r/movies 1d ago

News Laurence Fishburne Was Turned Down for 'The Matrix Resurrections'

https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/laurence-fishburne-matrix-resurrections-turned-down-1235113237/
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u/Help_An_Irishman 1d ago

The actor who played Tank screwed himself out of a continuing role in the franchise after the first movie.

Apparently he thought that he had become a Hollywood hot shot and that Tank was indispensable to the franchise, so he wouldn't take part in the sequel for less than $1M. So they threw Harold Perrineau in there and just said that Tank had died.

Haven't seen that guy in anything since.

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u/Fine_Land_1974 1d ago

He made a documentary about himself lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cI07UxRbYsw

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u/glockobell 1d ago

This is the best internet worm hole ever. Dude is a majooor narcissist.

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u/Fine_Land_1974 1d ago edited 1d ago

If you didn’t finish it you fucking have to watch the last 10 minutes. Hahaha holyyyshitttt peak comedy. What a payoff after spending 45 min on that. My feelings of him throughout the doc go like this: he’s egotistical—->I pity him—->could he be right?——> whoa bro wrong way to handle that——>wtf?——>narcissistist—-> back to pity because he’s mentally ill and ruined everything——> and finally to hahahaha I don’t feel bad for you at all anymore, you’re an asshole and will never work in that town again 😂 (as “live and let die” plays and he provides updates on all his enemies)

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u/house-of-tigers 1d ago

Thank you, great summary and quite the ride hahah

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u/Dm-me-a-gyro 22h ago

Congratulations you’re on the enemies list now

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u/drizzt_do-urden_86 20h ago

Just watched, holy sh!t you weren't kidding about that ending, could not stop laughing.

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u/factolum 15h ago

"Keanu dates a transgender"--that'll show him!

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u/dadofmightandmagic 14h ago

Isnt it weird that he used to dress up like a cowboy on Pee Wees Playhouse?

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u/Angry_Walnut 1d ago

My god lmao. So much of that felt like satire and then it just completely went off the rails at the end. Guy is either completely detached from reality or some sort of ultra high level troll that just wants to create as much chaos as possible for everyone around him at any cost.

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u/Fine_Land_1974 1d ago edited 1d ago

Haha, I think you had it right the first time. I really want to know more about his name change. Everyone in the thread assumes Tommy Chong is his Dad. It’s even more unhinged that apparently Chong is just a close family friend that is “like an uncle.” So the dude, in adulthood, changes his last name from Wyatt to Chong. Wish the doc went into whyyyyy he did that. Would love to think what Tommy and the Chong family think lol

Ohhh and shit the other hilarious part toward the end was when he’s talking about his war with fucking Warner Brothers and William Morris when he starts throwing out all the hastags like # Matrixgate #therealkeanu #onlyonetank is so incredibly unhinged. I died when he showed his supposed army of supporters from some obscure early 2000s message board that has some acronym for him being like the only one try Tank. Apparently there were just “millions” of die hard Tank fans out there fighting for him to rejoin the Matrix. Just absolute craziness yet so hilarious. Sucks though because before his illness/personality disorder got really out of hand he had a bright future ahead of him. His performances as Tank, imo, was perfect too. His cockiness/awkwardness is perfect for the character’s back story and he’s in a lot of iconic scenes.

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u/Mr_Subtlety 22h ago

According to wikipedia, he was adopted by Tommy Chong in 1978, when we would be, I think, eight or nine (and changed his name when he was 18, presumably when he was legally able to do so). So it's not like he just independently changed his name and claimed to be a relative.

But yes he does seem pretty unhinged. I do feel a little more sympathy for him to learn his backstory, though.

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u/zgtc 19h ago

The evidence for his alleged adoption by Chong is, as far as I can tell, entirely his word.

Also, legal adoptions explicitly provide for changing the adoptee’s name, so there’s no reason he’d have had to wait until 18.

It’s certainly possible that he was adopted by Chong, who for some reason didn’t want to let his child change their name, but it seems unlikely.

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u/RandomActsofViolets 1d ago

Wow. Just….wow. I watched the whole thing.

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u/Fine_Land_1974 1d ago

😂 the ending dude

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u/starkistuna 23h ago edited 22h ago

Watched some of it he has some valid points, but it sounds like he is telling his side of the story, avoiding talking on any controversy of his actions or wrong doing in his part.

