When the "the Matrix" came out in 1999 it changed the way we watch movies. The special effects were groundbreaking, and its brand of dystopian cyber punk gave a spark to conspiracy theorists or at least those who would take that title from the tin foil crowd to make people think about how they were being controlled and perhaps their perception of the world was not what they were led to believe. Now in 2021 if you think those kinds of thoughts the virtue flying self-appointed Agent Smith's are here to sound the alarm that someone is thinking for themselves and against the popular narrative. We get a little bit of the groundbreaking shine with this meta sequel, but in terms of originality and cinematography compared to what the original did this seems like a made for television adaptation.
People like to be critical of media that does not tug on their nostalgia strings. I have already seen posts of people saying, I like this movie, so this is not the place to tell me anything different than what I want to hear. Which is the kind of sleep walking thin skin the first movie challenged. If you are not comfortable with anything but your perception, then you fit the bill to the kind of person Neil Patrick Harris was talking about in the monologue that comes in the movies final 15 minutes as he talks about sheeple who want to be controlled for the sake of certainty. It is kind of ironic that the people who claim to be the franchises biggest fans are also the ones deepest in the real-life Matrix the first movie spoke of.
Funny enough it's by not taking his pills that Neo wakes up. This is a stark contrast to trend of just taking your medicine and not asking questions. Things like the lack of Laurence Fishburn are more gracefully worked around than the poorly written plot which accomplishes little more than gives the characters another chance. The action sequences could have been in any movie and compared to any of the previous films not just the first the fight choreography is lacking, and we saw better fights in Shang Chi. In fact, in terms of eye candy any time Dr Strange is on screen in a Marvel movie it's better than what happens here. Where the original close with Rage Against the Machine over the end credits this film closes with Brass Against the female fronted covered band who will be most well known for her peeing on a fan in concert. This serves as a pretty fair metaphor in regard to how this measures up against the original. That might be generous as in the last 30 minutes of the film when it was supposed to be at its action climax, I found myself bored and having to force myself through it.
