10 Movies That Tried To Subvert Expectations (But Still Sucked)

It's a shame to put The Matrix Resurrections on a list like this. After all, this is a legacy sequel that actively avoids fan service and is the undeniable product of Lana Wachowski making this movie exactly the way she wanted to. Also, it's hard to deny that this is one of the boldest sci-fi sequels ever. 

On paper, this sounds like exactly the kind of film Hollywood needs more of right now. On paper. Sadly, The Matrix Resurrections just isn't a good movie, audacity be damned.

Similarly to Joker: Folie a Deux, it's a film that's subversive in all the wrong ways. With its emotionless and ultra-low-stakes plot, Resurrections goes against the rules of good storytelling, and while its refusal to just be an empty fan service piece is admirable, it also throws out most of the best things about the original trilogy. Compared to the mind-blowing spectacle of those films, this one's action scenes are unforgivably boring, and it also jettisons Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, the best actors from the first trilogy. 

Resurrections then doubles down on the worst aspects of its predecessors by zeroing in on pretentious mythology and Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity's (Carrie Anne-Moss) chemistry-free romance, which sucked even in the 1999 original. And finally, for all the picture's swipes at franchise filmmaking, it does often repeat the original film, so it's guilty of some of what it's critiquing. 

In short, if there's one movie that proves subversion alone doesn't always guarantee a win, it's this one.