He was only paid 30k, he had to move to Australia for 3 months and pay out of pocket, had to walk to work, don't get paid a cent for the use of his likeness for merchandising.

I think he never had an agent or didn't read what he signed. How unlikeable you have be that you can't hitch a ride with the catering crew or buy a bicycle. Also writing letters to producers/directors wives is scary behavior...

Then he goes off the rails..

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u/FuzzzyRam 1d ago

40:44 - "Keanu gives £50 million to the unsung heroes of the Matrix. Here's the truth of what the article doesn't say: Keanu stole all the money..."

So we're tasked with asking ourselves if everything we know about Keanu Reeves is a lie, or if this guy is just a lying self-absorbed greedy fuck. Hint: Keanu has been verified as a good person thousands of times by random people all over the world.

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u/Fine_Land_1974 1d ago

Well, if you paid attention to the documentary instead of just cherry picking one of master thespian Chong’s points you’d also know & definitely mentioned, 1) Keanu only pretends to be nice and is actually just sad Keanu. His life is filled with tragedy 2) Keanu dated a trans.

Haha, the dude is nuts

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u/PatrickBearman 19h ago

I love that people like him see #2 as indicative of some sort of extreme moral failing when even most moderate people wouldn't give a shit about it. They act like dating a trans person is akin to dating a serial killer or something.

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u/PrismaticDinklebot 18h ago

That’s how you know he’s mentally ill. He attacks the literal nicest guy in Hollywood.

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u/TwoTalentedBastidz 12h ago

Keanu overcompensated after being wrecked with guilt behind how he treated the one and only true tank

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u/atclubsilencio 1d ago

I wish I didn’t discover this when I have to be up for work in like 4 hours. This is WILD and I can’t get enough of it.

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u/MrAToTheB_TTV 22h ago

This was actually worth watching. It's almost like parody.

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u/HunterSThompsonGhost 20h ago

I’m still watching it but holy shit he is terrible at making a documentary. It’s quite meandering. Not a great story teller.

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u/jim9162 1d ago

Tank died on the way back to Zion

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u/DimMsgAsString 1d ago

"I have to go now, Zion needs me"

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u/FlungerD 23h ago

Someone had to be the DJ at the never ending rave I guess.

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u/BigBossSquirtle 1d ago

Just looked him up. Bro was in 4 movies and 5 seperate TV episodes. Not even a reoccurring character for a single one💀

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u/NoAssumptions731 1d ago

I think I found out why. From his wiki:  Chong was arrested in October 2000 for allegedly making threatening phone calls to the filmmakers. In his suit, Chong claimed he had since been blackballed from Hollywood and blamed The Matrix creators and Warner Bros. for branding him a "terrorist".

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u/almostcleverbut 1d ago

Damn, I guess the crazy eyes Tank had in some scenes really came from the heart.

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u/ringobob 1d ago

Lol, I was thinking the same. He did have that look.

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u/OnlyEntrepreneur4760 1d ago

Sooo, Chong’s career is in the tank !

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u/bluAstrid 1d ago

Ah yes, method acting!

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u/lolas_coffee 1d ago

Yup. He was a head case. Not enough draw to put up with.

So he just sulked around LA mad at everything.

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u/DaBrokenMeta 1d ago

Do you not know who i am?!

I am The Tank! From The Matrix?!!

You can’t seriously be writing me a speeding ticket officer…

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u/buttnutela 1d ago

Get out of the car

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u/Savetheokami 1d ago

Out of the tank

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u/SN4FUS 1d ago

I had heard that he wasn't offered roles in the sequels because he was being homophobic (pre-transition) towards the wachowskis

Probably the person who told me that just got the cause and effect mixed up. I imagine the content of those phone calls is where the homophobic behavior was documented

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u/seanx40 1d ago

That'll do it

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u/coffeemug73 1d ago

One of the best ways to prove to people that you are not a terrorist is to start making threatening phone calls.

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u/dunwoodyres1 1d ago

And everyone is skipping over the fact that his dad is fucking Tommy Chong.

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u/ToiletBomber 1d ago

Why should we care if his dad is having sex with Tommy Chong?

