I agree with what was said earlier about it all being clickbaity, too. The usual group of youtube personalities are decrying the film already, and the videos are basically all titled the same, and it's just obvious race to hit the publish/upload button. These are people who got big on being loud, boisterous and negative with things like The Last Jedi, Ghostbusters 2016, and The Masters of the Universe, but I find your credibility is endangered if you can never find a redeeming factor in ANYTHING. I'm not saying taste is objective, and I don't like these people because they didn't like my favorite thing or my new toy, but it just seems parodic at this point.
If everything is terrible, maybe you're jaded and the problem. I've seen this film being compared to utter, checkbox ticking, agenda riding garbage and I legitimately can't for the life of me see the resemblance. People online using the term "woke," and it's like...do you even know why you're saying this? What's woke about it? Did you just hear a buzzword?
This is coming from someone who has gone on the record for thinking TLOU2 was more concerned with pandering than with well paced cohesive writing. Someone who has gone on record stating that The Last Jedi's lack of focus and coherency led to a two and a half hours of legit anime B team filler arc nonsense because we can't A. Have a pink haired strong female presence and B. Write her worth a damn. This isn't me waving a million pride flags and forking over my entire life savings to Hollywood. I just legit don't get it this time.
Pretty much this for me too, I'm someone who identifies and avoids pandering/"wokeness" and agendas very quickly, and I hated TLOU2 (not because of that stuff though, ironically, I just thought it was a trash game with a bad story and incredible graphics).
I have a few individuals and groups on YouTube that I praise for calling out the BS in the entertainment industry on a regular basis, and I side with them 90% of the time. But here? They're all completely utterly wrong on this film, and it's
incredibly weird.
Myself and two others went to see this in theaters. I'm a big Matrix nerd, I love all 3 original movies, and thought even the Animatrix was pretty rad. I get the details of the story. The other two that were with me needed me to fill them in on all the particulars of the series, although they've both seen the previous movies, they just needed a refresher. All three of us have the same views on the flaming trash heap Hollywood and the world in general have become, and we were all ready to groan and moan about some BS agenda getting shoved down our throats.
The result? No agenda, no BS. Just a movie about Neo and Trinity coming back to life. Everything was explained properly and wrapped up in a way that says "hey we're alive again, maybe some new movies in the future".
All 3 of us loved it.
The action choreography was definitely a huge step down from the original movies, even if the action itself was really awesome. Several scenes were rushed through to try and quickly explain where things are going next, when they should've let them breathe a bit more so you don't blink and go "why are we here again?", but I feel like a couple more months in editing would've fixed that. The content was just fine, the production was rushed - I guess I was able to forgive that, because it wasn't entirely the point of the movie for me.
As for people thinking that the movie was disrespecting characters and their legacies, nah. The movie knows that YOU already know how things work, and the characters already know that their buddies also already know how things work - so they're gonna crack some jokes and be a little tired of explaining it all again. It's all about jogging Neo's memory, who clearly has already regained some of it before the movie even starts. Morpheus isn't even Morpheus here, he's just a program written by Neo who's subconsciously trying to understand his past that's creeping back into his mind.
Neo is still the one, he just, ya know, KINDA DIED. Then he had his body frankensteined by some robots and then gets plugged back in with a full memory wipe and a shitty new depressing life that apparently looped or something for 60 years. You can't just have him come back out and be flying instantly and kicking mega ass within the short amount of time the movie covers, it would feel cheap and rushed. The dude's gotta find a reason to live again after being dead, losing everything, and enslaved to madness. Trinity is the key, and she heals him while gaining some powers of her own in the process. I couldn't think of a better way to bring them back.
Should WB/Wachowski have brought the pair back? That's a subjective call, everyone's gonna have their own opinion on whether or not that's where a new Matrix sequel should go, but I liked it. I get it if some don't.
PS. Bugs is amazing and needed more screen time. Make a Bugs spinoff, WB! I want to see her redpill moment and subsequent ass kicking endeavours.
