A series of feelings from an old fan about the sequel to The Matrix released in 2021.
First Encounter
I probably watched The Matrix trilogy when I was in elementary school. I was amazed by the advanced special effects and smooth fight scenes at that time. The concepts of replication and pursuit, bullet time, and the cross-intersection of various martial arts styles were something I had never seen before in movies, even in imported films. Additionally, the Wachowskis had a unique understanding of the role of water in the camera, which was also demonstrated in "V for Vendetta," but the most classic scenes are still the firefighting scene and the battle in the rain in the Matrix trilogy.
In terms of visuals, it was rare to see such intense scenes in Chinese-language films at that time. The later prominent directors in China were still exploring their artistic styles: Zhang Yimou's yellow earth style had already taken shape, but group gymnastics and the new style of martial arts were not yet understood (they were still experimenting until a couple of years ago, for example, in "Shadow"); Zhang Kaige's individual shots were beautiful, but the overall story was disjointed and poorly told (still the case today); Feng Xiaogang was still using Wang Shuo's scripts and making films that were more like extended sketches than actual movies; as for Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, and Jia Zhangke, they didn't dominate the movie theaters and DVD stores at that time. As for the popular Hong Kong films at the time, the styles of Wong Jing, Jackie Chan, and Stephen Chow were mature, but their works were mostly known for their short comedic scenes rather than overall themes and large-scale coordination. Johnnie To during the Milkyway Image period had many interesting works, such as "The Mission" and "Exiled," but unfortunately, after moving to the north, he seemed to have lost his creativity. It felt like the third installment of the Triad series couldn't be made anymore, but the old team at Milkyway Image did have a final masterpiece called "Life Without Principle."
Although the fight scenes in Hong Kong films and co-productions were also impressive, they were more about fighting for the sake of fighting, especially for actors like Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, who came from a background in martial arts. In any of their films, no matter how unreasonable the plot was, they had to have a few impressive fight scenes, just like how Indian films always have song and dance numbers, forcibly making the audience feel like they got their money's worth. I have always felt that Hong Kong action films were both made and ruined by martial artists: they all started by learning from Shaw Brothers, emphasizing punches and kicks and canned sound effects, from "The Five Venoms" all the way to "Police Story"; later, no one watched martial arts films anymore, and even Ti Lung couldn't become the big brother, so they all started making crime films; then, no one watched crime films anymore, and with changes in the market, they suddenly died out. Even now, it's still only the old faces from that time making crime films. During that time, mainland Chinese films were not fixated on copying Jet Li, which was actually a good thing. The diversification of film creation can effectively offset the risks of market changes.
Sequel
Bringing it back, a good work should allow the audience to see different things at different stages of life. After middle school, I had more exposure to computers and the internet, learned to use Tor routing, accessed public file servers, visited various strange forums, came into contact with some script kiddies, and even knew about the concept of Bitcoin around 2012. At that time, I watched the Matrix trilogy again, focusing on the concepts of "the Matrix," "choice," "recycle bin," "possibility," and so on. Later, influenced by this, I watched a lot of dystopian works, including "Ghost in the Shell," "Blade Runner," and "Evangelion."
I haven't watched them again in recent years, but I did play "Cyberpunk 2077" seriously. The rock character portrayal of Johnny Silverhand and the dualistic design were great, and the portrayal of Alt Cunningham wasn't as stiff as in many contemporary works; it had a bit of a "BioShock" feel, and the feeling of powerlessness during immersive experiences was really strong. After completing the game with all the endings, even though the story had ended, I still felt like something was missing. It was coincidental that it was completed in this sequel. (As for the "John Wick" series, taking on these kinds of roles for a living is not embarrassing.)
Before Watching
Around early September 2021, I saw the trailer for this sequel and a cool official website. I was genuinely surprised and excited, so I went to watch it and recommended it to my friends. But after a few days of careful consideration, considering the current market environment and Warner Bros.' nature, this film was definitely going to be a disappointment. Nowadays, who doesn't like family-friendly popcorn movies? Which audience would be willing to sit for two to three hours to listen to a high-cost but negative and obscure story? Shipping CP, discussing diversity issues, doing talk shows are all better entertainment investment topics than competing with the Matrix.
