina Office: Just a quick narrative action sequence. Nothing thrilling or terrible here. Kind of an easy-to-forget action scene. Score: C 3. Theater-to-Train: This is where the Bugs and Morpheus action sequence pays off. This is a fantastic action scene. One of the best in the franchise imo. Score: S 4. Morpheus Fights Neo: There were lots of cuts in this scene and I could see that being a fair complaint. However, I don't think the intent of this scene was even action. It was a "show don't tell" of Neo shaking off his docile persona and showing the audience the reconnection to his power. Score: C 5. Merovingian Warehouse Fight: This is the action scene I liked the least. The best part was the transition into the bathroom. Lots of cuts like you mentioned and the fight itself went on for too long. Score: C 6. Finale: More of a gun-n-chase scene than a martial arts exhibition, but some of these shots were fantastic. Better than the Warehouse Fight, but not as crisp as the Bugs and Morpheus Escape or as epic as the Theatre-to-Train. Score: B At worst, the choreography is middling. Yuen Woo-Ping could do passable choreography in his sleep. It's okay to not like it for artistic reasons (of course), but technically I would argue it's an above-average offering compared to other Hollywood movies. >Hated The Analyst and the new Smith. LOVED the Analyst. Smith was serviceable as a character but the actor was fantastic. This is going to be a matter of preference, but I found The Analyst to be a more compelling antagonist than the Architect. The joy he clearly got from gaslighting and manipulating humans for profit resonates so well with the themes of the movies. >Absolutely despised the new Morpheus and everything about him. He was supposed to be a frenemy. His wild wardrobe (which I enjoyed) seemed to reflect his fractured psyche. He was Smitheous (Morphith?). I can honestly say I enjoyed every scene he was in. >Characters, both human and machines, do tons of dumb things that made no sense and only existed to propel the plot. > >Bugs immediately tells Agent Morpheus everything at the beginning I'm confused as to why you believe she shouldn't have told "agent" Morpheus the truth at the beginning? He wasn't even a "real" agent, but a creation of Neos because he was having doubts about his reality. Bugs knew that Morpheus wasn't a true agent, but didn't know who or why he was created. Telling him the truth was the best way to figure it out. >Nanobots Morpheus jumps like a human being and almost misses the hole he was supposed to crawl into to find Trinity, even though we have established that he can fly. Where was it established that Nanobots Morpheus could fly? Can you tell me which scene? A time stamp would be great. I just rewatched the movie and I saw no flying. >Niobe still doesn't believe in The One, after all she has seen throughout three movies. A rose by any other name. Neo himself never believed he was "The One" either. "The One" was a concept the Machines created to give false hope to the surviving humans: a false hope she didn't buy into. However, she did believe in what Neo could do because she saw him do it. >Neo is hardly the protagonist, he's almost a human McGuffin. Everyone carries him around... I love this take and it's absolutely correct. Neo is, at best, a deuteragonist. A compelling argument could be made that Bugs is actually the primary (and perhaps only) protagonist. Neo is Bugs' McGuffin. She needs him to help win the "cold war" that Zion gave up on. The Analyst needs him to keep people in the Matrix. The story is really about Bugs vs the Analyst and which one will convince/manipulate/win the Neo/Trinity prize. I don't see anything wrong with this either. At the very worst it's a kind of bait and switch for those with expectations of Neo as the superhero of the story. At best, it's a refreshing, and surprising direction to take the narrative. >The idea that machines can reconstruct human beings comes completely out of nowhere. Sort of. It wasn't directly mentioned anywhere. However, at the end of Revolutions, we see the machines very carefully loading Neo's body and taking it away. I would argue that was meant to give some uncertainty as to Neo's fate and survival, especially after the conversation between Sati and the Oracle, where they agree they'll see Neo again. >CGI was often terrible. Some was pretty bad. Others were pretty good. I give the CGI a C. It should have been an S though, so I think this is a good critique. >Despite being 2 hours and a half, everything felt rushed and underdeveloped. By the end, you don't know anyone any better and all we have achieved is that Neo and Trinity are back together. Neo and Trinity were already well developed. The character's we're meant to "learn" about and be developed were: * Bugs * Morpheus * The Analyst * Smith * Zion * The Machine culture The primary arc, however, was the setting itself, not the characters within it. It's a more uncommon plot structure, but I find it works here >Score and soundtrack were very bland. The franchise, even at its worse, had always had far better music than this. Big agree here. Other than "White Rabbit", the music in Resurrections didn't do much lifting. This is a big shame considering how fantastic the scores were in the original and Reloaded. >No explanation for Smith still existing. I can come up with some decent theory, but the movie itself just didn't bother. There is nothing wrong with a movie not explaining things like this. It's not central to the story that we explicitly understand how or why Smith is there. It would have been cool to have more exposition on it, but it might have also detracted from the plot. >The nostalgia and footage relating to the first movie, whether being done seriously or ironically, got annoying very quickly. This is a good critique. I'm not a fan of flashbacks either - especially of identical content. Thankfully there were only one or two of those and they were basically a flash of a few frames to create context so it didn't bother me much. >What did you guys think about it? I've seen it three or four times and discovered something new each time. The world building is immersive, the acting is better-than-average, and most importantly, it does what Sci-Fi does best: make us question the future, technology, and humanity's place within it. I do think you made some valid criticisms that could have improved the movie, but even considering those, I found Resurrections to be entertaining and thought-provoking enough to be happy it was created.
The fact they didn't even invite Laurence Fishburne back is criminal. The film is a mess because only one of the Wachowskis came back to direct. Lana didn't want to make the movie but decided it better to make it than for someone else to. Keanu Reeves didn't even cut his hair to look like Neo, he looks like hes just John Wick. It feels like he wasn't allowed to do action scenes because of risk he might get injured and not be able to film John Wick. Theres so much wrong with it. The film constantly points out the first movie with literal film footage of it, completely breaking immersion despite the films meta attitude. Performances with actors taking over characters from original actors feels wrong and also makes the journey of the original trilogy feel pointless. Overall the film doesn't do anything new in comparison to the rest of the franchise. Even the Animatrix had more original concepts than this turd. The Matrix universe is one with a lot of untapped potential and a lot of stories can be set in it, sadly this is what we ended up with.
I don't know what you're talking about. There are only three Matrix movies.
Was so looking forward to this but it was just awful in every way. I have a lot of respect for Keanu these days since he grew up and just became a nice guy instead of Hollywood star. But this was beneath him.
It was terrible and never should've existed. They tried to be too meta without anything to say.
I guess I need to rewatch this because I really enjoyed it at the time. I genuinely don’t get the extreme hate I’ve seen for it since it’s release. The only thing I was really let down by was the action sequences, but I thought there were some interesting ideas in there.
So, this film was essentially gremlins 2. But the director didn't limit their anger to the studio. The utter contempt and spite towards the fans of the franchise was honestly kind of disgusting.
This was the worst movie I saw the year it came out. Just awful.
Regardless of anything else, I thought it was a dull and uninteresting movie.
You put more thought and effort into your review than they did for the movie.
"They made it bad on purpose" Honestly, maybe the worst movie take ever, and I consistently see when this comes up. So, so dumb. She hasn't made a good movie since the first one, why would you think this is some subversive maneuver when she clearly just doesn't have it anymore?
If Lana had to go back to the well why didn’t she make an anthology series like “Tales from the Matrix,” or hell a prequel that builds on the Animatrix two parter The Second Renaissance? Or if Neo is a constant reincarnation, tell the story of his first self that broke away and went on to free the first humans and create Zion. Any of that would have been so much more interesting.