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u/spunkychickpea 1d ago

I mean, I guess I care a little.

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u/onyxcaspian 1d ago

this is the real TIL wtf

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u/robodrew 1d ago edited 21h ago

Because that's not true, his real name is Marcus Scott Wyatt. His dad's name is Martin.

edit: but he was adopted by Tommy Chong! How I missed that part I don't know.

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u/Charlezard18 1d ago

And he was adopted by Tommy Chong

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u/ShadeofIcarus 1d ago

Am I crazy, or does his wiki page scream "someone paid for this to be padded and specific while technically citing things within the rules to make an actor who hasn't had work since he blew things up paid for"

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u/CeeArthur 1d ago

I've read a lot of wikis in the past that have sounded this way, I always assumed it was the person's agent or the person themselves just scraping the barrel

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u/Pogotross 1d ago

Have you ever read "Trust Me I'm Lying"? Manipulating small press to create articles to use to manipulate wikipedia to manipulate future press was a pretty standard PR trick.

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u/FartingBob 1d ago

He was really good in his small role in The Matrix. I guess he got in his head "I was in the fucking matrix, filmmakers should be calling me offering me roles, not the other way round".

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u/forceghost187 1d ago

Same thing happened to the guy who played Clemenza in The Godfather. He demanded a bunch of money, and even insisted that he be able to write his own lines. So they wrote him out and at the beginning of Godfather II the family was in mourning because Clemenza had died

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u/Complete_Entry 1d ago

That was Paramount's version. The actor said he refused to be the traitor in the second film, they had already settled on price, and that he had lost a staggering 184 pounds between films and was expected to GAIN IT BACK.

They were even supposed to have an agreement when he backed out that Coppola was supposed to just say "creative differences", but Coppola never found an argument he didn't like.

He once waited for Carl Sagan to DIE so he could file a lawsuit against his estate. He waited 11 years to do so.

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u/Drmarcher42 22h ago

I disagree with take that Pentangeli (the obvious stand in for Clemenza) was a traitor. Roth plays both him and Michael. He only goes into federal protection and agreed to testify against Michael because he believed that Michael tried to kill him. He wasn’t to know that the whole thing was a set up meant to fail so he’d turn against him.

Then in the moment, he doesn’t betray the Corleone family and instead perjures himself with his earlier sworn statements.

Obviously it takes Hagen getting his brother to fly in from Sicily to do it but in the end he doesn’t.

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u/TheWorstYear 21h ago

That was Paramount's version

This is Coppola's version. Watch both of the Godfather director commentaries he did recent-ish. He mentions what happened multiple times.

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u/RafiakaMacakaDirk 1d ago

he walked so terrence howard could run

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u/lolas_coffee 1d ago

If you had 2 groups of people and each group had 4 versions of Terrance Howard, you would have 1,000 Terrance Howards.

And Terrance Howard cannot prove this wrong.

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u/paparoach910 1d ago

I'm picturing the thousand Alex Jones meme but with Terrance Howards.

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u/Meme_Pope 1d ago

He walked so Terrence Howard could levitate

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u/sephjnr 1d ago

He walked on water so Terrence Christ could ascend

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u/TheWorstYear 21h ago edited 15h ago

Terrence Howard is crazier than shit, but he was still 100% right. Marvel gave him a contract with stipulations because he was the safe name compared to RDJ, & Disney forcefully renegotiated the contract. Cheadle is great, but his version of the character is less appealing than Crazy ass, & my bet is that Disney could have gotten a War Machine film or show off the ground if he was still there.

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u/fossilnews 1d ago

Chong was arrested in October 2000 for allegedly making threatening phone calls to the filmmakers.

I think he's had some mental health issues as well.

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u/i010011010 1d ago

Sounds like DC needs to hire him to be the next Flash.

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u/ElMatasiete7 1d ago

He made a 40 minute documentary about himself that he apparently uploaded on his channel too, wild https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI07UxRbYsw&t=36s

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u/tobascodagama 1d ago

Shame he couldn't get his ego out of the way, because he turned in a really good performance.

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u/Help_An_Irishman 1d ago

He was great!

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u/BowwwwBallll 1d ago

“NOTE: Tank died on the way back to his home planet.”

