Matrix Resurrections: What the fuck did I just watch?

I'm not going to go all the way down the hole on how much of a fuck factory I found this movie to be, people should form their own opinions, I'll just say I don't think I've been this dismayed by a piece of cinema in quite a while. Ultimately I'm the idiot, knowing exactly where the original Matrix sequels went and expecting something different out of this one (yes Vaas, I know, thanks).

Ultimately, I think crap like this is a product of our own laziness. Until people collectively demand better and stop dumping money on these streaming services then this is going to continue to be the output. Actual cinema movies were (occasionally) good because they were cash on delivery, if they were good then word got around, people would go see them and they made money, conversely if they weren't then people didn't and they bombed. These asinine productions that get extruded by streaming services are payed for before they even hit the screen, and shmucks subscribing to the service will begrudgingly watch them because the cost to them is already sunk.

The first Matrix movie was pretty good you know? It was pretty god damn good. Maybe contemporary media just doesn't deserve it any more.

I dunno, I thought it was pretty good. They did Matrix-y shit and it wasn't bogged down by the stuff that made me stop watching at Reloaded.

I really liked it.

It was mostly good. Not amazing, it had problems, but more good than bad. Also, it's a movie and I'll forget it exists in a week, sooooo...decaf?

This is only on HBO Max because Warner committed to launching all their movies on HBO Max in 2021 due to the fact that going to cinemas is still not a great idea. When this project was conceived it certainly wasn't intended to be a streaming film, and Warner has said this will be the last movie that launches day and date on HBO Max as we move into 2022 and people seem, for better or worse, more willing to go cinemas.

So, the whole thesis that this film was phoned in and no one cared about quality because it was heading direct to streaming is based on a flawed premise.

Also, I thought it was fine. It wasn't the mess movies two and three were and while the meta commentary on Hollywood reboot/sequel culture can certainly come across as hypocritical coming from the 4th movie in a blockbuster franchise almost 20 years since the last film, the self-awareness is as at least somewhat interesting in a "30 Rock Snapple ad" sort of way.

Did anyone else think Jude the one game guy looked like Jeff? I enjoyed the movie overall for being weird.

I liked it.

Surprisingly, it felt like the action was the weakest part. There was no lobby scene, or highway chase, or Zion defense. But I liked a whole lot of it.

The movie was so terrible… I don’t have the words

@csl316: I think that's where i'm at with it too, I liked the first half and the ideas it had going for it, but the action parts where kind of weak, not particularly bad or anything but they weren't as interestingly shot as the old movies and they just went on for way to long, like I feel like you could cut a good 20-25 minutes out of that back half and have a better overall movie.

It starts strong but the more meta it goes the less coherent the movie part gets. It’s an interesting movie but a really weak continuation of the Matrix franchise. I initially liked all the winking and nodding but that’s basically what the entirety of the film devolves into. As mentioned above, the action was weak, and the cinematography lacked that classic Matrix sheen that is so instantly recognizable. I dunno mixed emotions on it overall.

I think that's great summation of my feelings on it.

I ain't mad at it, and it certainly looks and feels like they had a great time making it- but speaking personally I don't think I needed that movie. It doesn't ruin anything- but the winky/noddy meta stuff kinda lands with a thud for me (when characters explicitly name drop Warner Bros., bullet-time, and say things like "guns...lots of guns..." I can't help but groan a little).

Truthfully I think the part I was most disappointed in was the aesthetic- there was a uniformity of visual design to that first movie- everything from the cold color palette to the neo-film noir shot composition that was outstanding. It's like it emerged from the ether in the late 90s wholly realized with a sense of style that people have been aping ever since.

This new one has so much more vibrant color and mixed visual effects that occasionally I found it distracting. I think the tonal shift also extends to the dialogue- which also appears to be more lighthearted and less hard-boiled...which is totally fine, but just isn't my cup of tea (at least for a Matrix move).

I will say it was genuinely heartwarming to see the Neo/Trinity relationship on screen again.

