Keanu Reeves set to return for The Matrix 4

[mikeymikec]

Which are wrose:

All Terminator follow-ups after Judgement Day
All Matrix follow-ups after Matrix 1

Terminator franchise personally destroyed my childhood of loving T2.

I'll add another contender:

The Star Wars franchise, after Return of the Jedi

because the prequel trilogy popped the 'childhood nostalgia' bubble for me. The only exception was Rogue One, but that's not even good enough to own on DVD/BR IMO.

Where I can easily ignore everything in those franchises after T2 or Matrix 1.

 

[Amused]

What's funny is not very many people here in this thread were here in this forum during the original three movies.

Who was here? Do you remember? Even the 2nd and third movies were exciting to us at the time, though the Jesus and supernatural thing killed it. But we still dug it.

When the trailer dropped for the second movie we geeked out hard over then "hmm, upgrades" teaser scene.

It was 17-20 years ago... Right here on this forum,. when OT would fly by there were so many users.

Oh the nostalgia. It's more about that to me than judging the movies now.

 

[Zeze]

Matrix Easily. The difference in quality from the original to the sequels is pretty much unmatched (though sonikku brings up a good point about the Highlander franchise)

Terminator 3 really isn't that bad in the scope of the series. ....The Christian Bale one, though, that was pretty shitty. An OK movie on its own, but garbage for Terminator. I don't think I ever saw Genysis [sic?]

The SCC series on Fox was pretty awesome, though. It deserved at least another season. more would have been better.

Animatrix was amazing, whether you like anime or not. An amazing collection of scifi stories.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I'm in as long as there's an extended rave scene.

It'd probably be an in Matrix orgy, where people could be whatever they identify as. Think furry orgy but with realistic CGI humanoid animals.

 

[nakedfrog]

What's funny is not very many people here in this thread were here in this forum during the original three movies.

Who was here? Do you remember? Even the 2nd and third movies were exciting to us at the time, though the Jesus and supernatural thing killed it. But we still dug it.

When the trailer dropped for the second movie we geeked out hard over then "hmm, upgrades" teaser scene.

It was 17-20 years ago... Right here on this forum,. when OT would fly by there were so many users.

Oh the nostalgia. It's more about that to me than judging the movies now.

Here's a walk down memory lane for you.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/honestly-why-all-this-hype-about-the-matrix-reloaded.1057671/

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/the-matrix-reloaded-is-anyone-going-in-costume.1056650/

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/poll-matrix-reloaded-compared-to-matrix.1062898/

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/i-just-saw-the-matrix-reloaded.1059449/

 

[darkswordsman17]

I think the franchise is salvageable, but I don't think they'll manage to do it the route they're taking.

Oh, which holy hell, speaking of which, did someone make a thread about that? We're gonna get a new Terminator, I think James Cameron is involved, and Linda Hamilton and Ah-nuld are both supposed to be in it. I'm sure it'll probably suck too, but I have more interest in that. I hope they kinda go back to a smaller contained story. Think something like the most recent Halloween movie, with Linda Hamilton playing a character kinda like Jamie Lee Curtis in that movie.

Matrix Easily. The difference in quality from the original to the sequels is pretty much unmatched (though sonikku brings up a good point about the Highlander franchise)

Terminator 3 really isn't that bad in the scope of the series. ....The Christian Bale one, though, that was pretty shitty. An OK movie on its own, but garbage for Terminator. I don't think I ever saw Genysis [sic?]

The SCC series on Fox was pretty awesome, though. It deserved at least another season. more would have been better.

This easily. T1 and T2 can stand on their own still (heck they're so different in style/tone that I think that's why the Terminator franchise doesn't bother me later, we got two good movies that can stand on their own; kinda like how the Mad Max movies can stand on their own and I can enjoy them all in different ways - the original 3 as analogy for Mel Gibson's career/mental state over his career). For whatever reason its a lot easier for me to ignore T3 (heck I even kinda enjoy it, but for me its more like Batman Forever, like a kitschy satire of the previous stuff). Yeah the Bale Terminator movie was bad (and agree it would've been ok without the Terminator license where instead it was just a dystopian future about robots run amok). I think I saw Genysis and it was bad. It like tries to retcon into the first movie (seriously like half the movie is them redoing a bunch of the first movie I think?), but you just don't give a shit about anything that happens. Its incredibly forgettable.

I'll add another contender:

The Star Wars franchise, after Return of the Jedi

because the prequel trilogy popped the 'childhood nostalgia' bubble for me. The only exception was Rogue One, but that's not even good enough to own on DVD/BR IMO.