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u/birger67 1d ago

So he literally "Tanked" himself

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u/mrEnigma86 1d ago

Turned down for a role that you played, in a franchise that you were in....

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 1d ago

Could be worse. Ernie Hudson auditioned for his own character in the Ghostbusters cartoon and got asked to do it more like Ernie Hudson.

He lost out to Arsenio Hall.

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u/DickRhino 22h ago

While that is hilarious, there could be a rationale behind it: voice acting and acting are different things. For a cartoon you have to be able to exaggerate your speech mannerisms, basically talk like a caricature of yourself. A subdued performance can be fantastic in a movie, but come across as boring in a cartoon. So it might instead have been something like "Can you be Ernie Hudson dialed up to 11?" and he couldn't do that as well as Arsenio Hall could.

But then again, Ernie Hudson has done other voice acting work as well and done a good job at it. So who knows what that whole thing was really about?

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u/wloper 18h ago

That happened when I heard the cat speak in Keanu, the Key and Peele movie. I knew it was Keanu Reeves but it just didn’t seem…Keanu Reeves enough.

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u/Zoulogist 20h ago

Happens with voice actors all the time

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u/picardo85 18h ago

That's the same scenario as Charlie Chaplin coming second in a Charlie Chaplin look alike competition

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u/Silvermoon3467 1d ago

I mean, it's entirely possible that they wanted a different Morpheus for artistic reasons and it wasn't intended as a snub towards him.

Even if a lot of people consumed it as a dime-a-dozen action flick, The Matrix has always had a lot going on philosophically and artistically speaking. It's not really the same thing as, idk, Robert Downey Jr getting turned down and recast in an Ironman movie or something imo.

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u/Ordinaryundone 1d ago

This is what I think was the case. Say what you will about Ressurection but nothing about that movie's story or casting feels unintentional. They very much point out how they "brought back Morpheus" but he also isn't really Morpheus, hell they show pictures of Fishburne in the background while they do it. Apparently Hugo Weaving was approached to play Smith again, and he would have done it if not for schedule issues, so they weren't recasting for budget reasons or whatever, I think Ressurection Morpheus and Trilogy Morpheus are just meant to be different characters and the recast helps solidify that. 

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u/dplans455 1d ago

The Matrix trio includes Laurence Fishburne. It would be akin to not only excluding Harrison Ford in The Force Awakens but also recasting the character entirely. This was part of the reason I didn't go see the movie in theaters. And given that the movie bombed, other people probably thought the same thing.

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u/Inumayobaka 1d ago

Well, both the different Morpheus and Agent Smith sucked in Resurrections.

Neil Patrick Harris even more so. I was expecting more from someone who was supposed to emulate The Architect.

The music, which used to be awesome in all the predecessor movies, had nothing memorable in the fourth.

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u/RSquared 18h ago

Resurrections' Agent Smith is basically Barry from Archer.

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u/Ted_Cashew 9h ago

"Do I regret taking the red pill now, Barry? Yes I do, Other Barry, yes I do..."

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u/Forward_Steak8574 1d ago

Wasn't this version of Morpheus meant to be different? The whole "resurrection" theme meaning he came back in a different form or something. If I remember correctly they blended his character with another? I don't remember. That movie sucked.

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u/klsi832 1d ago

TURNED DOWN FOR WHAT?!

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u/CheezItEnvy 17h ago

Cool your jets there, Lil Jon

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u/MrT-1000 1d ago

Isn't this partially due to "Morpheus" as a character dying in the matrix online video game? Not a great excuse but I guess the game is canon?

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u/ImagineIvysaur 1d ago

except the version of morpheus in the movie is a computer program based on the real person who has died - they absolutely could/should have brought laurence fishburne back

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u/MordredRedHeel19 1d ago

Exactly! Even if they wanted to keep the game canon, they could have used Fishburne. Cause now I’m wondering why a program that is designed after Morpheus chooses not to look like Morpheus, lol

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u/Comicspedia 23h ago

There are endless ways to write your way to that point, ya know?

Yeah it's canon Morpheus is dead.

Yeah this new alive Morpheus looks an awful lot like dead Morpheus.

So sometimes his arm turns to Matrix letters and he's briefly weakened. Or he opens the computer console installed on his cybernetic arm that every reborn person has. Or he has normal sunglasses and a goatee because the reproduction nailed everything but personal style.

