Who now thinks that the first matrix movie should've been a stand alone?

[dscross]

Apparently they are rebooting the matrix, so it's brought up an old gripe of mine in my mind. I remember the first time I saw the original I was blown away by the inventiveness, sci fi elements, philosophical points and style.

Then I saw the second movie. I thought 'this isn't as good at all'. But I'll see where they go with it. And the third movie completely ruined the whole thing for me. Because I enjoyed the first film so much, I simply refuse to accept their existence.

The sequels had no reason to be made, other than money. No more story was necessary which was obvious, because the plot was so incredibly thin that it collapsed on itself.

I wonder if the reboot will just stick the first movie or bother making the sequels...

Edit: I don't actually understand if the new movie is going to be a reboot or some sort of sequel. Can anyone shed any light on it?

 

[Queen Michael]

I liked the first one a lot, and the second one too. But yeah, the third one was a big heap of bantha poodoo.

 

[dscross]

No, I like the sequels. You can tell the Wachowski's liked making them, because they didn't just give people more of the same. It wasn't just for the money.

I have no confidence in the reboot. The Matrix is too young to be rebooted. A sequel or side story would have been better. Either way, I don't expect the (flawed) artistry of the previous movies. They're making it for the money, not for the love of it like the Wachowskis did. It was their child. It will be an imitation.

Did the inconsistencies in the sequels not bother you? They bothered the hell out of me.

 

[Hawki]

Last I heard, they aren't rebooting the series, they're making a same film within the same universe.

Anyway, my view on the Matrix trilogy is that it's an excellent first film, followed by a good second film, followed by an average third film. Like Pirates of the Caribbean, it's a case of where the trilogy has a solid first installment, and the next two films are clustered close together in their timeline as a result of trying to springboard off a previous stand-alone's success, making the overall trilogy not flow as well as something like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, where each film easily slides into a more cohesive whole.

Did the first film need sequels? IMO, no. But, I don't feel that it's harmed by their existence, and the trilogy overall is still a net positive for me.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Always thought the first movie worked better on its own.

 

[Fox12]

the trilogy works fine as a whole, not sure where the hate comes from

 

[sanquin]

I like the first movie for how it was different and felt pretty deep. A very good movie overall.

The second film was just a good action movie. Fun to watch, but too many fights so it couldn't focus on much else.

The third film tried to wrap things up, but did so pretty poorly. I liked the film, was a nice spectacle. But that was all it was.

I think it's good that there are 3 movies. None of them are absolutely terrible, though the quality did go down with each instalment. Which reminds me, I should watch them again some time...just for nostalgia sake.

 

[Cold Shiny]

Waddya mean who "NOW" thinks that? I've been thinking that since day one!

Its a perfect, complete package, and one of the best movies ever made! There was no need to go and ruin it with 2 terrible sequels.

 

[FalloutJack]

'Rebooting'... Heh heh...

Sorry, it's a hilarious pun, even if unintended.

My thinking is that I enjoyed the trilogy and my real complaint would be 'Too soon'. They're still arguing about the Matrix movies. You have to wait for shit to cool down first.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, the bad philosophy in the later two put me off.

 

[Hawki]

'Rebooting'... Heh heh...

Sorry, it's a hilarious pun, even if unintended.

Titles for the fourth film include:

-The Matrix Rebooted

-The Matrix Revisited

-The Matrix Recollected

 

[Kyrian007]

As popular as The Matrix was, it was actually impossible for it not to get a sequel. Studios don't just make one good movie and leave well enough alone anymore. The first movie could have ended with the death of all the human characters and the Wachowski's could have refused to work on another... and the studio would have grabbed some writer and forged ahead.

Movie studios don't want some of the money... they want ALLLLLL of the money. Studios will wring anything that ever was successful for them for every last penny they can squeeze out of it. WB is rebooting the Matrix because after enjoying tentpole franchises LotR and Harry Potter making huge cash all at once... now they are really bereft of huge franchises. They are throwing everything they have at the wall to try and make something stick. They are rebooting POLICE ACADEMY... that freaking reeks of desperation.