Where I can easily ignore everything in those franchises after T2 or Matrix 1.

I lucked out in that I was never that big of a Star Wars fan (I liked the original trilogy, but wasn't obsessed with it) so the prequels didn't "rape my childhood" like a bunch (or even worse the poor bastards that are so into Star Wars that they even claim the prequels weren't bad). Which they are just awful bad horrible movies, but I think the Disney stuff is doing more to ruin the legacy of the originals. But, that's the thing, its easy to separate the movies. You can still embed into the original trilogy. I enjoy the newer stuff mostly to enjoy RLM's take on things.

For me, I cannot separate the Matrix movies. The 2nd and 3rd ruined the franchise entirely for me. It turned it into full blown cartoon. It was like "it looks like the original, oh now here's some cartoonishly bad CGI action scenes, oh and here's some nonsensical philosophizing that is desperately trying to sound smart but is in fact just stupid babbling.

What's funny is not very many people here in this thread were here in this forum during the original three movies.

Who was here? Do you remember? Even the 2nd and third movies were exciting to us at the time, though the Jesus and supernatural thing killed it. But we still dug it.

When the trailer dropped for the second movie we geeked out hard over then "hmm, upgrades" teaser scene.

It was 17-20 years ago... Right here on this forum,. when OT would fly by there were so many users.

Oh the nostalgia. It's more about that to me than judging the movies now.

You poor naive bastards.

I liked the first movie ok, but I didn't think it was the OMG best thing EVAR!!!!!!! like it seems a lot of other people did. Even so, the sequels were so bad that it killed the franchise entirely for me. Most franchises/series have a slow decline. The Matrix movies were like a cool friend that you used to have fun hanging out and playing video games with in high school/college, that suffers a major mental health schism and suddenly starts talking in psychobabble while making you watch Dragonball Z because they threatened to kill themselves after mixing cough medicine and alcohol, then later becomes a religious nutter (but one that's in to like Christian metal bands).

Animatrix was amazing, whether you like anime or not. An amazing collection of scifi stories.

It was well done. They'd be smart to make a Twilight Zone style anime series based around the Matrix. And then make the best episodes into live action CGI movie(s).

 

[Amused]

You poor naive bastards.

I liked the first movie ok, but I didn't think it was the OMG best thing EVAR!!!!!!! like it seems a lot of other people did. Even so, the sequels were so bad that it killed the franchise entirely for me. Most franchises/series have a slow decline. The Matrix movies were like a cool friend that you used to have fun hanging out and playing video games with in high school/college, that suffers a major mental health schism and suddenly starts talking in psychobabble while making you watch Dragonball Z because they threatened to kill themselves after mixing cough medicine and alcohol, then later becomes a religious nutter (but one that's in to like Christian metal bands).

It was fun. For fucks sake it was fun.

What is it about this hipster bullshit about being too cool to have fucking fun with stuff like this?

It was 20 fucking years ago. And we had fun.

Not to mention, the movie changed the art forever, like it or not. It's one of the most influential movies of our generation It influenced, movie making, music, style and culture for a decade and longer.

All I came here for was the nostalgia of the fun. But I guess everyone is too cool to remember having fun with it.

 

[sandorski]

Excited!

But ...
Who knows what stupid notions will be spawned by Matrix 4. First one persuaded gullibles we are living in a simulation.

I will keep my expectations low.

Neo wakes up in a Lab from neck pain. Only to discover that a Spider Monkey bit him in the neck and now he has super human strength and a long tail which he uses to swing from lightpost to lightpost through the city solving crimes. The Matrix was just the dream he was having, but this newfound ability sufficiently mimicked the dream that it just ties in enough to not be weird....

 

[zinfamous]

What's funny is not very many people here in this thread were here in this forum during the original three movies.

Who was here? Do you remember? Even the 2nd and third movies were exciting to us at the time, though the Jesus and supernatural thing killed it. But we still dug it.

When the trailer dropped for the second movie we geeked out hard over then "hmm, upgrades" teaser scene.

It was 17-20 years ago... Right here on this forum,. when OT would fly by there were so many users.

Oh the nostalgia. It's more about that to me than judging the movies now.

Who gives a shit if someone was here or not in the forums when those movies were out--we were still sentient humans with the same capacity to understand the range of mediocrity-to-utter shit that they produced, lol.

I liked the first Matrix flick. I appreciate and enjoyed its earned...place in a cultural sense and even film history. It was a ...not at all novel story and theme, but it introduced some fancy and not-insignificant camera work, for good or ill, which simply can't be denied. And it did all of that very well. It was "awesome." (and yet: The Thirteenth Floor was the better of the exact same films, released and in the theaters at the exact same summer time run of The Matrix!)