It's like Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White.

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u/Beiki 1d ago

But then it'd be blatantly obvious from the start that's he's Morpheus. I seem to recall them hiding that at the start.

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u/lasquiggle 1d ago

Lame plot twist though

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u/SchwiftyGameOnPoint 1d ago

Can you even call it a plot twist?  Pretty sure most people know it was him going into the movie.

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u/ScareTheRiven 1d ago

I'm almost certain there were pre-release character posters that mentioned him, if not flat-out promo articles talking about him "honouring the legacy" or some BS.

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u/SARMsGoblinChaser 1d ago

There was no hiding it... It was telegraphed to the extent that a blind person could see it from a mile away.

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u/Vincent__Adultman 1d ago

Except Trinity is also in the computer program and she notably isn't played by Carrie-Anne Moss to distinguish her from the real Trinity who is. Having Fishburne play the fake Morpheus would conflict with that.

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u/FaroTech400K 1d ago

It’s like they didn’t watch the movie.🍿

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u/LettersWords 1d ago edited 1d ago

Seems like a bad excuse to leave him out especially when Trinity dies on screen in the third movie and yet they still found an excuse to bring her back.

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u/Calico_Cuttlefish 1d ago

Trinity dies and comes back so much she might as well be Mothra.

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u/Meleagros 1d ago

Damn love this analogy lol

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u/Calico_Cuttlefish 1d ago

The "character dies, comes back, then dies again" trope is one I really hate. I can't possibly give a shit about a character when that happens. "Ahhh I'm dying again, be sad plz" nah.

They did the same thing in Blade 2 and 3 with Whistler.

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u/f8Negative 1d ago

Plus the "morpheus" they end up having anyways like...ok.

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u/eviljordan 1d ago

We have Morpheus at home

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u/Same_Disaster117 1d ago

He barely does anything after the first act

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u/AnnOfGreenEggsAndHam 1d ago

And the fact the movie is literally titled "Resurrection".

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u/Thrilling1031 1d ago

She’s like the whole point of 4 though, and Morpheus wasn’t.

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u/JessieJ577 1d ago

Yeah I think it would’ve downplayed the resurrection angle if everyone was not just Trinity

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u/Sparkyisduhfat 1d ago

I would agree but what percent of people do you think went into the movie either knowing anything about the matrix online or that his death was considered canon? As far as the vast majority of viewers would know, he’s just still alive.

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u/Old_Budget_4151 1d ago

It's matrix resurrectionS tho

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u/So_be 1d ago

Soundtrack by The Lone Rangers…

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u/windmill-tilting 1d ago

There are three of you. You not really alone.

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u/Crimkam 1d ago

Morpheus could have been a machine AI copy of the original, and know that he is, and have to come to terms with that as a character. Not that they did much with the new Morpheus anyway, but it’s fiction and they could have written the part with him in mind if they wanted to, which they must not have.

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u/garrettj100 1d ago

She’s like the whole point of 4

The whole point of 4 was to insult the producers, the actors, the original story, and the audience in equal measure.

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u/Open_Seeker 1d ago

Mostly the audience though. 

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u/emmayarkay 1d ago

The machines had access to Trinity’s body though. Morpheus was free of the Matrix and presumably died in the destruction of Zion sometime in the 60 years between the 3rd and 4th films (ignoring the Matrix Online game).

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u/uncultured_swine2099 1d ago

I'm thinking the wachowski who directed it just didn't get along with him. His role in the Matrix 3 wasn't huge either, he was sidelined for much of the finale.

In any case, Lawrence should be glad he wasn't in Resurrections haha.

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u/RrentTreznor 1d ago

I guess I'm in the minority that I thought resurrections was such a bizarre shift that I ended up enjoying it.

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u/AdmiralCrackbar 1d ago

There are dozens of us!

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u/McFlyyouBojo 1d ago

It's certainly in a strange situation in that it's not good, but it also holds artistic merit.

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u/Significant-Flan-244 1d ago

I enjoyed it for what it was but have never felt a need to revisit it and I’m not sure I ever will. But I’m also certain I would’ve hated the safe legacy sequel WB would’ve made on their own so I’m at least happy it exists for that reason.

