The Matrix Resurrections Thread - Woah

[StarkRavingMad]

Saw the movie on HBO Max. It was garbage, as everyone else has stated here.

For me, though, it's frustrating garbage. In my opinion, I actually liked the big reveal on why Neo and Trinity survived The Matrix: Revolutions. The scene of that exposition dump was quite literally the only GOOD scene of the entire movie. That scene alone told me that the movie actually had potential. Alas, the movie ends up being really far up its own ass instead. How incredibly annoying.

These days, I really hate meta shit. Meta stuff is just an excuse for bad writers, really. The movie shits on sequels and reboots, and yet ... This movie is unironically guilty of every trope in a bad sequel or reboot. Just because the movie spent the first 45 minutes obnoxiously pointing that out doesn't make it a good or a clever movie. It is beyond cynical, in the ugliest and most arrogant way.

To me, the movie can go off and bitch about sequels and reboots ... All of that grandstanding means absolutely jack shit when the filmmaker was happy to cash that damn paycheck for it. Lana Wachowski is a gargantuan hypocrite for making this movie. Point blank period.

To top it all off, the action scenes were dogshit, too. I don't like any of the Matrix sequels, but at least Reloaded had that baller highway chase, and at least Revolutions had some cool action scenes, too.

 

[EmpireOfTheClouds]

View attachment 2828334

Jean Baudrillard was a big influence on the Matrix but the Watchowskis didn't really understand his work, the matrix being much more similat to Plato's cave than simulacra & simulation.
Here's a video if you got time to listen to something on this special day (I sure do!)

The basic tl;dw is that the Matrix presents a binary system, you're either redpilled or bluepilled but the postmodern reality presents endless layers of truth and falsehood.
Here's a twitter splurtchain if you got even more time to waste.

So years later we get Matrix Resurrections and it does contain some lines about the binary but has the same red/blue separation. Why couldn't it attempt to address Baudrillard's criticism of the matrix? Why do we get references but no substance?

Well the director already answered this question, it's because this was his way of coping with his parents deaths; he cracked open the toybox, pulled out Neo and Trinity and got back to playing. But since he's a troon now he's identifying with the girl and not the dude we get Trinity being way more important to the plot.
That's right, this is basically Matrix Revolution 60 by our own Brianna Wu, it even has action girls and motorcycles, which are as dear to Wu as to Watchowski.



For something better go read the manga Joshi Kouhei by Matsumoto Jiro. I won't elaborate further because it's almost certain nobody here heard of it and any discussion on the connection will spoil everything. Go read it, it's like Apocalypse Now with giant girl mechas. Go read it. They finally finished translating it. Go read it.

There's a scene in The Matrix Revisited where Keanu Reeves gives a pretty in depth take on the movie's ties to Sim and Sim, and the overall philosophical take. It offers a much better understanding than the Wachowskis themselves could have ever offered.

 

[Rezza]

For something better go read the manga Joshi Kouhei by Matsumoto Jiro. I won't elaborate further because it's almost certain nobody here heard of it and any discussion on the connection will spoil everything. Go read it, it's like Apocalypse Now with giant girl mechas. Go read it. They finally finished translating it. Go read it.

So I read the entirety of this manga you said, and yeah, I can kind of see what you're talking about. Can't really say more further because it's going to spoil it

 

[The Un-Clit]

Can't wait for all the "you're a transphobe if you didn't go see Matrix Resurrections" articles.

Yup. The whole point of the damn movie seems to have been to elevate Troonity to not even equal to but beyond 'The One', original Neo. Bonus MESSAGE points for the closing credits song being the same as that from the first movie, but sung by a woman this time.

 

[horni]

I watched the movie two days ago (pirated it). While it had some ideas I liked (some machines trying to cooperate with humans for example, or bringing back the girl from Revolutions) but the overall package was so poorly done that it reaches Star Trek Discovery/Disney Wars levels of disgusting incompetence and laziness. One fight scene from any John Wick movie has more effort put into it than all action scenes in Matrix 4 put together. There are takes literally copied from earlier movies (Bootleg Smith destroying the column with his fist, ammo shells falling down from the helicopter and so on) for no real reason. Merovingian's speech is so hamfisted that I felt an actual pain from cringing.
Speaking of Bootleg Smith: Hugo Weaving WAS the character and without him there is no Agent Smith, simple as. During meta-speech about Warner Bros wanting a sequel (and the meta stuff comes off as a passive-aggressive excuse why this movie is so underwhelming rather than something actually smart) there is a small statue of Agent Smith getting punched in the face. Yes, that infamous scene from Revolutions, when during an apocalyptic final showdown, when characters are dying and worlds are ending, Agent Smith gets a comical, cartoony punch in the face and all people in the cinema start laughing (or cringing how anti-climactic that scene was). Why this shit has been brought back - I have no idea. For cheap laughs? To "acknowledge" something? To sniff its own fart? I don't know and I don't care anymore.

