Patron-exclusive: The Matrix Resurrections

Hi folks, echoing Joel’s question above, no new ep for a while, should $2/month donors be seeing anything new?

Giles Smith

Hey guys, what happened to the monthly bonus Patreon episodes? This is the last one, and it came out almost three months ago.

Joel Lehtonen

The only thing I absolutely HATED in this film was the constant intercutting of scenes from the other films! Am I the only one? It just felt like a fan edit, because it never truly contributed to the story, not for fans or first viewers, it was just so distracting and pulled me out of the film every time. I honestly think it would be a better film without those scenes edited in every few seconds. Beyond that, I really enjoyed the film (or anti film?) that it was, but it's definitely bizarre. Great ep, guys! Much love

I just joined your patreon. Long-time listener and subscriber. Love every one of your podcasts and it's helped make me a better writer.

Oh wow! I didn't realise that, I was a bit confused! Thank you for the reply! I look forward to BTTF as well but I'm sure your analysis on GF will be amazing too. Can't wait

We polled everyone across every platform -- Spotify, and other social media, as well as Patreon -- and actually across all the platforms the Godfather trilogy came out on top! We were surprised, too, but that's why we decided to go a series on the Godfather. Definitely looking forward to diving into the BTTF trilogy in the future though! <3

Tricia Aurand

Ugh the 'bots' could have been such awesome social/social media commentary though.

Reed

Also, Marvel Movies kind of show that audiences just want fun and bouncy.

Reed

Is weird that The Matrix were dark and gritty before that was a thing, and now she went bright when so much is dark and gritty! (Michael immediately on this point...)

Reed

There's something cynical about giving us something we don't want and knowing we don't want it so commenting on how we don't really want it and it's like "Yeah that's kind of fun!"

Reed

Hey you all called it fanfic! Cool cool.

Reed

There is something so cynical about it, though. Oh hey Michael just called it a fanfiction!

Reed

My eventual opinion was: "Wow this was, like, a really good fanfic! I mean, it's not great, and it's definitely not what I would hope they would do with a Matrix, but like, some good ideas there! Interesting! Good fanfic, good fanfic."

Reed

Off topic... but you guys mentioned in your Die Hard episode you are doing the Godfather Trilogy based on the poll you sent out.. but Back to the Future won? It won by nearly 30 votes.. is there a reason for this change?

Watching the movie it felt fairly obvious the only part of the movie LW really cared about was the metacommentary/metaplot. Scenes around had the best cinematography, most attempts at doing something visually interesting, it was disorienting in a fun way and had the best looking action moments. And then that was over and the rest of the movie was just somewhat nice looking garbage. Characters pop in to be references without any meaning, plot makes no sense from moment to moment, the "worldbuilding" is just a bunch of unrelated ideas thrown around, action scenes are boring, look cheap and have no impact, and then you of course have the long monologues delivering fortune cookie nonsense that doesn't really connect to anything else in the movie. I'm pretty sure you could cut out any chunk of the movie after the metamonologue about Matrix 4 and it wouldn't really affect the rest of the story. It makes me feel bad for the younger cast who gave it their best and seemed really excited to be in a Matrix movie. Commenting about how lame it is to do what you're doing doesn't make it not lame. Jokes like having Trinity be married to a literal Chad isn't actually funny when it doesn't mean anything in the story. And Trinity somehow has even less agency outside of being Neo's love interest than in any other movie. It was embarrassing.

I should add— I understand this movie is a metaphor for Lana Wachowski’s transformation, a (heavy handed) commentary on lack of binaries in culture and the otherness of being between the assumed binaries of our world. I celebrate that message, but it doesn’t excuse a terrible movie.

