THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS - In Theaters & HBO Max

[AndyDursin]

Anything will be more satisfying than the 3rd movie's lame ending...but it's been a while since the Wachowskis have had a hit. I mean, they were men the last time they had one, right?

https://deadline.com/2019/08/the-matrix ... 202674278/

[AndyDursin]

Don't know about this.

[Monterey Jack]

aka "The Wachowskis couldn't get anything else greenlit..."

[AndyDursin]

Lol yes. The sequel you really don't want to make for when you've got no other bullets left in the chamber.

[Monterey Jack]

It's been hilarious to see the nostalgic reactions to this trailer on Twitter and at BR.com, when I'm sitting there thinking, "The last time the Wachowkis made a good movie, I was not quite twenty-five". Yeah, the sequels had their flashes of excitement, but Revolutions, in particular, was a harbinger of things to come, a second hour that consisted of ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndlessssssssssssssss footage of flying robotic squids flying around in figure-eight patterns as they got shot down. Just like the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, the first was an out-of-nowhere pleasant surprise, the second was a cumbersome, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink middle chapter that did nothing but move chess pieces around (albeit with a couple of admittedly-cool action sequences), and the third was a bloated, tedious mess. This fourth one will be like the fourth Pirates, a useless vestigial limb that needs to be pruned. Hey, I remember the buzz of excitement the first one generated, but I also remember Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending.

[AndyDursin]

Keanu looks like he's not even into it, just biding the time between John Wick sequels.

[Monterey Jack]

Why should be be enthused about returning to a worn-out series when he has a current, far better-review franchise currently running?

[Monterey Jack]

7.5/10

It's a...good Wachowski movie...?!



It has its leaden, cutesy moments (so many "meta" jabs...!), but thankfully gets them out of the way early on, and gets down to some clever action, humor that's intentionally funny (Neil Patrick Harris is dryly amusing) and has a well-earned emotional core. From filmmakers I had dismissed years ago, I didn't expect a Wachowski sibling could still have something this good in them. It's certainly not great, and is jammed with "remember this cool scene?" clips from the previous movies, but compared to their output in the last two decades, I'll take it.

[AndyDursin]

I'm going to check it out but you are definitely on the bright side of things. Most of the reviews and fan comments are horrific, as expected. I will get to it though especially now that we have years to go before John Wick kicks ass again.

[Monterey Jack]

Hey, considering their last movies were Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending, this could have been MUCH worse. it's far more nimble than the second and third Matrix movies (despite being longer than either), and doesn't bog down in endless "philosophical" debating and embarrassing rave scenes. Even the action bits don't drone on for fifteen minutes at a stretch. I was pleasantly surprised. Shame they couldn't get Laurence Fishburne or Hugo Weaving back (their "reskinned" replacement actors do wan impressions), but I kind of dug this. It's also thankfully self-contained in much the same way as the first one was.

It definitely helped that I didn't re-watch the originals before watching this, although I dug out the excellent Don Davis soundtracks for all three and gave them a spin again.

[AndyDursin]

I don't have much of an attachment to the earlier movies -- saw them once and pretty much forgot about them -- but I'll check it out. Not easy to do with Christmas vacation here and a 2nd grader around at the moment lol.

[Eric W.]

I've seen the expected mixed feedback that is typical for another "way too late/after the fact/did we really need a sequel at all?" movie but it's probably going to be solid enough for what it is.

I'm probably more optimistic for Wick 4 vs this although even this is likely hitting the "gone to the well too many times." At least they did this one in a timely fashion.

Wick 4 being delayed to 2023 is absurd. I can see not having it run against Matrix but after that it's ridiculous.

[jkholm]

It took me two nights to watch The Matrix Resurrections with a viewing of Spider-Man: No Way Home sandwiched in-between. While not an ideal way to watch a movie, it made for an interesting contrast on the subject of fan service. The Marvel movie wholly embraced fan service. So did The Matrix but with an added wink and maybe even a middle finger.

I'm not a fan of "meta" movies but the Wachowski's managed to create something unique, simultaneously a reboot, sequel and remake. I don't know if it will hold up to repeat viewings but I'm still thinking about it, mostly trying to determine how seriously I'm supposed to take it. The plot has plenty of fascinating ideas and new characters but often dismisses those ideas and switches gears. There's a scene near the end where someone gives an elaborate technobabble speech about the Big Plan to save the day and I swear something totally different (and just as ludicrous) happened instead. Or maybe the Wachowski's were just making fun of overly complicated plans that only work in the movies. Either way, this is much different than recent blockbusters and that's a good thing.

My only real complaint is that the action scenes mostly felt cramped and hard to follow. Only the final set piece worked and even it straddled the line between dazzling spectacle and a parody of the same thing.

[Monterey Jack]

It took me two nights to watch The Matrix Resurrections with a viewing of Spider-Man: No Way Home sandwiched in-between. While not an ideal way to watch a movie, it made for an interesting contrast on the subject of fan service. The Marvel movie wholly embraced fan service. So did The Matrix but with an added wink and maybe even a middle finger.

I'm not a fan of "meta" movies but the Wachowski's managed to create something unique, simultaneously a reboot, sequel and remake. I don't know if it will hold up to repeat viewings but I'm still thinking about it, mostly trying to determine how seriously I'm supposed to take it.

Many critics have made comparison's to Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which is apt, a movie that's simultaneously a crass retread of past glories and a finger-wagging sermon about rehashing the past. At least it's a more interesting tack than something like The Force Awakens, which was just a re-skinned Star Wars that never once copped to the fact that its entire dramatic and narrative structure was Xeroxed from the original movie. Neil Patrick Harris' speech about the what the "Sheeple" want from their entertainment at the end summed it up nicely.

It was far more interesting than the previous two Matrix sequels, which were just leaden and inert.

[Eric W.]

https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-resurre ... explained/


Speaking just for myself:

I'm glad this thing has not performed well at the box office for a number of reasons.

They can come up with excuses including blaming COVID but Spiderman proves that wrong.

It's another way too late/after the fact sequel that wasn't needed, wasn't wanted, and came off a trilogy that was woefully uneven in narrative anyways. This movie is uneven.

I hope this puts a cold chill and maybe finally begins an end to this "way after the fact sequel" absurdity. We did prequlitis. We've done too late sequlitis. Cut it out and move on. Come up with some fresh ideas or don't bother.

People will come to the theater when you put out something fun and good like the new Spiderman movie even with COVID and all the rest of it so enough of that excuse.