MovieChat Forums > The Matrix Reloaded (2003) Discussion > What kind of stuff were you expecting to...

What kind of stuff were you expecting to see in the sequels?

posted 6 years ago by bozo_500 (13387)
9 replies | jump to latest

I was a huge fan of Matrix 1 when it came out in 99- not for the bullet time or cool action but for the story and the Twilight Zoneness of it all...at times it really did feel like a mega budget Twilight Zone or even some far off sequel to the original Terminator (which itself was heavily inspired by a couple of eps of Outer Limits). I particularly liked all the stuff before he got out of the matrix - the mystery of it all...the eerie dark atmosphere . that feel of a doomed world/dark underworld that only some people know about (similar to the original Terminator/Blade/Dark City).. the urban legendness of it....the WTF is going on uneasy feeling.... the retro/gothic/noir 'night hawks'/kafka look/feel and the look of the night time scenes (e.g. the opening hotel/rooftop/phonebox, neo being picked up in the underpass/the 'youve been down that road' shot, the strange hotel with red/blue pill and the trace program leading to 'the truth') ..then we find out the twist (it was great that they managed to keep that under wraps in the trailers etc).

Anyway like many i was eagerly anticipating the sequels when I heard they were making them and then severely let down when I saw them as i was hoping for some startling revelations about who built the matrix and big Twilight Zone style twists etc - but they never came. Instead there was just nonsensical pompous stuff, boring action with bad CGI and Zion felt like something out of a rejected post star trek Gene Roddenberry pilot. there was some interesting stuff with the keymaker and the building/door leading to the architect and the implications that it had all happened before and the end with Neo stopping the sentinals (suggesting the real world might be a matrix) but it was all very muddled and that stuff didnt come to pass in Rev. Perhaps itd have been better had Reloaded and Revolutions been one 2 hour film - cutting out Zion/the rave, French guy, Indian family, Trinity dying about 5 times etc (plus had some better resolution to it all than Revolutions managed)... So youd have The Matrix in 1999 and The Matrix ‘II’ in 2003 and then maybe had a prequel in 2006 (live action version of the great ‘Second Renaissance’ - not done as an anime) or the prequel first in 03 then Matrix II in 06.

Still all was not lost after Reloaded - everyone was expecting and hoping for something great in the 3rd movie so it could be one great trilogy - but it never came

And regarding the end to Revolutions - Id have liked it if something crazy had been revealed - e.g. if itd had all been revealed to be a drug induced hallucination from when he swallowed the red pill from Morpehous in part 1 (tying in with the end of Alice in WL which the film frequently references)... A new mind drug that targets your secret fantasys and makes them seem real to you - in this case a boring office geek think hes a manga kung fu kicking saviour of mankind in a Terminator-esque future...a wishful fantasy that many a Sci Fi obsessed geek secretly yearns for (wouldve tied in with all the Anderson asleep scenes in the first part of the movie) or maybe - at the end we find out that the real world was also a matrix (hence why he could use his powers outside the matrix at the end of part 2 - I was convinced that would be the case after he was able to stop the machines in the real world at the end of Reloaded) - last scene of the 3rd film is Neo asleep in another different looking pod....he never left the matrix. They could have called Matrix Reloaded - Matrix ‘2’ (a matrix within the matrix) and Matrix Revolutions - Matrix ‘3’ (as that film could have dealt with a matrix within a matrix within the matrix) - as Morpheous says in Matrix 1 - I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
(I would've actually liked this to have been the trilogy: 1 - set up/ends with Morph 'welcome to the real world.' 2 - training/save Morph. 3 - the big 'Twilight Zone' resolution/Matrix within a Matrix within a matrix and maybe the it was all a drug induced coma/wake up in bed shock end could've been the post end credits scene)

But anything twisty and Twilight Zoney like that really - id have liked that instead of the 'Aliens' rip off playing everything straight like a typical boring action movie starring Mrs Will Smith and recast Link & his wife

The Matrix sequels are up there with the Highlander sequels for completely ruining the original movie and making you think it wasn’t as good as it was (which it was)...In hindsight itd have been better not to do them and leave any sequels to the imagination (like Close Encounters etc)…

[–] bozo_500 (13387) 6 years ago

some of the stuff and ideas in Inception was along the lines of what i was hoping to see in the matrix sequels . In fact just after the Matrix came out I 'surfed the net' looking for clues as to what the Matrix sequel would be like (abit like Neo trying to figure out what the matrix was in the first movie) I found a blog that supposdly gave away spoilers to Matrix Reloaded and alot of stuff I saw in Inception I remember reading on this blog in around 2000. in the blog the writer told how there would be a Matrix with-in the matrix and that Neo and Trinity and the team would travel down many levels of the matrix. The further they would travel, the more time would phase in between levels of the matrix‘s. Neo, Trinity and the team learned to have more power in the lower levels and trinity learns how to fold space with her mind. Just like how Ellen Page folded the city in Inception. The team learn to walk among agents and fool them into thinking they were in pods in the power plants. But certain actions would awaken agents and make them suspicious. Just like the people projections in Inception. Also it stated that Trinity was actually an agent and was leading Neo and the team to their doom. - the situation with Mal in inception is a little similar...think there might also have been something about the real world being revealed to be a matrix (sort of like what happened with Mal and abit like the end shot in Inception). Needless to say nothing in Inception resembles the actual Reloaded.

