For years, it seemed that the Matrix series would never produce a fourth installment, but in recent years, as Hollywood has become more and more obsessed with repeating the past, It has made The Matrix 4 more and more inevitable.
After 18 years of polarizing critics and fans alike in The Matrix 3: The Matrix Revolution, The Matrix Reboots history repeats itself.
For fans who are looking forward to bringing us more novelty to the Wachowski Sisters in 20 years, this fun and bold sequel, yet less innovative and vague, will surely delight and disappoint them.
While the sequel isn't insincere and not perfunctory, it does have flaws in many key areas, so the fan community seems to be once again at odds with each other.
As a flashback to Hollywood's mercenary reluctance to fund new ideas, the sequel is compelling enough, but unfortunately, it has almost as many highlights and flaws.
Here are a few of the main thorny issues of The Matrix Reboot...
5. The action scenes are disappointing
The Matrix 3: Matrix Revolution has proven that grand action scenes can make up for the shortcomings of the script, and the most basic expectations of the audience for the "Matrix" series are visually creative action scenes.
Unfortunately, The Matrix 4's most elusive and fatal flaw is the unexpected lack of creativity and skill in the action scenes.
Compared to the original trilogy, this sequel, in addition to the relatively impressive final scene, the various gunfights, fights, and chase scenes in it are surprisingly lacking in character, even forgotten.
This is clearly due to a number of reasons: The legendary action director of the original trilogy, Yuan Heping, the photographer Bill Pope, and the composer Don Davis, have not returned.
As a result, the main aesthetic style of the collection was missing, and Lana Wachowski failed to fill the void with other replacements.
The cinematography of this sequel looks simple, especially in slow motion, with an eerie blurred digital effect, and the incoherent editing makes some of the shots almost incomprehensible, and the soundtrack of Johnny Kramer and Tom Tikwe is almost left-eared and right-eared.
Viewers may feel that Lana has lost her enthusiasm for the series' iconic moves, as there is not a single scene in the film that rivals the weakest fight in the second or third film. It's disappointing.
4. The script is terrible
If you think that The Matrix 2: Reloaded and The Matrix 3: The Matrix Revolution are full of overly lengthy, explanatory dialogue and half-understanding, hard-to-articulate ideas, then The Matrix Reboot essentially inherits these issues across the board.
This sequel has a lot of declarative lines, from time to time to remind the general audience of the plot that happened in the first trilogy, while adding new concepts, you have to keep staring at the subtitles, hard to write down a dizzying series of words, trying to understand a lot of what the different characters are talking about, and you will soon feel exhausted.
Wachowski's almost ridiculously rapid dumping of plot information can easily be confusing, at which point the viewer may decide to empty their brains and simply enjoy the clumsy action.
The film definitely had some good ideas, especially a mockery of Hollywood's lack of creativity, but this lack of skilled functional storytelling could easily make most of the admiring audience quickly lose interest.
3. Lawrence Fishburn regrets his absence
Lawrence Fishburn did not return to play Morpheus, and in Matrix Reboot the role was replaced by Yahya Abdul-Medindin of the Black Manta Ray.
Although Abdul-Mydin's portrayal of the new morpheus is a great performance, it is undeniable that he has not been able to reproduce Fishbourne's charm throughout the film.
Given that the story of this sequel is so fluid, it is easy to explain Fishbourne's appearance regardless of the logic of the story, but we can only see a new face that is familiar but unfamiliar.
Audiences, like Neo, have a natural trust and affection for Fishbourne's version of Morpheus, and given that Fishbourne is arguably the best performer in the original trilogy, it's a shame not to invite him to inherit the iconic role.
I believe that if those stupid lines had been spoken through Fishbourne's mouth, perhaps the audience would not have been as harsh on this sequel as it is now.
2. Villains are mediocre and boring
In the original Matrix trilogy, even the most criticized scenes will be remedied by the wonderful performance of Hugo Vivian, who plays Agent Smith, and after he was confirmed not to star in The Matrix: Matrix Reboot, he left no one to fill.
Still, having Jonathan Grove play the new version of Smith seems like a good choice, and while Grove enjoys his re-enactment of the villain role, there's no doubt that he's not as good as Vivine's unique portrayal of the character.
Moreover, Smith is not the only villain in this film, the main villains are not particularly plump, and there is no particularly compelling motive.
In the last two films of the original trilogy, Smith's trajectory is in disarray, but Hugo Viven's outstanding performances keep the role consistent. In "The Matrix: Matrix Reboot", the villains are the standard of the half-hanger, which is simply not up to the level of the predecessor.
1. Lack of sense of crisis
One of the most common complaints about Hollywood blockbusters today is the lack of obvious conflicts of interest — we often hear superhero movies say that, as the first Matrix movie since the birth of the MCU, this criticism also applies to The Matrix: Matrix Reboot.
While The Matrix Reboot cleverly revolves around the dual identities of Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Kerry-Ann Moss), the film's seriousness and life-and-death plot are so haphazard that it's hard to really get involved in what's happening.
Despite its many flaws, The Matrix 3: Matrix Revolution does create a sense of urgency that the end of the world is imminent, in contrast to The Matrix Reboot, which never makes one feel that mission failure will have any terrible and catastrophic consequences.
While The Matrix Reboots focuses its narrative on neo and Trinity's love story, rather than following the usual post-apocalyptic scenes of Hollywood blockbusters, it's somewhat commendable, the idea of creative chaos doesn't provide viewers with a clear thread to follow.