disappointing that jonathon groff is somehow less of a freak as smith than he was as that fed in mindhunter
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Gosh I have some emotions about Matrix 4 lol. I liked it but there is another version of me that could have easily hated it. So I’m not paying any attention to that version. It’s okay to like things. It’s like they said upfront Warner Bros. were going to make a new Matrix either way.
Was nice seeing Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss. Don’t really care that nobody else came back besides Jada Pinkett Smith and probably a couple other people I missed. I guess that was Lambert Wilson for all of five minutes in the middle so that’s four. But really I think I would have been okay if they just used a completely new group of people for all the old roles like they did with the other characters. It was fine. It worked. Some other newer actors got to be in a big movie. Cool.
Also that post credits scene… lol this whole thing was just a giant deconstructed self-aware nostalgia fest cash-in, the product of a culture bankrupt of new ideas etc. etc.
But that’s fine. I honestly don’t know what else a new Matrix movie would be if not all of that stuff. It took my mind off my life for a few hours so as an entertainment product it was a solid Mission Accomplished. I’ll watch another one if they ever make it.
Neil Patrick Harris was great. Jonathan Groff was great. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was great. Priyonka Chopra was great. They were all great and all they did was dump a bunch of exposition and explain the plot as it was happening and pontificate like a kid who just discovered Kant and Descartes and modern philosophy. I should probably watch all the other movies these actors have done now. Well, besides Neil Patrick Harris I mean. I’m already familiar with his work.
It would be cool if this movie meant that “the Matrix is back” or whatever but it sounds like the zeitgeist is too cynical for it and it was always a product of its own time anyway. I’d settle for another Animatrix though. I want to see the gaps between this movie and the previous ones filled in more.
I agree but since there was way more emotionality or whatnot behind all the action scenes here than in any of the sequels that evened it out for me.
Yeah I kept thinking during the ship and io parts they need to capitalize on all this interesting shit here with a new animatrix
what a beautiful movie
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I’m curious what you mean by “back” - you’d want more sequel films? Or just greater prominence in existing canon?
I disagree on the latter point, though. I’m at the end of Revolutions now and the first three are about as timeless as any science fiction can be. Maybe more vital now.
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Yeah like another trilogy plus side stories like Animatrix. Even more games and comics and stuff. For a minute there it was like the Matrix was just part of the pop cultural background and then by like 2008 it all just kind of went away.
I suppose there is a solid case to be made for the timelessness and vitality of it. I’m glad you feel that way because in my mind I’d fixed the first movie to the turn of the century millenarian cultural ennui that was dominant and expressing itself in the form of movies like Fight Club and American Beauty and Office Space. It was like all of that was a nihilistic shrug in response to the first post Cold War decade of capitalism triumphant. Oh yeah we won who cares don’t you still hate your job and your perfect boring life fuck the system what is even real anyway. That sort of feeling. The escalating crises of war, economic collapse, climate change, societal unrest etc. in the two decades since has kind of put that feeling into the background in a way, or at least that’s the impression I get now.
I’m glad the Matrix was able to become more than that, and indeed it always was more than that from the beginning. More than just a cool, edgy looking action flick. I like that it’s become more of an example of like the positive side of transhumanism. There’s a good message to these movies. It will be interesting to see what the reviews look like for Resurrections in a year. That might be a better temperature check for the zeitgeist.
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I kept alternating between wishing they got hugo weaving back and thinking smith being reborn as mark zuckerberg and thinking: “I’m even more perfect now, amazing” was hilarious
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Yeah this movie ruled? The self-references were fun but I like how kinda uplifting it was. No real sad scenes really, and not a single person died. Also I liked how it turned into a heist movie for a bit there.
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I don’t trust my first impression but I loved every minute of it even after a preceding 7 hours of Matrices. It squared circles so fast I couldn’t stop to be astonished.
edit: went back and watched the first scene up to the pills again and it’s actually just perfect: The choice is an illusion. You already know what you have to do.
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Also I really did enjoy just how much this movie shits on video games. Give us hell, Lana.
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it’s a banger
curious to see how well it holds up on rewatch without the surprise - especially in the first half - but what a fucking trip that was to catch opening night in the cinema
Watched Resurrections again this morning. I’m inextricably a mark for this movie but it still felt like someone palpitating my heart by hand during the climax on a second viewing.
Making the villains campy fun is my favorite change from the originals
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Yeah this was a blast to see in theatres. I’m probably projecting but it’s such a Gen-X/old millennial midlife crisis vibe and I wonder how that translates to people that didn’t grow up alongside The Matrix. Like everyone’s saying, it’s not the typical IP extending blockbuster or passing of the torch, father and son, Indy and Mutt shit. It’s the redemption of that cool ass couple that don’t wanna have kids and just wanna be badass and fuck while sticking it to The Man. Like, the first one was highschool power fantasy, the two follow ups were college kid philosophising + doomer Dragon Ballisms and this is a grounding of things in the face of growing old.
I’m definitely projecting in that regard. But the unabashedly romantic idea of losing one’s way in life and that love is something worth struggling for and worth living for, I didn’t know I wanted that from a Matrix movie and I’m glad it’s what I got.
Really appreciated the heightened sense of humour too, even if it’s a bit heavy handed at times (god, that post-credit sequence was not really worth waiting for lol, how are you gonna make a Matrix cat pun and go for Catrix over Meowtrix? (or maybe that’s the point, those guys are just that dumb)).
The action was a bit of a let down, wasn’t feeling the choppy editing and shaky cam shit but my friend told me that Lana was sick of meticulously storyboarding things and holding people to that and just wanted to grab the camera and jump into the middle of the action and it sure does feel like that, for better or worse, but fair enough. Most of the sequences still hit the right emotional notes. She delivered!
And finally, I really did miss Laurence Fishburne. Narratively it works to have him played by another actor (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was good) but thinking about how weird and interesting it would have been to see the man himself return and portray that distorted version of the character (I know he died in the MMO but also wonder if him doing that Super Bowl ad as Morpheus had something to do with being dropped…) it might have made the movie just that much better.
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I didn’t see them until watching home video releases in 2005 so I didn’t get much if any of the zeitgeist (I’m 29). I think of Bugs and company as the beneficiaries of the world that Neo and Trinity made possible. I barely have to squint to analogize that to generations of queer people. Bugs’ scenes with Morpheus and freshly awakened Neo are probably the strongest hooks for this reading.
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That reminds me, Bugs (“like the bunny”) is a little inside joke re: Warner Bros. right?
edit: Like, if WB do force the series to go on, Bugs (who I like as a character, Jessica Henwick is great) seems like the obvious choice of character to reboot things and the series would then be stuck with a lead named after Looney Tunes which is a good joke to leave behind (or I’ve fallen way too far down the meta rabbit hole).
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i really adored this, uneven but any issues seem so secondary. just a gorgeous coda, neo x trinity never worked for me but here i am tearing up at the coffeeshop scene
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I’m sure! I remember hearing the line “What’s up, doc?” in this movie.
An amusement, that’s all.
(Bugs is also the white rabbit, so yes.)
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Right, the carrot on the shirt was a bit on the nose but I’m into it. Also thinking about how in the Matriculated episode of Animatrix, the “converted” machine breaks through a (4th?) wall so that its head gets stuck in the Looney Tunes circle logo and…maybe the Bugs/rabbit hole thing was lurking there all along.
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watched it ; felt a bit mid about it in the middle, wavering between delighted and looking at my watch ; have been thinking more and more about it since it ended, I think I really liked it
fuck “fans”
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