So yeah- interesting, but not quite what I was looking for.

This was a good movie. Lana Wachowski giving the finger to WB execs is pretty amusing. Neil Patrick Harris makes a great villain.

I think any property like the Matrix (Star Wars, LotR, MCU, etc) will be defined by what each audnces member actully wanted to see after the first one.

I never gave two shit about the last human city. I never gave two shit about the human culture the would have devloped there. I never gave two shit abut that because I some of the world building they did was illogical. So, when the sequal went headed into those questions, I was so much less interested. Such is teh way of art, stories have breachs, so when the branch you wnated to see is not the route - not much that will save it for you.

Keanu is pissed probably.

My post from the movie thread...

Worst of the series.

The Good: Nearly everything outside the Matrix. New Morpheus. Jessica Henwick.

The Bad: Nearly everything inside...especially Neil Patrick Harris.

The Ugly: The movie lacks the unique visuals of the originals, the super stylized slow-mo might've been downplayed because of Zack Snyder abusing it recently...but it's sorely missed.

Just really poorly shot in comparison, bullet time looks awful, like worse than CW Flash bad. No iconic moments outside of maybe one bit in the climatic action scene.

Lily Wachowski had no involvement on this one, which makes me wonder if she is the sibling with the most talent.

Oh, and it ends with a Rage cover by Brass Against The Machine...and well, I wouldn't advise Googling them...unless you're into kinky shit.

SPOILER!!!

There's a game developer dude that looks like Jeff!

My biggest question since video games were a big deal here:

Does this lead to a remake of Path of Neo?

I haven't seen this. But from the trailer it looks like some kind of soft reboot. ...Eh? Not an interesting way to approach this. Neo is gone, done, why bring him back? I really like the Matrix mythology and there's a lot more places they can go. Watch the Animatrix for some ideas. I want to see something weird and more interesting than Neo fighting Agent Smith once again.

My Letterboxd thoughts. Summary: It's a fun, breezy watch, but deeply flawed in many ways and arguably not much of a Matrix movie, not really. There's nothing specific about the story other than some characters you might not have expected to see in here if you're spoiler-averse, though it does assume you've seen the movie of course:

At times a viciously angry indictment of modern video game production and at others a saccharinely sincere ode to love and destiny, it's clear Lana Wachowski had something to say when she finally agreed to return to the Matrix IP. Unfortunately, she possibly has too much to say, and without her sister's collaboration (or merely due to the passage of time) she no longer has her fastball visually. The end result is a movie that often feels like a fan film, or a CW show on steroids, every clever shot or bit of dialogue undercut by a clumsy edit or terrible line delivery.

I get that I'm supposed to hate Jude, the handler program who oscillates wildly between assistant, stranger, wingman and horse collar, but it's been a long time since a performance made me hate a performer as much as I'm now repulsed by the name Andrew Lewis Caldwell.

When you pull up the IMDb page and realize that, yeah, most of the new cast are television actors, you just gotta nod your head in silence.

I dunno, man. It's not as outright corny as Revolutions, nor does it wade too deeply into the "real world superheroes" motif that nearly strangled that effort to death, but Resurrections also spends so much time arguing that it's endeavor is effectively ruthless nostalgia bait (which often reminds me of another Warner Bros. IP revivification, Space Jam) before getting around to a movie that looks and feels like a weary, old rock band playing all the hits that none of it feels particularly special or weighty.

The biggest disappointment being that this movie has a lot of ideas, bunches of sincerity and some real anger to get off its chest. You can see it like tiny traces of source code all throughout this movie, begging for a clearer vision and stronger purpose. You could even go galaxy brained and argue this is the subtext of the film, that weaponizing nostalgia to deaden present trauma can be useful in small doses but ultimately not nearly as powerful as accepting life will never be like it used to be.

