I’ve seen some grumbling headlines about Matrix 4 and I really couldn’t care less what the fundamental subject/hyperobject of the film itself has to say, but here’s what I feel like sharing today: this is a film for a very particular kind of person.
Maybe you were planning to meet up with school friends at the cinema, but no one had a cellphone so they ended up heading there early and seeing something silly like You’ve Got Mail, or whatever it was, so you watched The Matrix by yourself and had your tiny brain blown.
Maybe, some years later, in a different country with a different bunch of school friends, you all risked the next morning’s exam to watch Matrix 2 and had your tiny hearts crushed by a bloated script stuffed with so many fight sequences you barely had energy to absorb the climax. Maybe you watched Matrix 3 on your laptop for the first time a couple of weeks ago, just so you’d know what’s going on before you see Matrix 4.
It all still felt overdone but at least you understood the arc a little more. Maybe you were worried number 4 would try too hard to recreate number 1.
That wave of relief you felt during the self-aware parts of the first half of the fourth installment? That’s for that type of person.
If you didn’t feel that—maybe you were a little too old or a little too young when the franchise began. It’s okay. Love is freely chosen.