Then it is best to leave it at that. The rest I mean...there was one Matrix movie. Let's settle on this, eh?


...and no, "even the 2nd was fun" just isn't true. It's actually the first time a film physically nauseated me. Even my older bro, still alive at the time and who had an appreciable "wider taste" in the lower standards of film than I always had, agreed that this was shit and we should probably leave. I mean...."they have been raving for what, 30 minutes now? is that is what is happening? are we sitting here watching this shit? what the fuck happened?" ...we didn't leave though, I always like to give everything a fair shot, at least once.

It got its one shot for me, then certain sequences later in life got another shot...but it was all just worse. Just way the fuck worse. Matrix 2 was an abortion in celluloid.
...."It was an abortion, Amused! And I had it killed! I killed it because I would not bring another one of your evil films into this world!"

 

[zinfamous]

Animatrix was amazing, whether you like anime or not. An amazing collection of scifi stories.

No idea what that was...one of those "late" MTV things?

I stopped watching MTV about the time MJ's "Bad" album was released, lol.

 

[Amused]

Who gives a shit if someone was here or not in the forums when those movies were out--we were still sentient humans with the same capacity to understand the range of mediocrity-to-utter shit that they produced, lol.

I liked the first Matrix flick. I appreciate and enjoyed its earned...place in a cultural sense and even film history. It was a ...not at all novel story and theme, but it introduced some fancy and not-insignificant camera work, for good or ill, which simply can't be denied. And it did all of that very well. It was "awesome." (and yet: The Thirteenth Floor was the better of the exact same films, released and in the theaters at the exact same summer time run of The Matrix!)

Then it is best to leave it at that. The rest I mean...there was one Matrix movie. Let's settle on this, eh?


...and no, "even the 2nd was fun" just isn't true. It's actually the first time a film physically nauseated me. Even my older bro, still alive at the time and who had an appreciable "wider taste" in the lower standards of film than I always had, agreed that this was shit and we should probably leave. I mean...."they have been raving for what, 30 minutes now? is that is what is happening? are we sitting here watching this shit? what the fuck happened?" ...we didn't leave though, I always like to give everything a fair shot, at least once.

It got its one shot for me, then certain sequences later in life got another shot...but it was all just worse. Just way the fuck worse. Matrix 2 was an abortion in celluloid.
...."It was an abortion, Amused! And I had it killed! I killed it because I would not bring another one of your evil films into this world!"

Kudos for the Godfather reference.

Your still an elitist hipster.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

This will be bad. The Watchowski's seem like a pair that captured lightning in a bottle with The Matrix, really just maxed themselves out and made something really spectacular, but had nothing in the tank to top their first effort. Classic destroyed by their own success.

Like if we got Empire Strikes Back, then went immediately into prequel story mode. No one would remember Star Wars, and we'd all be asking ourselves what the hell happened with that series.

To pile on to the "series that have gone to shit" how about the Aliens and Predator franchises.

Aliens, like the Terminator, started with a solid pair of movies that were so different in tone that they both work as self contained stories. This has been followed by a juvenile shitfest and Ridely Scott's dementia on screen.

Predator started with a solid action flick, and has been a steady decline from there. The Adiran Brody "Predators" was a slight uptick in quality, but couldn't halt the decline into the absurdity that was the latest film.

Your thoughts?

 

[mikeymikec]

What's funny is not very many people here in this thread were here in this forum during the original three movies.

Who was here? Do you remember? Even the 2nd and third movies were exciting to us at the time, though the Jesus and supernatural thing killed it. But we still dug it.

When the trailer dropped for the second movie we geeked out hard over then "hmm, upgrades" teaser scene.

It was 17-20 years ago... Right here on this forum,. when OT would fly by there were so many users.

Oh the nostalgia. It's more about that to me than judging the movies now.

I watched Reloaded with my brother, and I remember puzzling out the ending with him and wondering where they were going to go with it. It's probably the most I've talked about a movie with someone immediately after watching it. It was a bit of a WTF ending.

 

[darkswordsman17]

It was fun. For fucks sake it was fun.

What is it about this hipster bullshit about being too cool to have fucking fun with stuff like this?

It was 20 fucking years ago. And we had fun.

Not to mention, the movie changed the art forever, like it or not. It's one of the most influential movies of our generation It influenced, movie making, music, style and culture for a decade and longer.

All I came here for was the nostalgia of the fun. But I guess everyone is too cool to remember having fun with it.

(I hope you appreciate that I tried to find a link from 20 years ago!)