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u/DashCat9 1d ago

I don’t understand why he couldn’t also just play the version of his character that actually appears in the movie.

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u/threebuffsharks 1d ago

Yup! And they pay tribute to him in the movie too.

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u/Csoltis 1d ago

the acting was so bad

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u/Netroth 1d ago edited 1d ago

I got the impression that they were trying their absolute hardest to make a bad movie, which I was then convinced of by that metacontextual scene with The Merovingian. What a betrayal.

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u/Bellikron 1d ago

I don't buy that as much as a lot of others seem to. There's some references that indicate it and the meta angle is interesting at first, but very few people actively set out to make a bad movie, since you can often make the same point while still making a good product. The things that cause me to doubt the narrative are 1) Lana made statements that bringing Neo and Trinity back to life was a form of emotional healing for her after the death of her parents. It feels weird to call that a lie and say that she would just throw these characters under the bus for a complicated meta joke. And 2) Resurrections was bad in the same ways that the other sequels were bad. The only thing that made it particularly worse is that Fishburne and Weaving weren't there to do the heavy lifting like they always did (they carried the original film in no small part too). It wasn't especially bad in a way that it would feel if you were intentionally tanking your franchise, it just kind of hit the same bland notes.

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u/The_BrownRecluse 1d ago

I don't buy this bad on purpose theory either. I remember watching Lana in an interview and she was likening herself to Rembrandt painting a masterpiece later in life and saying how much this film meant to her, so it doesn't add up that she set out to deliberately make shit.

As much as I love the Matrix and what the Wachowskis did with the first film, everything else they've made has paled in comparison or been flat out bad. I mean, did people forget Jupiter Ascending?

I think people want to believe Resurrections is intentionally bad because it's less embarrassing, it saves face, and makes for a better story, both for the movie and the Wachowskis.

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u/Bellikron 1d ago

Really I think a lot of people forget that the first Matrix is pretty simple, it has a very thought-provoking idea at its core, especially for the time, but the movie itself doesn't explicitly analyze it that much. It's an action movie that made a lot of people think after the fact. The sequels tried to get more into philosophy and got way too complicated.

Also, while I suppose there's an argument that Lana is lying in all her interviews, but I feel like nine times out of ten a person that tanks a movie intentionally to stick it to a studio is gonna be very open about it after the fact.

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u/Significant-Flan-244 1d ago

Yeah, I think a much more likely explanation for it not being so great is that Lana just hadn’t planned to revisit it until the studio said they were doing it with or without her so this wasn’t some long brewing plan to continue the story. Like you said, this franchise has had diminishing returns since the first movie and hasn’t come close to delivering again on how fans feel about it. Reloaded and Revolutions at least have some really memorable sequences, but they were steps down and the fourth one being disappointing is just a logical extension there given how long fans had to wish for more. I think a studio sequel would have been a boring retread along the lines of most legacy sequels, and Lana did something new that just didn’t work. But I don’t for a second buy the bad on purpose idea.

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u/creptik1 1d ago

Exactly. The "they made it bad on purpose" thing is so dumb and I can't believe people still talk about it and act like it's a fact and not some theory a guy made a YouTube video about that just spread.

If you want to know if it's bad on purpose, just watch the bonus features on the bluray. Everyone is very on board with this thing. You think Keanu is signing on for a joke? He, the director, producers, everyone talks passionately about the project and what it meant to them and how awesome it's going to be. There is a lot of footage of the making of the film and it is very hands on and everyone is giving their all. It is a passion project that bombed.

"But they make fun of the studio in the movie!!"

Yeah, that's called satire. It's meta, but not the way you think.

"But they didn't want to make it and had to so the studio didn't do it without them!!"

The part about the studio doing it without them is true. They were reading scripts for a sequel and never found one they liked. Lana wasn't interested at first, but then finally was inspired by an idea and figured out what she wanted to do with it, wrote the thing, submitted it, and the studio liked it too.

Nobody was out to sabotage the franchise or punish the studio. Nobody was more surprised that this lovie didn't do well than the people who made it. Stop spreading these nonsense theories.

(I'm sure it's obvious but just in case, I'm replying to everyone else, not the actual comment above me, who actually has some sense)

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u/Capable-Commercial96 1d ago

I think the reasoning for why they made it bad was because if they didn't the studio was gonna make a sequel anyway. So they took the studio up on the offer to come back with the intention of ruining it so they couldn't keep making sequels when they felt the series was done.

