"The Matrix Crashed"

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Psychopathic Psychiatrist


Just watched "The Matrix Resurrections" and i think "The Matrix Crashed" is probably a title that would have fit the 4th (and hopefully last) sequel better than something like "Resurrections" because in my opinion, the whole series finally (and totally) CRASHED with this nonsense and also right off the bat (for those who are unaware probably):

THE MATRIX was never planned as a trilogy let alone quadrilogy.

And there the trouble starts, as it happens with all successful "series", being doomed to get dumber, cheaper and worse with every other sequel they are milking a once great and original formula with.

But it ain´t that easy after all, to fully "hate" the sequels and especially "Resurrections", because there are still minutes where the sequels in fact do shine, but all in all i have to say...the quadrilogy went more and more into boring and rather braindead popcorn-cinema-crap with nothing else to brag about but "kewl action scenes" but ending up being way too boring after all.

My biggest problem with the series?

THE FIRST ORIGINAL ONE!

"The Matrix" was so perfect in most ways, that i already doubted how a sequel, let alone multiple sequels could do it justice. I am also sure (after googling for it, i actually do know!) they never thought about making sequels to begin with and just came up with all this "stupid and dumb crap" to milk a formula they weren´t even sure to be one hell of a movie blockbuster all-time hit-favorite from day one, as it really happened with THE MATRIX.

And so the inevitable happened! While "Reloaded" already started to stink a little (storywise, while even the highclass-high-octane-action highway-chase scene wasn´t able to help over it) the nonsense came to its climax with "Revolutions" by giving NEO full-fledged real "superpowers" in the real world (in my opinion a thing, he was never supposed to have to begin with!) and making the whole (genious) formula more of a joke, rather than something to take even half-way serious.

During my (pretty bored) "ride" with THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS, i got the weird idea that especially Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss (did i got her name right?) looked kinda "bored", "depressed" and even somehow "ashamed" during the whole movie, as if they kinda regretted to be a part of this "nonsense"?

It is still kinda amazing to me, that producers really trashed something so genious as THE MATRIX. How producers trashed GAME OF THRONES (final season) is nothing compared to it.

I am also still kinda struggling with myself:

Is "Resurrections" really that boring or is it me?
Are the sequels in general really that stupid and brainless?
Am i to harsh with them?
Am i a dumb mofo?



A system of cells interlinked
Pretty much spot on. I tried the re-watch all the films before Resurrections was released, but didn't make it all the way through. The first film is still a fun watch, but I quickly lost interest as I trudged through the second film. I started the third, but turned it off fairly quickly.

Resurrections was terrible.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



I want to strongly recommend The Animatrix to anyone who likes sci-fi and has even a passing interest in anime:







Yeah the first one is the only great film in the franchise. The second one does have some great action scenes though.



Psychopathic Psychiatrist
Pretty much spot on. I tried the re-watch all the films before Resurrections was released, but didn't make it all the way through.
I honestly had to watch "Resurrections" for multiple times, everytime watching another 20 - 30 minutes, because i was so bored (along with having lost my interest in it) with it, that i just couldn´t bare to watch the whole 150 minutes of it in one sitting!

Also, i was watching "Resurrections" just a few days ago, this proves how much of interest i had into that "final" sequel.

So here comes what i love so much about Blu-Rays and matrix-sequels:

I can easily watch my favorite scenes (chapters) rather than fast-forwarding everytime, coz except for the original Matrix, i just can´t watch all the sequels multiple times through from start to finish.


I want to strongly recommend The Animatrix to anyone who likes sci-fi and has even a passing interest in anime:
Well for one i am not that much of an anime-fan but most of all, i´ve lost my interest into the Matrix to the point where i just can´t watch anything related to it, besides the original movie and a few great action-scenes from the sequels.

So similiar to GAME OF THRONES, where they in my opinion destroyed the whole franchise with one season (the last one), i´ve lost my interest to the point where i haven´t even watched "HOUSE OF THE DRAGON" and i probably never will.

The only way i would ever watch something GoT-related ever again, would be a "HOUSE OF THE HOUND", if they would ever do this.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
The single-player PC game was pretty well done for its time.
__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear



Yeah the first one is the only great film in the franchise. The second one does have some great action scenes though.
Exactly this. First is a very good movie. Second has some good scenes. Third has...a good scene or two? Fourth was horrendously disappointing, even just from a pure effects-and-action standpoint.

Animatrix is excellent. I would also recommend!
Huge co-sign. I have an intense fondness for short story collections, anthologies, and all things high-concept, so I might have been destined to love The Animatrix from the beginning, but even attempting to account for that, it's really, really good. Hard to imagine anyone who liked The Matrix won't find at least a few of those stories to be really compelling. It was very cool of them to explore the larger world, and lots of related concepts in that world, but without demystifying it too much.
. Still have a physical copy of that one.



It's never even occured to me to watch any of the sequels. The original was great. It said all that needed to be said. So, bye Matrix, moving along.


Clearly I was very wise since I don't think I've ever met a single person who likes any sequel, and most of them hate all of them



The trick is not minding
I liked the latest one well enough. I’ve never been a huge fan of The Matrix, although I can recognize it’s influence on later films. The second and third are trash, however.



