The Matrix is one of the most well-known cyberpunk movies; I’m not going to argue its cyberpunk qualities. But 20 years after The Matrix was relevant, we got a cash-grab sequel in Matrix Resurrections.
My question to you is: Is there anything cyberpunk left in Matrix Resurrections? Or has the franchise been so diluted that what’s left is no longer cyberpunk? For example, in the first movie Neo was a hacker. By this movie, I really wouldn’t call him a hacker anymore. But maybe the themes of “what it means to be human” still remain?
I forgot the line in the movie but they alluded to it. Like they knew they were making a cash grab movie and wanted the audience to know it too.
I forget the exact line, but it’s in the scene where his boss is informing him they’re making a sequel (to the in universe video game) no matter what, and his only choice was to be involved or not.
Yeah, I think the actual content of Revolutions was strictly the Wachowskis’s way of protesting being forced to make another one. I think they made it as bad as they possibly could on purpose. I think we’d have gotten a “better” movie had neither of the Wachowskis been involved with it. (Not that we’d have gotten a “good” movie, but it wouldn’t have purposefully ruined everything.)
Now that’s an interesting question… would the movie have been better if the Wachowskis weren’t involved at all? I’d argue the movie would’ve been better if none of the previous cast came back. The story should’ve been some new incarnation of The One (not Keanu Reeves) as the cycle repeats (the Architect talks about it being the 6th iteration). Or they could’ve even moved the world forward by having humans and machines working together but “oh no! the matrix is breaking/failing for some reason and we have to fix it!”
Unfortunately, we all know it was just WB saying “we need a cash cow… Wachowskis! Make us another!” and they had to scramble to come up with a story.
I would have been happier with a movie that explored a combined world. Some of the things we saw in Resurrections that touched in that was very interesting. But they would have had to come up with a new plot that wasn’t connected to the previous ones. While I loved Neil Patrick Harris’ character and his job with it, I don’t like revisitation movies that break the previous conclusions to make them work. This was one of the flaws of the Star Wars sequels - instead of taking a finalized ending and building on it for a new thing, they “oops, it’s not really fixed” and started a repeat all over again. And I liked TFA itself, I just didn’t like where it led.
Honestly same
In my ideal.world the prequels would play it safe while the sequels would be weird Not the other way around
No, it was the Wachowkis saying “we don’t want WB making a Matrix movie without us. And, we don’t want another one so let’s make a forgettable turd.” The deal they signed said they had to make another movie or WB could make one without them. They made a crap movie on purpose.