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u/DotaThe2nd 1d ago

The studio might have made a Matrix sequel that failed to deliver on the cerebral appeal of the franchise, I really doubt that that the studio would have made a sequel that also failed to deliver on the action and choreography

Ressurections managed to fail on both, so for that reason alone I wish the studio had their shot. Plus "making it bad to ruin the franchise" is incredibly stupid. It's WB's IP so they are absolutely going to revisit even after Ressurections, except now with less care and way less chance of any significant inclusion by the original creators.

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u/Bionic_Bromando 1d ago

Yeah I took it as their one nod to the MMO, I kinda appreciate that they kept their promise to keep it canon despite how much it messes up any sequels haha.

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u/timeaisis 1d ago

Well that was dumb move. I’ve said it before but Fishburne is the reason the first Matrix works. He brings a gravitas to the absolutely bonkers plot. Can you an imagine another actor explaining The Matrix to Neo and not kind of just rolling your eyes? I can’t.

Matrix 4 was lesser for him missing. The franchise isn’t Reeves and Moss, it’s Fishburne. It’s always been Fishburne.

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u/MakeThanosGreatAgain 1d ago

Man played Morpheus with such fucking conviction I have to agree. This is something I think about everytime Fishburne delivers those lines to Neo after he passes out from shock.

One of my all time favorite deliveries. It just feels real. So subtle and smooth w it.

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u/PayaV87 1d ago

This, that’s why cults work, because people follow man with a conviction.

And (even if he is right) Morpheus is a cult leader. Fishbourne understood that, and plays such a good leader, that people blindly follow him even to their death.

Weaving understood, that Smith is an outsider inside the system. Never will be part of it, never could leave it. He is trapped like humans do, yet he knows the truth. Weaving also understood this, and every frame he is so snobbish, it oozes gravitas.

Based on this two actors we understand the dinamic of both sides, without them even saying anything. When these two meet, the movie best scenes happen, the literal third act is a Morpheus rescue mission from Agent Smith.

Fishbourne and Weaving make the movie.

They never meet in Matrix 2 or 3 ever again. And those movies are more flat because of this.

They are recasted in Matrix 4. And the movie is complete shit.

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u/Trymv1 1d ago

Weaving was filming another movie and had to decline the role.

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u/placebotwo 18h ago

It's why he's great as the Bowrey King too. Not that those were cult members, but he played that part well.

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u/FartingBob 1d ago

Morpheus is 100% convinced in what he is doing and what will happen. That's kind of the entire point of the character. He understood the role and played it with the conviction and belief that the character needed. Fantastic acting.

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u/3rdslip 1d ago

There’s a brilliant line when the councillor asks Commander Lock if there is any chance of surviving the machines and Lock says “I would ask him”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the one who believes in miracles.”

And just the look on Fishburne’s face tells you humanity will make it through.

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u/HopefulTranslator577 1d ago

Fishburne is a lifetime comic book collector and anime fan, he understands the need for a grounding force in a bonkers plot. The man was perfect, and Resurrections was all the lesser without him.

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u/DamianKilsby 1d ago

I'd say it's Reeves and Fishburne, any matrix movie without either one of them is lesser than one with both.

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u/AhChirrion 1d ago

Daniel Day-Lewis was active and he could have played any role perfectly, including Morpheus.

But Morpheus played by Lawrence Fishburne is so iconic, so charismatic, so right, I prefer living in this iteration of The Matrix where Morpheus was played by Fishburne and not Day-Lewis.

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u/pentagon 1d ago

Was he a contender?

Fuck me I'd LOVE to see Day Lewis performing as morpheus. I wonder what he'd make of it.

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u/jumbohumbo 1d ago

I'd love to see him play Agent Smith, imagine his take on the 'i hate this place' monologue.

Andre braugher would have been a great Morpheus I think.

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u/ExpressBanDriver 1d ago

That's the thing with DDL, the man could play any part and bring a completely different take on it and still be brilliant

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u/kstick10 1d ago

Absolutely correct.

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u/Flooopo 1d ago

I love this take. So true.