WARNING: Big ideas ahead! Waters may get choppy. Have a little patience!

I love the original Matrix a lot, but for some reason my big favorite is The Matrix Reloaded. There's just something so audaciously over the top and fast about it. It zips along at a brisk clip, taking you in unexpected directions and throwing ideas, new characters and plot elements at you. And if you get confused or perplexed, well... tough! You'll have to catch up on a repeat viewing or just rewind it.

In particular, I love the meeting with the Architect. Specifically, I love the way in which the whole mythology established in the first film is somewhat undermined and shaken once the Architect reveals that the purpose of Neo's very existence is to deliberately channel and harness feelings of rebellion and dissent within society, and that Neo is in fact the sixth of his kind. But it is not in fact a complete subversion, because after all Neo is still The One and was always meant to be. On first viewing of the film, the Architect's speech sort of knocked the wind out of me once I got the gist of it. I remember thinking to myself, "Are you even allowed to say things like that in a major-studio Hollywood action blockbuster??"

Frankly, I always thought that the original The Matrix was extremely effective and successful because it tapped into that universal myth (or monomyth) referred to as The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This almost Jungian set of mythic archetypes is the basis for so many of the stories that we have come to know and love over the years, including the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz and its film version, and of course George Lucas's Star Wars Saga.

In fact, the success of Star Wars largely helped to popularize and make people more consciously aware of this cultural mythology. And this has largely been something of a mixed blessing, because this "Hero's Journey" model has also contributed somewhat to a lot of the conventions - as well as the myriad cliches - of Hollywood screenwriting in general ever since. (In fact, once I became aware that 1986's Highlander and 1991's Backdraft were both written by the same screenwriter - namely Gregory Widen - it occurred to me that the stories of both of those movies contain story elements which correspond with the Hero's Journey monomyth.)

A lot of people resent 2003's The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions because they supposedly "trash" the mythology set up in the 1999 original. (I happen to know that Quentin Tarantino is one of those people.) But all the Architect's speech really does is draw attention to a harsh reality, namely: It's sometimes necessary to check under the hood and examine the cultural mythos that's been handed down to us and see what still works and what doesn't, and what is still applicable to present-day circumstances. It is most assuredly not about "subversion" or "deconstruction" or any other form of "trashing." If anything it's about a process of clarifying. The cultural mythos that we are raised with - be they rooted in religion, heroic legend, great literature or pop culture - can be extremely meaningful and valuable to us, but they are often useful to our Establishments and the powers that be, because they feel that they can control and modify our consciousness and awareness of the world through them - sort of in the same way the mythology of "The One" is useful to the Architect. And that is why the aforementioned "checking under the hood" is necessary from time to time!

Having said all that, however...

I do remember feeling just a tad let down by the Part III that was The Matrix Revolutions. I mean, yeah, it resolves everything in a more or less satisfactory manner, but it seemed like there was just a feeling of deflation or a tapering off of the energy level. It felt a trifle ponderous and even morose. I don't know if that's just because of the death of original Oracle Gloria Foster knocking the wind out of everyone's sails or what. Yes, her replacement Mary Alice was certainly effective in the role she stepped into, but we lost a certain feeling of continuity.

And I saw the recent The Matrix Resurrections (2021) a grand total of one time so far. Frankly, I'm really not all that sure how I feel about it. I think the whole self-reflexive aspect of it, the whole "meta"-ness of it, just got a little too cute for me, so I haven't revisited it since the first viewing. But I guess I'll get around to it sooner or later!



I did like Neil Patrick Harris in the last one. While overall I didn't care for the movie and would rate it a 3/10, he nailed that character



Psychopathic Psychiatrist
The single-player PC game was pretty well done for its time.
I remember it got mediocre reviews but i loved it as well! It was even one of the few titles in my life, i completed in a relatively short time (since i use to play dozens of titles at the same time actually, i tend to not finish the most, even that i love certain titles, but the market is flooded with too many great titles and so is my HDD).


It's never even occured to me to watch any of the sequels.

Clearly I was very wise since I don't think I've ever met a single person who likes any sequel, and most of them hate all of them
Chances could be there you might actually like one of them after all. Only because a "majority" of people gives their opinion, doesn´t necessarily mean yours would be the exact same.

For example, there are a shitload of movies highly rated by the "majority" of people while i think those titles are completely utter crap. Now the same thing can happen the other way around, with me being one of the very few people, actually liking a movie while the "majority" dislikes it.


Frankly, I always thought that the original The Matrix was extremely effective and successful because it tapped into that universal myth (or monomyth) referred to as The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This almost Jungian set of mythic archetypes is the basis for so many of the stories that we have come to know and love over the years, including the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz and its film version, and of course George Lucas's Star Wars Saga.
For me, THE MATRIX was a metaphor for lucid dreams (instead of becoming aware of being inside a DREAM, NEO became aware of being inside THE MATRIX, which turns him LUCID) and that is what i´ve found so great about it (besides all the great action etc.). Sadly, they decided to throw it all over board and gave NEO superpowers in the real world, which is like waking up from a lucid dream and realizing you still can fly through the skies like superman...so actually...NEO should become aware, that he went through a "false wake up" and is still caught inside the Matrix (because only there he is having superpowers!), during Matrix Revolutions.