10 Smart Movies Which Are Secretly Dumb

The Matrix Resurrections is certainly one of the most divisive blockbuster sequels of recent years, and love it or hate it, most will agree it wasn't really what anyone expected when a fourth Matrix film was announced.

Resurrections was praised in some quarters for its shamelessly meta storytelling, which fully acknowledges the existence of The Matrix as an IP in our own world, and even straight-up confesses that Lana Wachowski only made the film because Warner Bros. was going to make it without her anyway.

Because it thumbs its nose so aggressively at the very people who bankrolled it, many lauded Resurrections for being both a bold and smart revision on the typical Hollywood blockbuster sequel/reboot.

But since Deadpool popularised meta storytelling back in 2016, it does rather feel like self-aware writing gets deemed "smart" a little too generously by critics and audiences.

After all, was Resurrections more a sophisticated screed against Hollywood's lack of originality, or a filmmaker sabotaging their own franchise in a farcical enough way to ensure it wouldn't come back any time soon?

It's certainly an interesting piece of work, but by the time you've got The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) warbling incomprehensibly about Mark Zuckerberg, it's tough to defend it as anything more than spectacularly daft.