matrix 4 - resurrections thoughts

[AwesumPurson]

Spoiler warning!

I watched it again and do not hold it in the same regards I hold the first three. There are themes that resonate with me but it falls short on a number of levels. I have not read any reviews yet as I like to form some independent ideas first but that's probably next.

The open shitting on WB is too much. I like the theme but it has a feel of petty vengeance to it.

The bullet time visuals are crap. It's so crap it seems intentional.

Threatening the painting of rainbows does not remotely give the same feeling left at the end of the first movie. So it does not feel at all like a second chance.

I do like the attempt to bring balance to the male/female duality of the story. I appreciate the focus on the female part in the play and in particular the female choice , but there is an essance of a woman scorned permeating the story that I can't seem to unsee. I understand that in that effort, Neo should be left short this go around vs Trinity. But to not let him achieve powers he had previously is meh.

Th digital Morpheus-Smith was an interesting idea. The most visually appealing character was Bugs but her character development seemed to fall short. Though many of the things Merv said were of value, they were lost in his rediculous appearance and whining soliloquy.

Smith has me scratching my head. When he first wakes up he goes straight back into his compulsion to end Neo. Then, they fight again later. Then they are collaborating without any clues to how or if that was setup. Then poof he is gone. WTF?

The great focus on the ability to fly is also meh. And just flying away at the end as a closer to the action scene was a big letdown. Actually they didn't even show them flying away, just the start of it.

I really can't tell if a true full effort was made here or not.

I will confirm that if you did not like movies 2-3 then you will likely not enjoy this either.

If you enjoyed the first 3 on a deep level this one will fall short likely. In those ones every line had a purpose as did every detail (except some action). This one is not that. Hell, there's even time for a What's up doc? joke.

This movie felt like it could have been so much more as it had moments and themes of deep meaning but failed to execute for likely many reasons.

There are better movies to spend your time on.

 

[hayagix]

It was as bad as most "made for tv movies". Netflix and Amazon are pumping out lots of crap.
Moss did not age well. I like Keanu for other reasons but he's never been a great actor.
I was left feeling sad and depressed after watching that mess.

 

[AwesumPurson]

Just watched Don't Look Up. It's good. On one level it's a reflection on our climate change crisis and our inability to realistically face it as a species due to the detached state of our societies from anything real.

 

[RM7]

To summarize the critic Jay Sherman, the cause of bad movies is on us. If we stop watching bad movies they'll stop making them. If the movie used to be a TV show, just don't watch it. After roman numeral II, give it a rest. If it's a remake of a classic, watch the classic. Watch stories about people, not a hundred million dollars of stunts and explosives. It's up to us... if the movie stinks, just don't go. Of course, if people really cared about what they say they care about, we wouldn't live in an endless sea of superhero movies and Mustang SUVs. We deserve what we get because we are as bad as the movies we patronize. Soon we'll have a Corvette SUV and we won't care as long as it's electric and has games on it's touchscreen. We live in the Matrix while watching movies about the Matrix! What the hell are we doing!? I'm going to go watch a transformers movie and regret my very existence. Maybe a comet can save us.

This is so true.

Storytelling is basically dead now that special effects can make anything possible.

I think the original matrix was solid for story and special effects. But all too often, now special effects is used to do stuff that it really shouldn't be doing. The context of the matrix was ok for a lot of the stuff that was going on there, in a computer world, no real physical limits, whatever, but that same CGI and other mind-bending stuff was applied to every other fight-scene and movie and it just waters it all down and makes it all seem a lot less realistic and impactful. You know people can't jump like that, or move like that, or dodge bullets, etc. The idea with a great story is you don't NEED the crazy extended mind-bending CGI. Sure, some of it is good, but the point of a good story IMO is the story that goes on in your head, how it requires you to use your imagination and put the pieces together or form the complete picture. Please don't think I'm trying to say don't use special effects...I'm just saying that it's totally out of control and now it's being used in place of good storytelling, basically the story is an afterthought and there's little effort made in maintaining any kind of continuity in sequels. A good example of this is any comic-book-based movie. I like Guardians of the Galaxy because it obviously doesn't take itself seriously. I like the Glass/Unbreakable series because it actually tries to tell a story and not just trying to blaze special effects in your face constantly or having a superhero running around doing stuff that would take a nuclear reactor to power. The newest star wars movies are examples of everything going to **** though. Just dumbass stuff that makes no sense and a story that makes no sense (just re-hashing the original 3 film stories). And don't get me started on transformers...

I want a story that has twists that I don't see coming that requires me to use my imagination and really think about what just happened or what is going to happen. Special effects can definitely be part of it...

Like with James Bond. The first Daniel Craig was amazing. It was a truly different experience. It wasn't a jokey comedy thing that earlier versions were. It was a good story with reasonable action scenes for the most part...but as the franchise continued, these got more and more ridiculous, like a continual one-up on the previous movies...to the point of being Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore-ridiculous, like the flying a plane with no wings scene in whatever forgettable DC james bond movie that was. It croses a line at some point for me where it's just not even plausible for any human being, highly trained or not, and it just becomes a farce of special effects at that point. The story has got to be plausible, it has got to be good.

Another good movie, The Unforgiven, where the entire movie kind of leads up to the short showdown at the end...and the "action" time is really pretty small when you think about it...but it's that leadup and story that really make it, by the time the movie gets to that point, it's obvious that the world has been turned upside down, hell has been brought and revenge will be had. Or Ronin, none of those action scenes are the jason-borne crap or post-matrix crap, but the story leaves you guessing the entire time as to "what is in the box" and "what is really happening". It keeps you glued...no dumbass karate or parkour crap.

The Matrix obviously gets a pass on a lot of the special effects stuff, because it's in context with that world, but the storytelling in general has just gotten so bad...and like you said, it's probably because we watch everything, or kids want to watch it, to be wowed by the next CGI effect...

 

[ht_addict]

I will check it out.

I just started watching Arcane on Netflix. I'm hooked. Give 3 episodes a try as it takes that long to fully set things up.

Not really a reality bender but it has a fantastic feel that makes for a good show.

Fantastic series. Hoping for a second session