I don’t think I’ve ever had a movie wink at me this hard, but I enjoyed it, mainly because they literally had Neo complain about how he was living in a rehash of the first movie before Bugs sat him down and went, no, what you did mattered, the world is completely different now, look at the adorable robots. The movie knew what my biggest fear was and teased me about it, which I thought was fun.
I want to
look at the adorable robots more. Genuinely, my biggest complaint with the whole movie, which is kind of ironic considering how I was down on 3 for swinging in the opposite extreme here, is that all the new characters introduced in this seem really cool, and I want to spend more time with them and getting to know what they're all about. Feels like the vast majority of named characters get paraded out to say hi once, check off another box on the extensive Sense8 cast cameo list, and then kinda disappear or step into the background, especially
the rad rad rescue mission squid robots. For something clocking in near 3 hours as is, is it too much to ask for something like the original's dinner scene, to give them a little spotlight time? Honestly, I'd watch a sidequel to this just to see what's up with them. Also I particularly love that
our introduction to the idea of being really-not-robo-racist is someone going all "so, I'm an Agent, but I still don't feel like I actually belong here" and without missing a beat Bugs is just, "yup, been there, here's your red pill, come hang out." That's just great.
My second-biggest complaint is that unlike the first 2 movies, this one didn't have multiple jaw-dropping set pieces the likes of which had never been conceived, but that's not a reasonable think to just ask for on demand, especially not during a pandemic, and especially not in what is decidedly a very thinky sci-fi drama thing and not actually an action movie. Plus I only caught John Wick 3 a couple months ago so like, I'm good there.
Things I didn't like...
- The main villain is indisputably the psychiatrist that is "just trying to help" but convinces Neo his fake existence is real. Man do I despise that trope. That whole thread went in some great directions, but something of a pet peeve that "The Analyst" is basically manufacturing despair for profit. Not all psychiatrists are supervillains, Batman.
I mean, if you don't want to see
slimeball gaslighting therapists, don't watch semi-autobiographically-allegorical movies by trans women, because it's kind of a common theme.
- · Similarly, I despise the trope of "your family" is holding you back from being a literal flying super(wo)man. I have known way too many people in reality that have been convinced that they would be rockstars or Mark Zuckerberg or whatever if they could just escape driving Little Timmy to soccer practice, and, spoilers, everyone that I know that ever acted on that impulse got exactly nowhere "escaping" their families. Again, this whole plot thread did some interesting things, and was more subtly about how obsessing over any one thing (like family) is going to keep you from seeing the whole picture... but could we avoid the trope of an action heroine being "cursed" with a mundane, "soccer mom" existence? I can't help but think this is going to do some psychic damage to audiences in the same way that "red pill" now needed an entire movie to explain how half the internet got that one wrong...
I mean, if you don't want to see
having to accept not having your family in your life anymore as the price truly being happy, don't watch semi-autobiographically-allegorical movies by trans women, because it's kind of a common theme.
That said! Things I did like...
- Everything else.
- And speaking of themes, a lot of people I have spoken to have pegged the "pill talk" as the repeated idea that there is never a choice at all, you always have it chosen for you, or you already chose well before you received the choice. I honestly interpreted a lot of that differently, as I thought a major theme was that there are constant binary choices, but the best answer is often outside the parameters of what is being considered. Neo can choose to make a new Matrix game or not... or he can break all of reality. Trinity can choose her family or to be rescued... or she can do her own rescuing. And the biggest "choice" seems to be that the idea of "taking down" the Matrix was always a false binary, and now we've got machines that choose to live outside the Matrix, and humans that are happily chilling with (excuse my earlier error) sentients. That was never even considered a valid ending in the original trilogy, and it is obviously making everyone's life better in this future.
I mean,
I am helpless against the rule of threes.
If you are referring to the lack of Laurence Fishburne, based on the interviews I've seen, he was not asked to return to the role of Morpheus, which makes sense if "New Morpheus" was planned all along.
Yeah I kinda figured that one was legitimately a case of not wanting him back for this because
we're doing a big ol' timeskip, which would I think leave him over 100, the whole thing with the other Morpheus is such a big part of the plot, and his presense with the whole rescue mission thing would be a bit "well now it's my turn to come save you" and probably some other reasons (like honestly he doesn't seem like the sort of guy who would really come around to embrace the whole AIs are people too deal). I'm a bit more surprised by the lack of
Hugo Weaving, because yeah we absolutely have to start with a new actor playing the part, because perspective and surprise and plot and all, but you'd figure there would be some big "now, back to truly being myself again" moment. And I'm not complaining, because I actually kinda love the new guy's take on the character, and it softens the impact of us going full shonen with him, but I'm very curious if he was busy or Covid travel bans messed with things, or they just liked the new guy that much or what. Either way the way they handled things had me questioning myself on whether those two actors had died and I didn't notice.
Also for real,
Bugs is straight up textually trans, right? That was what they were establishing with the window washing flashback? And also the slightly hard to hear in my theater explanation about being named after Bugs Bunny? I'm not reading into that?