Alas, there's this whole ass interlude about how humans grow strawberries now. The humans vs. A.I. conflict was only ever interesting insomuch as it added another layer of stakes to their goings on inside the Matrix; I think we can universally agree that the Machine War inside Zion is the nadir of this franchise, yeah? Wachowski refuses to let dead dogs lie, as is her wont, but I find her solution for Morpheus confusing and her need to embarrass Jada Pinkett-Smith in front of the world admirable and misguided.

Whatever, it's fine. I watched this at home in 4K UHD with Klipsch THX-certified speakers and sat about three feet away from the TV so I could really feel it and figured if it was dope, I'd check it out in theaters later today. It's not, it's a mid-ass movie with big ideas and plenty for viewers to take from and add to on their own as they see fit, but what's actually on the screen and on the page is a bit of a mess. I give a bit of leniency to this only because you can see and feel the reasons Wachowski agreed to make Resurrections at many points throughout its runtime, and those reasons are valid and even emotionally stirring.

It just doesn't make up for a movie that looks as generic as this one does and comes off as fan fiction made canon, even if that fan fiction is coming from the creator of the original work herself.

I feel like this is the result of what Lana Wachowski thinks of what Millennials think of The Matrix.

There is no doubt The Matrix had a profound effect on a generation, but obviously Millennials weren't old enough to shape what The Matrix became.

I don't think it's a bad movie for the most part. I can definitely see why people would not like some of the choices made, but I feel like those choices were deliberate.

But, I have to say that the fight choreography was probably the most disappointing to me. The original trilogy had a distinct style and was entertaining to watch. They definitely did not get the same person to do it again. I feel like it can be summed up by comparing Morpheus fighting Neo. In the original, everyone wants to see the fight; In this no one wants to come and watch.

I thought it was really good, but fell apart at the end by not actually adding anything to the mythos. A lot of cool ideas introduced that weren't explored enough.

@notsosneakyguy: I think the guy who did the choreography on the original is the director of John Wick, which was in production around the same time I think.

Eh, I enjoyed it - but then again it could be because I went to a movie theater that served food and drinks - so it was all around a good time.

Beyond awful, they managed to squander every potentially good idea.

I went to see two movies this week at the cinema (a super rare occurrence with young children and eh.. a pandemic) Spiderman Far from Home and The Matrix Resurrection, oddly enough both lean heavily on nostalgia and the nature of distant memory.

Spiderman is effortlessly joyful and sincere, with not a single misstep in execution, you leave that movie feeling good about where you were then and where you are now. The Matrix conversely makes you actively question what you ever saw and eradicates any goodwill the property may get in the future.

Thought it was kinda bad. Far too many things to complain about but I'll mention I didn't like how they kept inserting shots from the original.

1 - Because it felt like this was there for people who hadn't seen the original.. And it felt and looked lazy to me. And you should trust that people who are smart enough or genuinely interested enough will watch the original before or after this movie.

2 - Because it just kept reminding me of how much better the original was. I don't think I ever quite thought the original cast was like.. perfect? Until I saw this and I was just like.. wooooow this Morpheus is so bad or the Agent Smith role is so bad or wtf is Neil even doing with this etc etc.

The whole thing just made me appreciate how amazing and important the original is even more so than I already thought it was. Now it's like.. One of the greatest, most important movies of all time. The new one just felt like a new disney pirates of the caribbean movie. Just another entry into the franchise.

Okay okay one more thing: Disliked how the first whole chunk of the movie was just remaking the original. Again, because its like they didn't think people would watch the original. Or they didn't trust themselves to make something new that people would like so they try to copy what they know people already did like. Same thing as the new Star Wars movie.. whatever the hell the first new one was.. ugh I can't even remember the stupid sub title. Its just a remake of A New Hope.

But hey, we got Dune this year, and that was incredible so.. I've already forgotten about most of the new Matrix movie.

Edit: You got me. One more. Remember how the agents moved and behaved in the original? It was like they were robots. And you didn't initially know that. Their movements were perfectly synced and their appearance was so generic, unremarkable quarterback meat head etc. that they looked like copies. It's still freaky to watch today. The new movie opening? Meh. It's like some people wanted to cosplay as agents. I didn't get any of those sorts of details off them. They didn't seem threatening or alien.

