I want to hear your first hand experiences, and your reasonings behind liking or not liking the two sequels.
I’m asking this question because it’s come up many times over the years, I’ve literally never met anybody else who like the second or third matrix movies, but don’t think I’ve ever heard any argument against either movie that isn’t “the dancing scene is dumb”, “the architect is confusing” or " it’s not as good as the first matrix".
And none of those are expanded upon, it’s a short statement like that. And then you’re supposed to understand that because of the dancing or because the architects monologue was confusing, the other four hours of film should be disregarded.
Based on one or more of those brief barbs, everyone I’ve ever talked to virulently hates and disregards the sequels.
I liked reloaded and revolutions when they came out in the theater and I still like all three movies today.
I liked the fourth one also, but I’ve only seen it once and that might be because my expectations were so low(no fishburne?). A second screening is in order.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think.
I’m curious if there is another person who actually likes the sequels or if you don’t like the sequels, is there a reason outside of culturally unpopular 5 minute scenes ruining the entire rest of both movies for you?
There are dozens of us!
I saw them both in the theaters opening weekend and I liked them a lot. Sure, having a pseudo wet T-shirt contest that’s about to turn into an orgy when you’re fighting for your survival is dumb, but it’s not dumb enough to ruin 2 movies. I actually didn’t find out that these movies were widely hated until years later from the Internet. My friend groups all liked them and I haven’t come across anyone who despised them in person anywhere near as much as I see people online being super down on them. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
That’s great to hear.
This is very much the camp I was in; I understood that my immediate friends didn’t like the movies, but it took a while before I connected the dots that I had literally never met a person who liked either of the sequels since I thought it was such a great trilogy altogether.
The original trilogy is pretty good overall.
Flaws in the second and third, obviously, but as s story arc, it works.
Now, I haven’t rewatched in a couple of years, so don’t expect details here. But despite the flaws, the basic premise is carried through acceptably, without major plot holes. Some of the bits and pieces I didn’t particularly care for (like the “supernatural” leftovers from previous matrix attempts) don’t really change how the world moves forward within Neo’s journey.
And that’s the important part to me. Neo’s story and the underlying world that the matrix is in. While I wasn’t ecstatic about the final ending, because it just seemed a little drab, it makes sense with the rest of the story.
I think a lot of the problem with it from a viewer’$ perspective is that the tone shifts heavily between movies, and there’s less of the cyberpunk vibe in the second and third. The first was almost a super hero movie as well, if an origin story. The next two weren’t. This leaves some people unsatisfied with the sequels as part of an overarching experience. They don’t fit together neatly.
But I’ve never gotten the confusion over the architect. It’s a pretty simple concept, and it’s explained in the movie.
The dance scene? It wasn’t executed well, in that it drew from some bits and pieces of what people think club culture is like, and the music itself didn’t fit the human condition as shown. It also didn’t fit the resources of the humans as shown, but that’s not as relevant you the hate, I think.
But the scene existing makes sense. A scene where there’s this raucous orgy occurs among a populace filled with stress and fear, with memories of a better but fake world? Makes perfect sense to me. It was just badly done in terms of choreography and “feel”. It’s kinda like the club scenes in the Blade movies; where it’s overdone, but had a point in being shown. Unlike in the Blade movies, the matrix scene just ends up looking like an excuse to show some skin on screen and fail at setting a tone.
But that doesn’t ruin the movie. There are very few perfect movies, and you’d be hard pressed to get agreements on what those would be. One bad scene can ruin a movie, but it doesn’t in this case.
I go along with pretty much all of this, these are all interesting takes.
I do like that you mentioned the blade club scene because I like the blade club scene a lot also.
And although they’re different tones, I definitely think that in a survival situation like Zion, people need celebration and catharsis now and then to forget that they’re all going to die at any moment, probably in just a few moments.
And it’s a bunch of naked sexy people, which I’m good for.
Really good point about the tone shifts in the three movies overall. I like the extended universe and would gladly read expanded universe books about the matrix.
I loved the Animatrix and want to just find out more about that whole world, but I wasn’t aware of any books being made.
It looks like there are some expanded universe films I haven’t seen yet related to the matrix though, so that’s good to hear that I have stuff to dive into.