actually thought the success of Inception would make Warner relaunch the Matrix franchise (with different directors of course) but didnt happen.. But now looks like will happen soon with the Ready Player One writer? they dont have to continue the R&R storylines. just start again as if they didnt happen (and obviously with a new cast but with Keanu, LF, CAM coming back like Han, Luke Leia) - sort of a reboot (The Matrix Rebooted) but still The Matrix 4. do all the stuff they shouldve done for R&R - deeper levels of the matrix, matrix's within matrix's, more Twilight Zoney/Inceptiony like the 1st one, twists one can actually follow

[–] bozo_500 (13387) 6 years ago

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/matrix-4-keanu-reeves-carrie-anne-moss-lana-wachowski-1203307955/
:)

[–] wearsalan (5554) 5 years ago

I never thought that sequels were needed. The story was complete as Neo was the One. Anything else was, as Charlton Heston said of planet of the apes sequels, adventures among the monkeys.

[–] bozo_500 (13387) 5 years ago

Watched 'Devs' and now hoping some of the stuff that it dealt with might end up in the Matrix 4

[–] bozo_500 (13387) 3 years ago

Not long now to see if any of that stuff comes about in Resurrections..

[–] vilafire (660) 3 years ago

I love your ideas. Except the one about it all being a hallucination. That is never satisfying. If that was used in a smaller way, ok. But not the whole thing.

Honestly it sounds like that blogger speculated on what a satisfying future installment might look like and the filmmakers read it and did something else instead. Which is irksome because if they had to make a sequel it should have told a good story.

First of all, the whole idea of putting out a Part 2 with a cliffhanger and a Part 3 in the same year was foolish. Clearly they didn’t have enough of a story and split one film into two. So stupid. Some executive should have reined them in. Reloaded is way too bloated and slow and even the exciting action gets boring because the fights go on forever.

What did I expect? Here are my recollections, years later:

In early 1999 I believe I saw the teaser trailer during the Super Bowl. Apparently it was 30 seconds and ended with a url: whatisthematrix.com.

I was a college freshman and me and my friends weren’t in the habit of going to the movies at the time. We all did get hyped to see this. We took shrooms and smoked grass like crazy. I thought the movie was so boring and slow and stupid when I first saw it, lol. (Don’t ask what I was on when I first saw 28 Days Later.)

Eventually I rewatched it and enjoyed it. Not sure when. But I fully expected the sequel to be about Super Neo and Friends flying and fighting their way around the Matrix trying to red pill as many people as possible to fight the robots.

My biggest gripes with all the film series:

- I never got a clear picture of what Earth looked like. Outside the Matrix. Is every acre of land covered in those power plants? Are there any remnants of human civilization?

- Ditto for Zion. I really hate Zion overall. In Reloaded they say there’s a quarter million people. How was it built? This structure is massive. As ugly as it was that would have been the most remarkable engineering project ever. Doesn’t make any sense. But where exactly is it?

- So if Zion is underground, when the ships they use are flying around like spaceships, they’re in Earth’s atmosphere?

- What do the robots do? They (stupidly and inefficiently) use humans for fuel, but fuel to do what exactly? Do they have any space operations?

Anyway, I like your comments. A little late to the party, but I’m rewatching the series in 4k to get ready for what I expect to be a complete dumpster fire, Matrix 4!

[–] Druff (1845) 3 years ago

I don't recall having any expectations whatsoever when I went to see Reloaded. I went into the theater with a completely open mind. I thought it was great, and I still do. And I still think its haters are basically morons. Seems like the complaints almost always boil down to some spoiled little shits who thought they knew what the Matrix sequels were going to be and can't get over it that the movies didn't deliver what they predicted and wanted.

Anyway, I'm in here because I'm thinking about all of the Matrix movies after finally seeing Resurrections. It came out on 4K blu ray two days ago and I watched it in two sessions. I was hoping the backlash against it was the same baseless pissing and moaning and whining from the usual numbnut incels, but am sorry to say that while it did have a few moments, most of it ranged from boring to cringey. That said, the meta narrative going on the first act sure seemed to indicate the only reason it was made was because Warner Bros was going to make it no matter what, and at least one Wachowski was willing to get involved mainly just to jam a Lee Press On fake fingernail up their executives' buttholes.

[–] bozo_500 (13387) 3 years ago

my Matrix 4 review - https://moviechat.org/tt10838180/The-Matrix-Resurrections/62790c4c7bc92d3ed35589bc/just-saw-it-best-of-the-sequels
basically pretty much along the lines of what i was expecting Reloaded/Revolutions to be :)

[–] Galilguy (2527) 3 years ago

Yep, it's awful beyond words.