But in the end, a qualified fan should have the courage to face a series with a disappointing ending, so I decided to set aside a large chunk of time to watch this sequel. Because of Hideaki Anno's example, even a simple disappointing ending wouldn't be considered too bad.
There was also a little incident where Unreal Engine 5 released a special short film tie-in, and it happened to coincide with Epic's Christmas event, so I downloaded the new version of Unreal Engine and played around with the new features shown in the promotion. I can only say that I seem to have forgotten how to write game scripts. I couldn't even modify the simplest demo.
Movie Review
The opening followed a common Hollywood formula, similar to James Bond or Mission: Impossible, using a typical conflict short film to set the mood and introduce the characters. Just as I was thinking this, a young Morpheus suddenly appeared, and then the camera switched to Mr. Anderson's side, and the story began to unfold.
From this point on, it was almost like a fan's bonus content: Anderson became a top game developer who created the famous Matrix trilogy (in the previous films, this character was a stylish designer), he was pressured by his boss, drank coffee, saw a therapist, took blue pills, ran on a treadmill, took a shower, attended long meetings, and had flashbacks of iconic scenes from the trilogy; after the company announced the Matrix reboot, everyone started to criticize their former employer, the marketing department, and the insistence on making sequels. Each person began to share their understanding of the Matrix reboot; Anderson met a familiar married Trinity in a coffee shop, and her name had become the cheesy "Tiffany," as if their past experiences were just fantasies from their teenage years, and they only began to face reality in middle age.
In this part of the story, the creative process and the deconstruction of the success of the trilogy were explored from a different perspective, analyzing how creators struggle to create works that surpass their past achievements and how they reconcile with themselves in sequels, which naturally involves a lot of self-doubt and pain. However, one advantage of Hollywood blockbusters is that the audience doesn't have to go through the entire painful process with the creators. The jerk who likes to make the characters in his works, and even the audience, experience pain together has already moved on to making special effects films.
In this segment, each character represents a part of the creator's personality. "Since you all think I can't make a sequel to this film, why don't I just show you how this thing came about?" The director probably thought this way.
After reuniting with Trinity, the two of them start acting in a way that says, "Actually, we are Neo and Trinity, and the audience knows it, but now we have to pretend to be Anderson and Tiffany." After complaining about the difficulties of raising children, Trinity directly asks Anderson if he uses himself as the protagonist in the Matrix. Anderson responds like this:
At this point, I feel like it's not Anderson or even Neo speaking, but Keanu himself, expressing his attitude towards characters like Neo, John Wick, and Johnny Silverhand. The following line, "Maybe a little too much," also hints at this. Then T slightly brings the audience back to the story itself and begins to talk about the "coincidences" between herself and Trinity, including flashbacks and A's realization that they are both someone else in the reflection (the former shown in an earlier shot).
After this self-analysis segment, the actual story begins. In this version, because Anderson has an additional layer of "these are all designed based on myself" in his mental shell, it becomes even more difficult to pull him out of the Matrix, just like how people who have already reached Zion in the previous films would no longer doubt that they are still in the Matrix. But overall, the plot is more or less the same. It's just that "The chosen one" has become "The chosen two," deleting most of the conflicts and almost all philosophical discussions from the original trilogy. Neo and Trinity quickly go through the process of awakening, confronting, and redeeming. I won't go into too much detail.
Conclusion
In this new version, the boundaries between virtual and reality, existence and disappearance, humans and machines have become more blurred. Some machines choose reality, and some humans choose the virtual world. I think this is what the creators wanted to express. However, because the original work was too excellent and there may be a time filter, I don't think these elements are enough to support a new "Matrix." The ending of "The Matrix Revolutions," where Oracle and the little girl watch the sunrise, should be the best ending for this series.
Personally, I think this work can be divided into two parts:
- The first part is a high-cost immersive behind-the-scenes look at the creation process + extras + interviews with the creative team, giving old fans a chance to revisit.
- The second part is a theatrical-level fanfiction story remake with the original team, allowing everyone to quickly understand the surface plot of the previous trilogy in a 90-minute cinema film, skipping all the content that is not suitable for entertainment.
From this perspective, the creative team has found a new way to make a sequel to a classic work that can satisfy the new market without angering the old audience. The post-credits scene even made a joke with "Catrix" (maybe not).