No idea what that was...one of those "late" MTV things?

I stopped watching MTV about the time MJ's "Bad" album was released, lol.

I don't think it had anything to do with MTV. It was a collection of animated shorts loosely tied to the Matrix. Some gave details, others were just random nonsense "because Matrix". The most famous was probably that CGI one of the man and woman having a sword fight and cutting each other's clothes off inside the Matrix. I think the rest were more traditional animation style (its been awhile since I've seen it, but I don't recall it having particularly overbearing anime styling, and its actually decent, there's a film noir detective story I believe, and then one detailing the descent into war with the machines; some other random stories like kids finding a glitch in the Matrix and having fun with it, and I don't remember what all else).

This will be bad. The Watchowski's seem like a pair that captured lightning in a bottle with The Matrix, really just maxed themselves out and made something really spectacular, but had nothing in the tank to top their first effort. Classic destroyed by their own success.

Like if we got Empire Strikes Back, then went immediately into prequel story mode. No one would remember Star Wars, and we'd all be asking ourselves what the hell happened with that series.

To pile on to the "series that have gone to shit" how about the Aliens and Predator franchises.

Aliens, like the Terminator, started with a solid pair of movies that were so different in tone that they both work as self contained stories. This has been followed by a juvenile shitfest and Ridely Scott's dementia on screen.

Predator started with a solid action flick, and has been a steady decline from there. The Adiran Brody "Predators" was a slight uptick in quality, but couldn't halt the decline into the absurdity that was the latest film.

Your thoughts?

I actually wonder if the Wachowski's were really responsible for the original movie being good (not unlike Star Wars being good in spite of Lucas and as we eventually saw, very probably not because of him). I believe they've been sued for having stolen the script (I don't remember how valid that was though, and there's been plenty of similar ideas). They also used some of the same sets as Dark City (that has quite a bit of similar ideas/theming) and came out a year before.

Absolutely. Aliens is total shit after the first two. There's been some weird attempt to defend Alien 3 and even Resurrection in recent years that I don't get. Those were just complete garbage. I've posted long thoughts about Alien franchise (it was shallow shit that worked because it was shallow, same with a lot of other stuff like Star Wars, which is why when they try to expand upon them we end up with basically nothing but shit), so I don't want to get too far off the Matrix discussions.

There's a weird absence in all this line of talk. Its pretty glaring too considering how much the rest of the internet seems completely fucking obsessed with it the past several years. Robocop.

Who gives a shit if someone was here or not in the forums when those movies were out--we were still sentient humans with the same capacity to understand the range of mediocrity-to-utter shit that they produced, lol.

I liked the first Matrix flick. I appreciate and enjoyed its earned...place in a cultural sense and even film history. It was a ...not at all novel story and theme, but it introduced some fancy and not-insignificant camera work, for good or ill, which simply can't be denied. And it did all of that very well. It was "awesome." (and yet: The Thirteenth Floor was the better of the exact same films, released and in the theaters at the exact same summer time run of The Matrix!)

Then it is best to leave it at that. The rest I mean...there was one Matrix movie. Let's settle on this, eh?


...and no, "even the 2nd was fun" just isn't true. It's actually the first time a film physically nauseated me. Even my older bro, still alive at the time and who had an appreciable "wider taste" in the lower standards of film than I always had, agreed that this was shit and we should probably leave. I mean...."they have been raving for what, 30 minutes now? is that is what is happening? are we sitting here watching this shit? what the fuck happened?" ...we didn't leave though, I always like to give everything a fair shot, at least once.

It got its one shot for me, then certain sequences later in life got another shot...but it was all just worse. Just way the fuck worse. Matrix 2 was an abortion in celluloid.
...."It was an abortion, Amused! And I had it killed! I killed it because I would not bring another one of your evil films into this world!"

I think that's fitting, that the real legacy of The Matrix was slow motion camera pans with some wire work, which was replaced with CGI as quickly as possible, even in the Matrix movies themselves. Which that's one of the most baffling things to me. The CGI in the original looked much better than the sequels. Some of that was simply direction, but they clearly rushed/half-assed/cut cost on the CGI. The ripple from the helicopter in the first movie was well done. The similar accordion rippling from the truck crash in Reloaded was so terrible.

A-hem. Dark City was out the year before, and Matrix used some of the same sets it did. I seem to recall it doing the film noir stuff better than either as well. Its almost like if 90s Tim Burton made the Matrix.

