They deserve that for Matrix Resurrections.
The action sequences and set pieces were absolutely lackluster and downright boring despite the film's budget. (Not sure if this is due to the age of the actors - the John Wick series seems to have figured this out just fine.)
Most damning of all, the story arc, character arcs, and final resolution were phoned in and utterly forgettable. It's tragic, given the ludicrously audacious start of the film. The setup was there, but there was no investment beyond the trick premise.
Lana swung for the fences but struck out. It felt like an M. Night Shyamalan letdown.
I liked the reimagining of agent smith ("the man") from an unnamed government agent to a tech bro. The conversation about the new matrix being made "with or without" the original creator was a great fuck you to whoever was pulling those strings.
I wanted them to add another couple layers to the mind fuckery. We're used to watching the matrix and knowing which scenes are in the matrix and which are in the real world. Mess with that. Reveal halfway through that the "real world" scenes we've seen so far (in 4, not the previous movies) have actually been in the matrix.
In my ideal world, the climax would've been Neo realizing that he's been dead the whole movie, existing as a manifestation of the free machines, giving them individuality and choice the same way that agent smith took away human individuality and choice in 3. Trinity can still be saved, but Neo can never go with her to the real world.
According to some readings of the film, the climax is Neo realizing that he's been dead (at least figuratively) the whole movie. Those are the readings that Neo and Trinity are the same character and Neo is as much or more the "deadname"/"dead inside" parts. Matrix 4 did a bunch of work for those readings.
I still don’t know why she even agreed. The pay check?
If they wanted to bring it back, they should have discarded all the previous stuff besides the basic premise. The original movie even had this whole thing about Neo being the sixth “The One”.
That’s 5 prequels right there. And the obvious exploration of what happened after the reboot.
Trying to bring back the cast except as a way to hand over the franchise (by dying) is almost always going to be stupid.
She put it bluntly in the first 15 minutes, in meeting scene.
Only when the reveal is done and the action starts does it begin to fall apart as a lackluster story with subpar motivations and arcs.
Until that point it's a fantastic mindfuck.
If they'd simply left it as a drama with no action at all and focused more on character development, it could have been amazing.
...now the packet in front of you has our focus group research inside you'll find the breakdown including key word association with the brand the top two being originality and fresh which i think are great things to keep in mind as you begin working on matrix four and who knows how many more...
She has explicitly said in interviews they told her they would make it with or without her, so she made it crap on purpose to tank the franchise. It was supposed to suck.
> Village Roadshow complained that the Burbank studio’s pivot away from an exclusive theatrical release had destroyed the value of a key franchise.
Just ask the executives what kind of movie they have in mind
Didn’t she write the movie? And pitch the idea?
Why would she pitch a movie just to purposely make it horrible? If she was forced to make a movie, why not make it good? Or at least not one of the worst movies I’ve seen in years?
The take you mentioned seems more like after the fact justifications for making a horrible film.
On a serious not The Matrix was a fine film with fantastic effects but on a scale of Punch & Depth per $ spent on production Dark City delivered more bang per buck.
They are definitely related, and I also think Dark City was the better version of Matrix 1 on a storytelling and aesthetics level, Matrix's innovative effects aside, but then I like all of the Matrix sequels a lot more than I like the first Matrix film.
If you like late 90's / early 2000's M. Night Shyamalan, the first half of the film is brilliant. But after the reveal it falls apart like the last season of Game of Thrones. It's as if Lana stopped caring.
It would have been fantastic to have timed it with the release of the Matrix MMO game. It's as if that had been the plan all along.
(I really liked both movies by the way).