manolescucrazvan

Firstly, I've read the Remembrance of Earth's Past series by Liu Cixin and it one of my favourites. It's everything good Sci-fi should be.

That being said, I don't mind a rewrite for a series. There are numerous fan fiction stories, one of which made it as the unofficial 4th book in the series.

But what I find strange is that there are huge scenes that are following the book closely and the the others are dangerously close to trash.

The main characters are not believable as top scientists. Some of it had to do with poor casting, a lot with the idiotic dialogue. These are top minds of the world and they speak like edgy 20 yos. They don't gratuitously swear.

Apart from that, we also see the, now classic, strong female character trope (that replaces the man main character). That's fine, it doesn't matter, the story is much larger. But all the male characters are pathetic, useless, clumsy idiots that constantly need assistance. I whish Hollywood BS would have just stood this one out. This story not a good place for moral preaching.

The CGI is sometimes amazing, sometimes cheap. The story is the same.

I wish we could have had a slower story, with a smaller cast, more science and less teenage drama.

After finishing the movie, I feel like I've eaten reheated pasta: I still have a taste of the original dish, but the experience was just bad.

The overall plot of the movie is decent. It doesn't feel like a heartless cash-grab, but the execution does.

* The movie is littered with sequences from the old movies (which I found very tacky), as well as over-explanations. The best thing about the original movies was that it made you think. It made you keep processing what you've just seen for a lot of time.

* The Matrix movies felt cold and serious. They were about serious issues, there was no silliness in it. There was no room for it. The silly atmosphere and lines just make some things feel gross. Any attachment that you feel to the characters is reset to 0 in that moment.

* Fight scenes are sub-par.

* 3rd wall breaks are ok if you set them up correctly. These were not. Sometimes it felt like the director just watched Deadpool and said "I want some of that".

I think the best thing that could have been done in post is just not name it "Matrix". Name it something like "The adventures of resurrected Neo" or something. The movies doesn't do justice to itself or to the original trilogy by latching itself to them. It's fine if you want to do something different. But don't raise expectations by packaging it in nostalgia.

This is not a perfect movie. The intrigue is good, pace is a bit slow and the attention to detail is almost unnerving. This is what hard sci-fi movies should be about and in that particular respect, the movie is great.

The Andromeda Strain is what modern sci-fi should follow for inspiration. Not as a whole, but in respect to technical backstory that doesn't make you cringe every time you really think about it. It's simplicity, yet sheer quality should make people rethink high budget blockbusters with paper napkin scripts that have no idea what a technical consultant looks like.

This movie should be watched by every sci-fi fan to recalibrate their sense of what the genre stands for.