And the movie could have been with some nice, simple-but-touching message: there was this movie Matrix, 20+ years ago. It was extremely cool and you were young. Now everything cool from it has been copied ad infinitum, overanalyzed, devalued and buried under a pile of redundant information. And here you are, old and tired with all of it, afraid to even touch the old memories. But there is a glimmer of hope, when Neo meets Trinity, and maybe things can be cool and fun once more, even for a little while.

Instead we got trannies mass-jumping out of the windows, suicide-bombing the streets.

 

[Cubanodun]

They could have just animated all Matrix Online story including the cut content and it would have been better than this, at least people got spared of that attempt of gender swapping Neo that was quickly cut by Warner

 

[StarkRavingMad]

I don't even hate that Neo and Trinity both become "The Ones" (or whatever the hell you want to call them lol). Sure, it's a little cheesy that "the power of love foils evil's plans once again!" but whatever-- I'm fine with that kind of shit when it's actually earned. Had the movie not been this garbage, on-the-nose meta circlejerk, I think that most of the concepts surrounding Neo and Trinity could have absolutely worked.

The feminist pandering during the final 5 minutes of the movie, though. Good lord almighty once Trinity learns how to fly, Neo just becomes this useless little boy forced into the sidelines. Why must female characters these days always require that the other characters surrounding them be nerfed in order for them to look cool? Trinity has been a kick-ass and awesome female character since 1999. Using her as a tool to pander to women is just ... Tired, cringey, gross, and a huge disservice to the character.

Aside from those final minutes of the movie, though, I didn't find the movie to be woke ... Unless you count meta narratives to be woke, that is.

 

[The Un-Clit]

Yeah, as I noted in my stand-alone thread I was mostly enjoying this movie after a rough start in a 'turn off your brain' way. The wheels really came off towards the final third and especially the end. The Merovingian's scene was utterly wasted, why even bring him back if you're going to do that? I mean he was wasted in the 3rd movie too, but not so brutally tossed on the scrappy-heap as this time around.

New Morpheus was pretty good, why the hell couldn't they take that level of effort to make a new Agent Smith if you HAD to re-cast him? Wtf was wrong with Hugo Weaving, unless he refused to do it? Also, I could swear at least agent Johnson was the same actor from the original trilogy. If it wasn't, dude was damn near a clone.

But that ending.....Jesus tits. It wouldn't have even needed a ton of changes to make it work better either. But the relenentless push of THE MESSAGE at the end really left a bitter taste of butchered NEO-vag (lol) on my tongue.

 

[Aquafag]

Yeah I hated it too. The Matrix films were my favorite movies growing up. I liked them so much that people called me Neo in school as either a jab at me due to my obsession or as a friendly nod of acknowledgement. I can't deny I was excited for more matrix material, not that any was needed, but much like Disney star wars, this movie was phoned in and bad. It will never be rewatched while the og trilogy will continue to be viewed for the rest of my life.

 

[Commander X]

What struck me is how the writing is worse than fanfiction, mostly reminiscent of verbose leftist memes. Every single person acts either like a Redditor or a Redditor's mental caricature of a bad person and the plot, such as it is, is stitched together from flashbacks to the least memorable parts of the original trilogy.

It feels like Disney Star Wars trilogy all over again in some ways, the slavish Xeroxing of the original and trashing the conclusion of the earlier movies in order to redo the same conflict. Another terrible film it shares similarities to is No Time To Die: the sloth-like pace of what are supposed to be action films; spending far too much time ponderously fixating on franchise backstory and mythology and ridiculously flat, generic villains. The action is lame, reminding me of the sort of pathetic choreography and shots you'd see in "Netflix Original" trash action films like Gunpowder Milkshake. Everything in Matrix Resurrections is a rehash of a rehash, a product of total creative bankruptcy.

 

[Weeb_Killer]

Not as bad as I thought it would be. Still a steaming shit pile however. Thing is, if the creators/writers are clearly jaded and bitter about making this film, why the fuck should anyone else care?

Poor dialogue.
Poor tempo.
Poor acting.
Poor action.

Felt like a made for TV film at times.

Still had a few nuggets of good ideas though. Just executed pathetically.

 

[EmpireOfTheClouds]

Yeah, as I noted in my stand-alone thread I was mostly enjoying this movie after a rough start in a 'turn off your brain' way. The wheels really came off towards the final third and especially the end. The Merovingian's scene was utterly wasted, why even bring him back if you're going to do that? I mean he was wasted in the 3rd movie too, but not so brutally tossed on the scrappy-heap as this time around.

New Morpheus was pretty good, why the hell couldn't they take that level of effort to make a new Agent Smith if you HAD to re-cast him? Wtf was wrong with Hugo Weaving, unless he refused to do it? Also, I could swear at least agent Johnson was the same actor from the original trilogy. If it wasn't, dude was damn near a clone.