Absolutely adored it. It was exactly what I wanted it to be.

Yeah... I'm definitely in the "Thanks, I hate it" boat. You take a franchise whose entire concept is to make every scene as stunning and memorable as possible and you make a movie where the first 80% of it is bland with mostly boring exposition. And then at the end you put in some mostly fairly mediocre action....

People like to rag on the second and third movie because of their plot etc, but even those are jam packed with scenes that you absolutely DO remember. They joke about it at some point about how "Matrix was all about originality" and it really seems like they itentionally tried to make this the complete opposite for contrast.

Loved it beyond words. Went in with pretty low expectations (as I tend to with most sequels to things I like) but it was such a pleasant surprise. Not surprised people have differing opinions of it though. It is the Matrix after all.

SPOILERS DISCUSSED BUT IM ON MOBILE AND DONT KNOW HOW TO BLOCK OUT TEXT

@seikenfreak: : "Disliked how the first whole chunk of the movie was just remaking the original. Again, because its like they didn't think people would watch the original. Or they didn't trust themselves to make something new that people would like so they try to copy what they know people already did like."

I guess I interpreted the first act more as the loop that was discussed in the 3rd film starting again. We always knew it comes back around. And we know what happens when those scenes occur. So for me, I believe they included it fully expecting that you've seen the trilogy. This was very much the 4th film in the series and they expect you to be caught up. I also felt like they needed to include the scene of the game developers trying to explain to the creator of the game, Neo, what the Matrix is/needs more as an allegory for what's happening in today's society and who's co opting the whole "red pill" idea.

But I understand your argument. And I'm not trying to change your opinion or argue against it as much as I'm using your complaints to explain my own thoughts and the thing you hated is exactly what I liked. But as I said in my original post, I'm not surprised by people's reactions to this.

@wollywoo: without spoiling too much, your assumption based on the trailer is not 100% accurate. This is a sequel that expects you to kind of know the main story beats already.

Feel like someone bent over backwards to give the story something resembling a happy ending.

With all due respect to the people who are enjoying this thread is this not off-topic? I specifically unfollow off-topic to avoid threads like these.

Yo, why you @hayt'n?

lol j/k

It's the only movie I've ever seen that spent the first act apologizing in advance for acts 2 and 3.

I liked it a lot. The first third of the movie explains the entire premise. The Matrix was already done and over, but that wasn't good enough, so when the Wachowskis were backed into a corner they gave the people exactly what they wanted. They literally just made The Matrix again.

They grapple with similar ideas from the original trilogy, but with an emphasis on what is "real" both in a world where we, the viewers live with stuff like VR, and also within the context of media and our consumption of it. It is incredibly cynical, all while ending with the message that "despite all that, this feeling of love is true". Hell, I'm convinced even all that was done due to people wanting more Matrix, but with a reborn Neo and a "canonically dead" Trinity.

If you don't like it, well, this movie was made for you. Okay, that's a bit much. There's plenty of reasons to pick it apart and tear it down, but at it's heart I do think they made a new Matrix to show you why there should never have been a new Matrix.

It rules

@mindbullet: This movie is really making people have some incredibly weird takes. Some of the stuff I’ve read online is starting to reach Last Jedi levels of strange. I read that tweet from Danny that basically said that people hating this movie is making him enjoy it even more. Just weird.

I thought it was great, but can understand why people didn't. They really don't give you any other choice but to love it or hate it.

Ive watched a handful of reviews and I tend to agree with all of their thoughts. They generally align with the.. this was a bizarre, bad Matrix movie. I guess as in, it kinda had none of the things that made the original good, or even the good stuff from the rest of the trilogy. Felt kinda like any other plain ol modern action movie.