Remember when Toby Key with Ubisoft said they won't make a game unless there's a franchise there... and players hated him for it. I wondered why, when Hollywood has been operating under the same rule since the 90's.

 

[Remus]

'Rebooting'... Heh heh...

Sorry, it's a hilarious pun, even if unintended.

My thinking is that I enjoyed the trilogy and my real complaint would be 'Too soon'. They're still arguing about the Matrix movies. You have to wait for shit to cool down first.

One big reason why they're still arguing about the movies is because, once the Wachowski bros became the Wachowski sisters, it painted the storyline in a completely different light. For example, Switch was originally going to be gender fluid, a male in the real world whose "residual self image" or Matrix avatar was female. This being the 90s, that idea didn't float so it was the same person in and out of the Matrix. Bob Chipman did a Matrix video that condenses what people have talked about extensively for the last 18 years since if you want the shortform version, which is still heavy on symbolism and transformation.

Whether it's too soon for a remake is debatable. The film landed at the internet's transformative years and expanded on what might happen if technology expanded as quickly as it seemed to be going. As a result, even though their "future" is now our past, the film itself, like the first 2 Terminator films, still holds up. Pushing the date for M-day up another 20 years wouldn't hurt the story at all. But if it's not headed by the Wachowskis or at least given some input by them, the deep messages buried within the trilogy's subtext would be lost under new management.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In hindsight yeah, they really shouldn't have bothered. Most of what made the first movie work did so because it was on a small scale; as soon as they started to expand the universe it was obvious this universe just didn't have much fertile soil to continue on. Just an example: In the first movie it looks cool when we see our small group of heroes decked out in leather, but in the second when you see like 20 people all dressed up like that, some in their forties while holding serious conversations, it starts to look really silly.

Also, dispite whatever philosophical tone it had, the first movie was very quick and snappy. The sequels... not so much.

 

[stroopwafel]

I loved the first Matrix but never bothered with the sequels to be honest. I didn't want to devalue my appreciation for the original as soon as I saw that one scene where Neo fights like an entire army of Mr Smiths. The original was over the top with the slow-mo fight scenes, perpetual sunglasses and overly cool demeanor but it worked in making this movie so iconic. Based on it's one-trick lore and visual representation alone as a franchise I can't see this having much depth(or even entertainment) to it. The original though it really was the last movie of 90's excess and released at basically the closure of an entire era. Without the context of this specific time period and all the events that transpired since I don't think The Matrix would have had such a profound cultural impact. As such I definitely think it would have been better if it had been left well alone and remained a stand alone film.

 

[dscross]

I loved the first Matrix but never bothered with the sequels to be honest. I didn't want to devalue my appreciation for the original as soon as I saw that one scene where Neo fights like an entire army of Mr Smiths. The original was over the top with the slow-mo fight scenes, perpetual sunglasses and overly cool demeanor but it worked in making this movie so iconic. Based on it's one-trick lore and visual representation alone as a franchise I can't see this having much depth(or even entertainment) to it. The original though it really was the last movie of 90's excess and released at basically the closure of an entire era. Without the context of this specific time period and all the events that transpired since I don't think The Matrix would have had such a profound cultural impact. As such I definitely think it would have been better if it had been left well alone and remained a stand alone film.

I don't think it's entirely fair to say it wouldn't have had an impact in any other time period. Think how many films it inspired afterwards. I was 13 when the original released and I went to see it at the cinema. A plot like that was unheard of at the time. The freeze frame, slow motion style had never been done before, and it was the one of first films in which multiple actors trained in martial arts specifically for the action sequences. I do think it was a pioneer in many respects - one of the many reasons the sequels had a lot to live up to.

 

[Squilookle]

I'm reading this while watching a vid about the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with that.

What other movies qualify for this though? I'm sure there must be heaps other than just those two.

 

[jklinders]

I've always felt it should have been a stand alone movie. It had a relatively tight story that was left with an ending that was open enough for you to decide how things would go. It was a nearly perfect sci-fi action movie as it was. It did not need to be bogged down with the extra weird metaphors and overwrought action scenes that the 2 sequels gave.


They shit the bed with those sequels. I knew right from the start it was a terrible idea, that if they tried to write an actual ending for it, they would fuck it up.