But that ending.....Jesus tits. It wouldn't have even needed a ton of changes to make it work better either. But the relenentless push of THE MESSAGE at the end really left a bitter taste of butchered NEO-vag (lol) on my tongue.

Morpheus was enjoyable to watch, and unlike most of the thread, I enjoyed Bugs' scenes. She was cute and funny.

Keanu and Carrie clearly didn't want to be there though, and dear LORD Keanu's acting was probably the worst I have seen it.

 

[Aquafag]

Felt like a made for TV film at times.

More like at all times. The movie had absolutely no interesting cinematography and I'm glad I watched it on HBO Max and cancelec my subscription after. I only had it for GoT anyway.

 

[Ahriman]

 

[Thomas Arashikage]

WB did not greenlight Dune 2 right away but they gave Lana bags of money? This could not have cost 160-190 mill USD to make as some reports say. Effects and fight scenes are shit. The blue haired chick and new Morpheus was cool, though.

 

[The Un-Clit]

WB did not greenlight Dune 2 right away but they gave Lana bags of money? This could not have cost 160-190 mill USD to make as some reports say. Effects and fight scenes are shit. The blue haired chick and new Morpheus was cool, though.

Blue haired chick was okay, until the storyline totally forget she existed.

My bro The Critical Drinker did a brutal 'review' of the movie that pretty much nails everything we said right on the head.

The number of times I said 'fuck off, film!' while watching this might have been a record if I hadn't seen the latest "Dune" shitfest first, even though there were some parts I enjoyed.

 

[Mukhrani]

Aside from those final minutes of the movie, though, I didn't find the movie to be woke ... Unless you count meta narratives to be woke, that is.

I think the real element of woke was a subversion of the thematic elements that made the earlier movies work. Dark, grungy, urban survivalist, constant struggle, a sense of real danger. It was undercut by characters that look like they were pulled from a Brooklyn Starbucks. Morpheus went from brooding, wise, mysterious, and just cool to an effete, quipping Marvel sidekick (a character type that I loathe). The rest of the hovercraft 'crew' underwent similar devolutions. It just felt like it didn't take itself seriously and ended up feeling woke without the overt hamfisted messaging - if you don't count the ending.

What a terrible ending too. Trinity was interesting as a character because she had more personal strength than Neo. He was 'physically' stronger than her, but ultimately she was the one that caused him to deviate from the normal path that 'The One' was programmed to take and reform the matrix. She wasn't a weak damsel in distress, but she wasn't a God either. She was a well-rounded character with a pivotal role in the story.

 

[Dick Justice]

For something better go read the manga Joshi Kouhei by Matsumoto Jiro. I won't elaborate further because it's almost certain nobody here heard of it and any discussion on the connection will spoil everything. Go read it, it's like Apocalypse Now with giant girl mechas. Go read it. They finally finished translating it. Go read it.

Mecha is dumb. Mecha is always dumb. It always has been dumb and every time a mecha achieves the lofty heights of "not so dumb" it's in spite of the dumb mecha, a millstone that the story has to work extra hard to carry. Is it any wonder that the best mecha is big dumb mecha that embraces its big dumb mecha stupidity, like Megas XLR, Gurren Lagann or that From Software game where the President is the bad enough dude? Meanwhile mecha that tries to take itself seriously like Gundam has to work extra hard to maintain any measure of gravitas in a series where giant flourescent robots hit each other with literal swords.
And that's ignoring the worst part, the Japs and their moeshit obsession. Anything "anime" about or even proximally involving cute girls doing cute things is the nigger technology of storytelling. Without reading it I can confidently say it's worse than the new Matrix.

 

[BoomerSperg1922]

I will never watch this film. In fact, reading over a dozen pages of people here who did has killed any lingering curiosity I did have about it.

But for those of you who did, I salute you.


Going to go pirate and re-watch the first one now, godspeed.

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

Mecha is dumb. Mecha is always dumb. It always has been dumb and every time a mecha achieves the lofty heights of "not so dumb" it's in spite of the dumb mecha, a millstone that the story has to work extra hard to carry. Is it any wonder that the best mecha is big dumb mecha that embraces its big dumb mecha stupidity, like Megas XLR, Gurren Lagann or that From Software game where the President is the bad enough dude? Meanwhile mecha that tries to take itself seriously like Gundam has to work extra hard to maintain any measure of gravitas in a series where giant flourescent robots hit each other with literal swords.
And that's ignoring the worst part, the Japs and their moeshit obsession. Anything "anime" about or even proximally involving cute girls doing cute things is the nigger technology of storytelling. Without reading it I can confidently say it's worse than the new Matrix.

You will never have good taste. You have no standards, you have no eye for quality, you have no experience with any genre. You are a plebian twisted by buzzwords and memes into a crude mockery of someone able to share criticism online.