Count me as part of the crowd that never asked for a follow up to the original trilogy. I think a more interesting story angle of this movie would've been to just make a reboot, which fits with the story, but then tie it back into the trilogy at the end. Entirely new cast etc. Like, whats a Matrix 2.0 so to speak. What did the machines learn and change. I get that that's what they tried to do here.. Except they did it with some of the same people, and the people who weren't the same were just the same but played by different actors. And all the exact same story beats as the original. And a lame story angle with Neo and Trinity. Ugh, just a weird mess the more that I think about it.

Honestly, if they had found a way to translate the Matrix into "the block chain" and draw parallels to what is happening in the real world today.. Probably would've been good. Make a Matrix movie about how all this NFT stuff is bullshit and we're doomed.

@sizzlerxanadu: as I said before, I like it but it’s also just a trifle. I did not have any strong love or hate reaction. It was a fun movie with some clever points. It was also a long movie with some real stinkers. The visual composition was good but the special effects looked old. This is a totally fine movie that I liked but I am not gonna think about much in a week. The extremism of opinions on either sides make gray shades like me sad for both sides.

I didn't really hate it, but it doesn't really have any staying power either. A kind of one-and-done deal.

I did really like some of the ideas and concepts they introduced in the beginning. Watching Mr. Anderson spiral deeper into self-doubt and depression was well done. These scenes were also where the character of the Analyst kinda worked.

I also thought this was one the more engaging performances by Keanu in recent times, and his chemistry with Carrie-Anne is – at least in my opinion – pretty darn great.

Then he gets freed from the illusion around him, and it all kind of falls flat on it's face. This is underlined by the really forgettable action scenes, that feel like a cheap knock-off of the originals. I mean say what you will about Reloaded and Revolutions, but at least they had some really nice action scenes to counteract the weak story.

Where Resurrections really dissapointed me though was the music. My god, what a forgettable score this had. I think that kinda hit home how uninspired the action really was.

Force Push

i've been thinking about it some more- and i think the amount of mental space afforded and the relative success of this movie really hinges on how much of the authorial 'voice' or perspective you're interested in. so much of the movie's meta layer seems preoccupied with directly addressing/commenting on post-matrix conceptions of the matrix- that i think it's catching a lot of folks off guard- and in some cases that converts to delight, and for others it's repulsive.

i think in my case- i remain somewhere in the middle on this one. i salute temerity of the thing they made, but it doesn't meaningfully contribute to my appreciation of the film itself nor the greater franchise. oddly enough- by dismantling a very specific (and from the director's apparent perspective, mockery-worthy) interpretation of that world- it kinda feels like film is satirizing an interpretation of those movies that doesn't exist for me...which sorta leaves me feeling like the movie has nothing to say to me.

(which to be clear- is totally ok! i'm all for authors taking risks to tell more personal stories. just in this case i feel like i'm not in on the joke...or maybe i'm just really feeling the distance between the self-seriousness of the first movie and the complete irreverence of this new one).

it is cool to see many people getting a huge kick out of it, though.

@humanity:This movie was definitely better than Last Jedi.

It was okay, but don't think I have much desire to rewatch it. Certainly better than 2 and 3, which I recently rewatched and thought still were bad (though bit more tolerable than when I first saw them). Luckily just like with Reloaded and Revolutions, this doesn't take away from the first Matrix still being great, whatever you like it or not.

The Last Jedi is the best movie of the sequel trilogy.

It was a lovely love story which I loved.

Resurrections wasn't that bad but its pretty much missing everything I liked about the orignal Matrix.

As soon as Neo becomes superman the stakes have to be raised so high that the spectacle onscreen looks ridiculous its like jumping a bigger shark each time.

The first Matrix was quite grounded and subverted reality which worked a lot better. It didn't help that the action scenes in Resurrections was too close full of quite cuts and generally pretty hard to see.

@ll_exile_ll: I didn’t like what they did with it and thought Force Awakens was much better but the real secret is that all the new trilogy movies are bad in their own ways - Rise being exceptionally bad.

Loved that this was basically Lana reclaiming the Matrix back from crazy right wing asshats.