This movie was a masturbatory meta-Matrix trainwreck and painful to finish. I had to go back and watch the beginning of the first movie to wash the taste out of my mouth. Excuse my angry ranting here. The dialogue— actively terrible. Ill-placed humor that doesn’t land, bland idioms (“and it’s the gift that keeps bearing fruit” WHY), and CW drama level conversation. Actual dialogue: “Hi Thomas, everyone calls me Tiff” “Hi” “Are you trying to ball my mom or what?” “It’s SICK how the semblance works” “I remember wanting a family. But was that because that’s what women are supposed to want? How do you know if you want something yourself or if your upbringing programmed you to want it?” [And I thought the last two movies were heavy handed in their metaphors] “Is it true you could fly?” “Yeah” “Cool!” (Shuts door and leaves) [WHY DOES THIS DIALOGUE EXIST] I physically can’t go back and rewatch enough to pull out more inane examples of dialogue. The action— Badly framed, shakily filmed, no stakes for any main character in any scene. HOW INACCURATE IS THE AIM OF EVERY BAD GUY IN THE MOVIE? Weird zombie horde fights that felt right out of a mediocre TV show. The difference was starker after watching the original again— the action there remains fantastic, well shot, and although aging continues to create tension and add to the story. Compare just the Trinity fight scenes and tell me the new movie holds up. The look and feel of this is also completely wrong for me… I understand the need to evolve, but I am not coming to the world of the Matrix for corporate tech company ideation sessions and third wave coffee shops. I need at least a taste of the goth-cyberpunk-industrial-leather-video game COOL that made The Matrix distinct (everything Cyberpunk 2077 wanted and failed to be). Do yourself a favor and rewatch the trilogy instead of this. Revolutions is a cinematic masterpiece in comparison.

Neo: it’s my turn to believe in Trinity. / Tiffany: I’m sorry I’m not who you thought I was. [Neo: *smirks* The thing about Trinity is she was never what I thought she was] Chad: C’mon TIFF! Tiffany: *stops*…I hate that name - ffs this most critical moment missed, and it’s driving me nuts.

Adam Pollock

Bugs is just pure plot with blue hair. She is really just a younger Niobe. I loved the parts with Thomas in the office plus one or two other lines. But the opening and the last half were a major drag. I also don't see what yall are talking about with the lovey-dovey heart. It had a sense of humor and a brighter color palette. But it wasn't exactly Michel gondry. Maybe just by comparison to the originals. As great as the self referential humor was, I felt like they really could have gone for the jugular on refuting the appropriation of the metaphor by online young conservatives. But that may have angered the studio. I also noticed you all made some comparison critiques of force awakens as being what this film is making fun of. I agree, but that appraisal was not very well reflected in your actual discussion of that movie. I recall that discussion being overly soft on how derivative the new star wars films were.

Your post-credit discussion needs its own discussion.

andrew

Excellent picture

Ryan McDuffie

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for this episode. It was so gratifying to hear that I wasn’t alone in so many of the thoughts and feelings I had while watching the movie (please note, I’m #TeamNakedMorpheus). Extra special thank you for that “end credit” clip too, because I was thinking exactly what Alex shared while watching. I had so much fun watching this movie, but I also felt sad at the end. I wasn’t sad because I hated, or even disliked, the movie. I was sad because I relate more now with old granny Niobe (or even OG Agent Smith 👀😬), than the optimistic 10yo I was when I first watched The Matrix. It’s been a wild ass 22 years. It does make me hopeful that a movie like this can still exist, though. Happy holidays and thank you for the great work y’all do!

Joy as an act of resistance!! Although I’ll agree the zombie bombs were not ok hahah

I really think Michael best described the way this movie made me feel in its “cynical” (although to me, it feels optimistic) response to being given an impossible task by turning that around and saying “F you”, both in the context of the Matrix story but also ultimately in the most existential way. My takeaway is that the desperate search and yearning for logic or meaning in the plot is a miserable endeavour so shouldn’t we try our best to use the limited time we have to pursue and celebrate the things that bring us joy? (Like love, art, fabulous orange outfits and blue hair😋)