8 Sequels Ruined By Idiotic Changes To The Original Concept
5. The Matrix Sequels Were Set Too Much Outside The Matrix
The Matrix remains today one of the most groundbreaking movies in film history. It’s philosophical look at a Dystopian future made us all ponder what was reality and if we were all complicit in the mundanity of our own lives.
The original’s choice to spend the first half of the film within the Matrix, with audiences left quite literally in the dark, allowed the film to play out like a nightmare and left us considering some of life’s most confounding philosophical questions. What is reality? Are we all actually living in The Matrix? Does everything really taste like Chicken? The only scenes outside of the Matrix occur within the spaceship, a claustrophobic space that deliberately obscures the audiences from what remains of human civilisation.
The Matrix sequels largely dropped this premise of questioning reality, instead presenting the Matrix as a type of computer virus that needed eradicating, while setting the film more in the real world. The fact that the real world more resembled a rave party than a civilisation, meant the sequels lost all the mystique built up in the original.
We are then left to slog through Dance scenes resembling an orgy, awkward sex scenes that are supremely uncomfortable to sit through and cliche gun battles with CGI monsters that are as drawn out as they are predictable. Why the Wachowski siblings thought this would interest the viewer, only they could answer, but the fun and enjoyment that had been so synonymous with the original film was sadly missing.
Sure there were some strong scenes within the Matrix sequels, most notably the incredible freeway scene in The Matrix Reloaded and the underrated multiple Agent Smith scene. However, far too much time was wasted with padded out conversations and gazes into the middle distance when we just wanted more bullet time.