10 Recent Movies Ruined By Unrealistic Expectations

It really can't be overstated just how much weight was resting on the shoulders of the fourth Matrix movie, The Matrix Resurrections.

After the second and third films failed to fully live up to the iconic original - and in the case of the third, The Matrix Revolutions, got nowhere near - fans were desperate to believe that this fourth film would effectively be an apology for the other sequels.

The thrilling first trailer did a fantastic job of selling even the most skeptical fans on the film, admittedly, but given that only one of the Wachowskis returned to direct, and most of the important personnel from the original trilogy didn't come back - namely cinematographer Bill Pope and fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping - there were certainly reasons to be cautious.

Yet fans largely got so blinded by their excitement for a new Matrix, especially in the midst of Keanu Reeves' current career resurgence, that it simply wasn't possible to accept that The Matrix Resurrections might be, well, a bit of a mess.

And that's precisely what it was - an ambitious and interesting film albeit one that fell down hard on the action and narrative front.

If fans took a close look at the action beats in the trailer and realised how little of it had the same jaw-dropping staying power of the first movie in particular, they likely could've seen what was coming.

It's clear from the end result that Lana Wachowski knew she couldn't top the previous films and seemingly had little interest in doing so either, coming back to deliver a twisted meta take on the franchise while thumbing her nose at Hollywood's own cynical lack of creativity.