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With the movie now released, I thought I’d start a thread with its actual title.
I watched it. It was….somewhat entertaining. Mostly, I found it to be a nostalgia-driven attempted money grab. Nowhere near as good as any single film of the original trilogy.
I did like the way they handled new Morpheus. As well as the all too brief glimpse into the future promised by the original trilogy, where man and (some) machines work together.
Neil Patrick Harris was an interesting choice for main villain, but I found him to be too non-threatening. Maybe I couldn’t see past Barney from How I Met Your Mother.
I liked Bugs. I wish they hadn’t introduced so many other characters, so that they could have focused on a few others a bit more.
It was cool seeing the Merovingian again. I almost didn’t recognize him, with his I just escaped from Jumanji look.
Maybe I’d need to see it again to gain a little more respect for it, but until I can ever bring myself to do that I’m going to be left thinking it would have been better if (a) they never made it, or (b) it would have been better if both Wachowski’s had been involved.
Well in order for both Wachowskis to have been involved, you'd need raise dead...
I thought Lilly was...
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Even had you been correct the statement was in poor taste
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Another brief criticism - The original trilogy did some cool FX stuff (especially the first film), and I always thought much of the fight choreography had a sort of eloquence to it. This new film was (to me) more generic. They didn’t seem to try and push any boundaries. And the choreography was meh.
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It did a really bad job of establishing stakes.
There's a fight where one of the sidekicks shoots a henchmen (before the fight breaks out), and the bullet does nothing. It's not clear why they're fighting to me. I get that that character is a return from one of the sequels, but it's been forever since I saw it, and I didn't recognize them. I had no clue what their problem with Neo was. I had no idea what they were fighting over. Like... why did the good guys want to fight this out instead of running? Why did the bad guys want to instigate this fight? None of it was clear, and lo and behold... the fight doesn't really resolve itself either. It just kind of ends and moves on.
Some of the smaller scenes were fine. Reeves and Moss have okay chemistry (plays more like old friends than romantic partners to me), but certainly not "the world needs to revolve around this love" chemistry. They both play their parts well, and the smaller moments are good with them.
There are no real twists and turns... it kind of is just laid out and then proceeds exactly as laid out. Nothing is surprising.
The film includes a lot of meta commentary about itself... and it's all boring.
I never really liked the sequels, and I only saw them once each. That will probably include this one now.
The first movie was a technical spectacle, with beautifully arranged scenes, and it had some wonderful half-baked philosophy in it that was still enjoyable to mull over.
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Just curious, did they go harder on the trans allegory stuff, or did they keep playing it subtle? I'm still laughing about how many guys don't realize that the red pill is literally estrogen. ^w^
Trans politics was mentioned in passing only. That's the phrase that was used by... Bugs I think?
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I never really liked the sequels, and I only saw them once each. That will probably include this one now.
The first movie was a technical spectacle, with beautifully arranged scenes, and it had some wonderful half-baked philosophy in it that was still enjoyable to mull over.
I think of the first movie in much the same way.
The two sequels I found to be entertaining, but nowhere near as good. Sort of just the kind of popcorn flick where you turn your brain off and enjoy the mayhem. I watched them each again for the second time in preparation for this fourth film. Now I can consign all three to the dustbin of movie history.
Just curious, did they go harder on the trans allegory stuff, or did they keep playing it subtle? I'm still laughing about how many guys don't realize that the red pill is literally estrogen. ^w^
I understand that this was part of the point for the filmmaker, but the ease with which their original meaning has been subverted demonstrates the lack of clarity in that allegory. It's a big reason a lot of people are unhappy with characters who are coded as being something rather than just being the thing outright. It's too easy to ignore or subvert coded references.
I think that's a fair critique, but I also think that allowing for ambiguity is part of what makes allegory and metaphor compelling and enduring. For instance, leaving Cypher vague allowed him to accidentally become an amazing allegory for Buck Angel, the trans man who bullies other trans people and outed one of the Wachowski Sisters.
Anyways, it looks like the best we can say about this movie is that some of us might see it on streaming or TV...not in theaters.
I have a friend who really liked it, so it's probably just a matter of taste, of what you're looking for in a film. Same with the sequels, really.
I suppose...
I liked the first half much better than the second. Many of the scenes felt strange and I'm guessing it was Covid protocol in the shooting that made that happen. Pretty hard to up the stakes with bot swarms and crowds when shooting those is not easy or possible to even do.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I finally watched it, and really enjoyed the first part, before he remembered he was Neo. The meta scenes with everyone talking about what makes the Matrix the Matrix were great. It's unfortunate that they could be so self-aware of that, and then completely fail to do any of the things right in the rest of the movie to answer the question of what makes a good Matrix movie.
Not sure I'm ready for Matrix commentary on movies...but at the same time, Scream (the newest one) apparently has something to say about reboots in the horror genre so...there's that.
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What if that's the point? Like, what if the whole movie is a satire of movies, or these kinds of movies? I don't know...
It pretty much is. Warner Bros. was going to make the movie, with or without Wachowski involvement. So instead of someone else taking over Lana decided to direct and co-write it, to put her spin on it and basically give WB the finger in the process.
Red Letter Media has an excellent take on the movie and behind the scenes production stuff.
Interesting. Thanks Fumarole.