 

[mikeymikec]

I lucked out in that I was never that big of a Star Wars fan (I liked the original trilogy, but wasn't obsessed with it) so the prequels didn't "rape my childhood" like a bunch (or even worse the poor bastards that are so into Star Wars that they even claim the prequels weren't bad). Which they are just awful bad horrible movies, but I think the Disney stuff is doing more to ruin the legacy of the originals. But, that's the thing, its easy to separate the movies. You can still embed into the original trilogy. I enjoy the newer stuff mostly to enjoy RLM's take on things.

Aside from Rogue One I didn't bother with any further SW movies after EP3. When 'The Force Awakens' came out I decided to give it a wide berth until I found out what the general opinion was about it. When people described it as "A Familiar Hope", I gave it a skip.

 

[mikeymikec]

No idea what that was...one of those "late" MTV things?

The Animatrix was a bunch of unconnected short stories set in the Matrix universe, each (aside from a two-parter) with its own artistic style. There's one or two episodes that I didn't think were that good, but it's pretty entertaining overall. The two parter (called 'the second renaissance') was a good prequel for the films IMO and had some pretty powerful imagery in IMO.

 

[clamum]

I'm looking forward to it. I don't hate the sequels like most people seem to do, although I like the second movie more than the third. I'm hoping they blow us away with the new movie by doing something comparable to that "bullet shot" style we saw in the first Matrix, introduce something cool and new like that. DO EET

Oh and yeah I liked the Animatrix too. Normally not big on animated stuff but I thought that was very well done. The Second Renaissance, both parts, would make a couple of awesome movies if not f'd up and done well. Maybe they'll go that direction (prequel)... that would be sweet.

 

[Amused]

I watched Reloaded with my brother, and I remember puzzling out the ending with him and wondering where they were going to go with it. It's probably the most I've talked about a movie with someone immediately after watching it. It was a bit of a WTF ending.

Same. We were wondering if it was a matrix inside a matrix. A 13th floor kinda thing.

Nope. They went supernatural on us.

 

[nakedfrog]

...and no, "even the 2nd was fun" just isn't true. It's actually the first time a film physically nauseated me. Even my older bro, still alive at the time and who had an appreciable "wider taste" in the lower standards of film than I always had, agreed that this was shit and we should probably leave. I mean...."they have been raving for what, 30 minutes now? is that is what is happening? are we sitting here watching this shit? what the fuck happened?" ...we didn't leave though, I always like to give everything a fair shot, at least once.

I do still fast-forward through that scene when I watch it.

There's a weird absence in all this line of talk. Its pretty glaring too considering how much the rest of the internet seems completely fucking obsessed with it the past several years. Robocop.

Ah yes
First one was amazing, the second one... well, I remember watching it at some point. I recall being disgusted with what I'd just witnessed when I left the theater after seeing the third one.

 

[dasherHampton]

The scary question is - Will this be Indiana Jones 4 bad?

 

[nakedfrog]

The scary question is - Will this be Indiana Jones 4 bad?

That would be quite a feat.

Edit: Assuming they ever made another Indiana Jones sequel, because of course everyone knows they haven't. That wouldn't even make any sense. They stopped at 3 like reasonable human beings.

 

[Zeze]

No idea what that was...one of those "late" MTV things?

I stopped watching MTV about the time MJ's "Bad" album was released, lol.

It was a stand-alone companion movie also produced by Wachowski bros. (direct to DVD)

The movie is comprised of 5-6 of small stories taking place in Matrix universe with unrelated characters. It has top-shelf animation/voice acting/production too.

* An entire backstory of The Second Renaissance in Matrix universe- how the machines rose to power, how humans waged war, how we lost, and cruise around the caves eating canned food. You learn why the skies are always dark and stormy in reality (final weapon used by mankind against machines to cut solar power).

* An Olympian that red-pills himself out of Matrix accidentally because of sheer physical strive for perfection.

* More...

You're in for a facking treat if you missed this. Go youtube some trailers and watch it.

[edit]
The Second Renaissance Part I
Watch Part II

 

[dasherHampton]

I have the Animatrix set. It came with my "ultimate" Matrix collection.

I've never watched them but now I'm intrigued.

 

[zinfamous]

The scary question is - Will this be Indiana Jones 4 bad?

That's already a really high bar to set for what this series became.

 

[snoopy7548]

The Matrix was awesome. Easily a 9/10.

The Matrix: Reloaded was OK. Some good scenes but nothing like the first (and not in a good way). A 7/10 is maybe a bit generous.

The Matrix: Revolutions was largely crap. Some really good scenes but way too much crap. I'd give it a 5.5/10.

If they made a Matrix: Recut that combined Reloaded and Revolutions into one 2-2.5 hour movie, but cut out all of the crap and kept most of the action, it would probably be pretty dang good.