The Matrix: 4
- Thread starter Schrodinger's Cat
- Start date
- Movies
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- Tags
- cyberpunk (punk) sequel
Synthesis
Special Mobile Suit Troops, U.E.S.A.
- Location
- Luxembourg City
Okay, that's a relief, it wasn't just me! Though honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it either.
Maybe I was not paying sufficient attention, maybe I'm missing the third level of irony, but the whole film also seemed like an attempt to make cool people in leather personally killing everyone in a city block a really neat concept (the same thing that turns me off quite a few Zombie apocalypse survival "fantasies", including movies). Which is saying something, considering, well, that sort of happened in those old films too. But this seemed to make it a lot worse in a way. Like we graduated from the concept of "We may have to kill some people to free the rest of them," to "We will probably kill everybody. And that will free them. Possibly. We're not really sweating that either way."
I could just be misunderstanding the core concept, but somehow..."Yes, you are the righteous ones and all, but have you stopped to consider, if you're killing the entire world, maybe it's actually you?" I'm sure a Grand Theft Auto-style murder spree is just window dressing for a romp about determinism, but it's still off-putting.
All in all, it was worth seeing Belle in theaters instead of this.
- Location
- Michigan
I want to take a moment to say that I think the wakowski's can be pretty good at meta stuff. Like my favorite moment in the entire matrix series is the point in the path of neo game where they pause the game to explain what the point behind the Agent Smith fight is in 3, fast forward through part of it, then say "but it would be more fun to fight a giant agent smith, so here you go."
- Location
- USA
Village Roadshow Sues Warner Bros. Over ‘Matrix Resurrections’ Release on HBO Max
Village Roadshow sued Warner Bros. on Monday, alleging that the studio sabotaged the theatrical release of "The Matrix Resurrections."
variety.com
- Location
- Michigan
Is it just me or is WB one of the more overtly scummy studios out there?Village Roadshow Sues Warner Bros. Over ‘Matrix Resurrections’ Release on HBO Max
Village Roadshow sued Warner Bros. on Monday, alleging that the studio sabotaged the theatrical release of "The Matrix Resurrections."
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
okay here's the central theme a lot of people seem to be outright missing
in the first three matrix movies, the matrix is a metaphor for... well, a bunch of things, among them gender dysphoria, but a big one is capitalism. it is based on a book by a shitty old french philosophy man about how capitalism abolishes our sense of reality, creating a 'hyperreal' made up of symbols and stand-ins for real things, simulations of real experiences, so alienated from their original forms that we go through life disassociated from fundamental connections with anything. Society is a simulation of a world it has destroyed, a map which has removed the meaningful territory it once described. it is not subtle about this, the book is literally in the movie, and many of its most banger quotes are direct references.
here's the thing though: at the end of the third matrixy movie, the war ended. people were allowed to leave, if they choose. like, that's a whole thing about it. the last movie ended in the destruction of capitalism, well, its in-universe stand-in. people became aware of the illusion and were allowed to leave if they wanted, and as we saw in this movie, enough people wanted out that it became a legit problem.
so... that's not what this movie is about.
the matrix of the matrix 4 is not the matrix of the previous movies, and is quite explicit about it. it is not the passive drudgery of life in endless 1999, sitting behind a screen watching your life drain away, sucked out by some massive invisible force which sees you as nothing but a resource. it has less people to work with, so it is designed to take those people and squeeze them, put them in emotionally tumultuous situations. it is powered by stress, by unfulfilled wants, by danger and fear and excitement and terror.
and then they wipe your memory and make you do it all over again, while an indifferent population of machines and humans both sit and watch, because that's what makes the most money. uh, i mean, power.
the matrix 4 is about stories and about what franchises have done to them.
the people in the matrix are not us, they're the protagonists of the stories we watch and care about. in the world of the matrix, the most power comes from the protagonists of the matrix films, like literally this is explicit text of the film. the bots in the matrix are bit players in the story because they are literally bit players whose lives exist to make the protagonists (generalized as the population of the matrix overall) stories more dramatic. and the matrix 4 is ultimately about rejecting this framing of stories, which it does explicitly, subtly, metaphorically and structurally. from word go its not about logistics of storytelling or setting up sequels. it fundamentally does not care about those things, because the last time it was made to care about those things, it was to invalidate the end of the first matrix movie in the interest of creating sequels.
