I was discussing the film with some of my friends last week, and we were reminded of Jean Baudrillard's famous criticism of the original film and trilogy, "The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce". Now when one of the key influences of the concept that underpins the original trilogy makes such a damning statement, to then take that comment and own it and make that the kernel of your next film, and to have the creative vision to bring that about is just mesmerizing.

What I really liked about this film is how it plays as a sequel, homage and critique all at the same time. Very very cool indeed.

...aaaand it flopped, im actually surprised there was a ton of fuzz online and with the release of that unreal engine 5 demo i though this would do decently, but this made less than fucking mortal kombat, yikes, is this an undeserved flop ? i read that you guys are quite liking it.

side note, i still havent watched "live die repeat" FFS, got reminded of that one suddenly.

Nicolaslabra wrote: ↑

December 28th, 2021, 1:30 am

...aaaand it flopped, im actually surprised there was a ton of fuzz online and with the release of that unreal engine 5 demo i though this would do decently, but this made less than fucking mortal kombat, yikes, is this an undeserved flop ? i read that you guys are quite liking it.

side note, i still havent watched "live die repeat" FFS, got reminded of that one suddenly.

Blame WB and their HBO Max project. I bet they regret their decision to release their films simultaneously in theaters & streaming. + they lost Nolan because of that

I mean Matrix is nowhere as popular as franchises like Marvel. The 2 sequels don't have really a great fan following. So naturally the people saved their theater money and watched it online. Legal or illegal (in best quality thanks to HBO Max). But to be fair, even without HBO Max I believe this would have flopped (but not that hard as now). And if I'm honest I'm a bit happy about it. More success for more original and less sequels, prequels etc.

X-MementoMori-X wrote: ↑

December 28th, 2021, 12:06 pm

Nicolaslabra wrote: ↑

December 28th, 2021, 1:30 am

...aaaand it flopped, im actually surprised there was a ton of fuzz online and with the release of that unreal engine 5 demo i though this would do decently, but this made less than fucking mortal kombat, yikes, is this an undeserved flop ? i read that you guys are quite liking it.

side note, i still havent watched "live die repeat" FFS, got reminded of that one suddenly.

Blame WB and their HBO Max project. I bet they regret their decision to release their films simultaneously in theaters & streaming. + they lost Nolan because of that

I mean Matrix is nowhere as popular as franchises like Marvel. The 2 sequels don't have really a great fan following. So naturally the people saved their theater money and watched it online. Legal or illegal (in best quality thanks to HBO Max). But to be fair, even without HBO Max I believe this would have flopped (but not that hard as now). And if I'm honest I'm a bit happy about it. More success for more original and less sequels, prequels etc.

Everything you said is right on the nail.

A financial flop can be a great film nonetheless so discussions of financial performance of a movie are mostly interesting to Hollywood insiders. What matters to me is just whether a film's good or not.

Some of the dialogue is super clunky. It occasionally went into gibberish, which made things a bit tough to follow.

I really liked Jessica Henwick. Like, even without Reeves and Moss, she would have been a solid enough lead to carry this film.

I see a lot of criticism over the action and effects, but I found them to be pretty fun. Like, better than most action films I've seen in a while.

I don't think the film would have worked if it didn't at least dip into meta territory. I appreciated the self-awareness.

It doesn't reach the heights of the first two films in my mind, but it's a worthy continuation of the story, and finds a way to justify its existence.

Very interesting film to me, the first half with all the super-meta dialogue and scenes is actually pretty fun to follow, and doesn't come off as lazy fanservice. I had zero ideas where the film was going. Then, by the end, I found the story to be almost moving in a way.

But then at certain moments, and in general when I think back on the film as a whole, it felt a bit underwhelming. I'm sure this will change by repeated viewings, but the action, the music and the overall visual aesthetic of the film was a slight letdown for me. The basic trilogy is so easily identifiable, and the action is such a highlight of it, but here most of the action scenes, and the way they were shot, lighted, etc. almost felt amateurish. I'm not sure if the decision to shoot these scenes the way they did was a conscious one, or it simply "ended up" looking like this, but I'm not entirely sold on them. Some of the effects looked cheap as well.

I understand that we could argue action wasn't the focus of this film as much as it was in the previous ones, but still, I think spectacular action is part of the identity of The Matrix films. Obviously, it's perfectly fine if they decided not to revolutionize action filmmaking this time (they even give a few meta shoutouts to this as well), but I can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed nevertheless.

Overall, I enjoyed it, and more importantly, I wasn't annoyed by it the same way I get annoyed by modern blockbusters, sequels and franchise entries in particular. It felt like a genuine continuation of the story and I liked the ending. I'm curious to see how this might hold up in the future.