it just wants to give two characters the director loved a happy ending, and if you loved them too, you get that happy ending. you get to see the promise of the first matrix movie play out. it fucking rules.
the matrix 4 is, simultaneously, a fix-it fanfiction by the creator of the original and a film-length passionate argument that we should embrace those kinds of stories instead of staying on the modern hollywood treadmill of movies designed with room for endless sequels, for stories as franchising. the fact it crashed and burnt at the box office so we won't get any more rules, because it is about how its okay for stories to end, for continuity to be thrown out, and to try something new.
its my favourite film in years
in the first three matrix movies, the matrix is a metaphor for... well, a bunch of things, among them gender dysphoria, but a big one is capitalism. it is based on a book by a shitty old french philosophy man about how capitalism abolishes our sense of reality, creating a 'hyperreal' made up of symbols and stand-ins for real things, simulations of real experiences, so alienated from their original forms that we go through life disassociated from fundamental connections with anything. Society is a simulation of a world it has destroyed, a map which has removed the meaningful territory it once described. it is not subtle about this, the book is literally in the movie, and many of its most banger quotes are direct references.
here's the thing though: at the end of the third matrixy movie, the war ended. people were allowed to leave, if they choose. like, that's a whole thing about it. the last movie ended in the destruction of capitalism, well, its in-universe stand-in. people became aware of the illusion and were allowed to leave if they wanted, and as we saw in this movie, enough people wanted out that it became a legit problem.
so... that's not what this movie is about.
the matrix of the matrix 4 is not the matrix of the previous movies, and is quite explicit about it. it is not the passive drudgery of life in endless 1999, sitting behind a screen watching your life drain away, sucked out by some massive invisible force which sees you as nothing but a resource. it has less people to work with, so it is designed to take those people and squeeze them, put them in emotionally tumultuous situations. it is powered by stress, by unfulfilled wants, by danger and fear and excitement and terror.
and then they wipe your memory and make you do it all over again, while an indifferent population of machines and humans both sit and watch, because that's what makes the most money. uh, i mean, power.
the matrix 4 is about stories and about what franchises have done to them.
the people in the matrix are not us, they're the protagonists of the stories we watch and care about. in the world of the matrix, the most power comes from the protagonists of the matrix films, like literally this is explicit text of the film. the bots in the matrix are bit players in the story because they are literally bit players whose lives exist to make the protagonists (generalized as the population of the matrix overall) stories more dramatic. and the matrix 4 is ultimately about rejecting this framing of stories, which it does explicitly, subtly, metaphorically and structurally. from word go its not about logistics of storytelling or setting up sequels. it fundamentally does not care about those things, because the last time it was made to care about those things, it was to invalidate the end of the first matrix movie in the interest of creating sequels.
it just wants to give two characters the director loved a happy ending, and if you loved them too, you get that happy ending. you get to see the promise of the first matrix movie play out. it fucking rules.
the matrix 4 is, simultaneously, a fix-it fanfiction by the creator of the original and a film-length passionate argument that we should embrace those kinds of stories instead of staying on the modern hollywood treadmill of movies designed with room for endless sequels, for stories as franchising. the fact it crashed and burnt at the box office so we won't get any more rules, because it is about how its okay for stories to end, for continuity to be thrown out, and to try something new.
its my favourite film in years
- Location
- USA
Update.Village Roadshow Sues Warner Bros. Over ‘Matrix Resurrections’ Release on HBO Max
Village Roadshow sued Warner Bros. on Monday, alleging that the studio sabotaged the theatrical release of "The Matrix Resurrections."
Warner Bros. Prevails as Village Roadshow Fight Goes to Arbitration
Warner Bros. convinced a judge to force arbitration of its dispute with finance partner Village Roadshow.
variety.com
- Location
- USA
‘Matrix 5’ in the Works With Drew Goddard as Director, Lana Wachowski as Executive Producer
Warner Bros. is going back to the Matrix.
variety.com
Geckonator
Occult Materialist
‘Matrix 5’ in the Works With Drew Goddard as Director, Lana Wachowski as Executive Producer
Warner Bros. is going back to the Matrix.
So, about that "bombing and never being milked for sequels" thing @open_sketch .
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
to quote a tweet i saw, anyone who sees a non-Wachowski Matrix film is a fucking cop