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u/kookyz 1d ago

The irony of a actor dodging a bullet by NOT being in a film about people dodging bullets.

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u/homecinemad 1d ago

It's possible he/his agent (ha!) wanted more money than the studio were willing to offer. Or he wanted to change the role. Or they were foolish and declined the opportunity to cast him. Who knows. Hollywood is weird man.

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u/Tiny-Setting-8036 1d ago

There were certainly a lot of artistic directions that fourth movie went…. The story was sort of written around the idea of revamping the franchise.

But honestly, the movie could have benefited from having him.

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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 1d ago

I heard it described best as “The Matrix Resurrections is about how Lana Wachowski doesn’t want to make The Matrix Resurrections.”

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u/Tiny-Setting-8036 1d ago

I mean that’s basically what I took from it.

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u/rashomonface 1d ago

I took it as Lana Wachowski figures out WHY she wants to make The Matrix Resurrections.

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u/RevolutionaryHair91 1d ago

Yes, there is literally a section of the movie where people are in the matrix in a brainstorming room and are pitching a sequel to the matrix (which is a video game in the movie universe) and everyone is retarded as fuck and the only sane people are commenting "wow, imagine being forced to make a sequel to something that was finished and as good as it was". I'm pretty sure there is even a moment actors look straight at the camera like in the office.

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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 1d ago

I appreciate Lana’s audacity to literally have it be part of the story that Warner Bros. tells Neo to make another Matrix or they’ll give it to someone else without giving him any control.

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u/Enthusiasms 1d ago

It's not audacity, WB signed off on it. They both agreed to it because they thought it would make money.

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u/EscapedFromArea51 1d ago

“If you make fun of us for making a soulless cash grab, will it net us a few million more in sales? Great! If anyone needs me, I’ll be crying about being made fun of in my new Ferrari.”

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u/EnamelKant 1d ago

Is there any movie that would not benefit from more Laurence Fishburne?

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u/TheDarkDementus 1d ago

I can think of one with his daughter.

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u/DoodleDew 1d ago

He said in a interview they never asked him 

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u/PM_ME_TRICEPS 1d ago

This movie was a hot steaming pile of dogshit and I felt dumber after watching it.

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u/wut3va 1d ago

As far as I can tell, the film was the Wachowskis giving us the finger, 🖕, because they kind of resented what the fanbase and the studio had done to their vision. It was like here, have your fucking movie, now leave us alone. There were references all over it alluding to that fact. When I watched it, it felt incredibly meta. Watching it from that lens, I kinda enjoyed it, but I never want to see it again.

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u/Queasy_Ad_8621 23h ago

The movie made me feel like I was a a kid at the dinner table, staring down at my plate while my divorced parents were having a passive aggressive fight.

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u/Stevenwave 21h ago

This is legit the mood. I love the originals. The first is obvs leagues ahead, but I've always thoroughly enjoyed the sequels, as flawed as they are.

4 was so fucking weird. That whole opening act feels so wrong. It's uncomfortable and nothing feels genuine. There's writing that's trying to be meta or funny but I'm too busy being like, what the fuck? Then the rest is just, disappointing and shitty rehashes.

I've since learned the gist of the why, with only one sister even wanting to come back, and essentially doing it so WB doesn't just do whatever corpos do. But honestly, I'd have preferred a corporate reboot remake to whatever the hell this shit was designed to be.

At least then we might've gotten some cool action sequences or crazy VFX stuff where it's clear the people behind the scenes love the OG and just wanna do another cool Matrix flick if nothing else.

Reaves doesn't even fight. They just give him a bullshit godmode button. They do nothing interesting with his revival, just, lmao we fixed him. No memorable new characters. Only memory I have is looking at Smith and Morpheus and being, "Mmhmm, mmhmm, no."

And the fights and VFX suck. That's frickin deliberate sabotage.

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u/hoaxymore 23h ago

References ?

It was said verbatim multiple times.

The first half of the movie is just « imagine how incredibly stupid it would be to release a matrix sequel nowadays » repeated 10 to 20 times.

The second half is « See ? You see this shit ? »

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u/TheMancYeti 1d ago

I never got that it was giving us the finger. More like Joe Dante with Gremlins 2 in the sense of not wanting to make another one so just doing whatever the fuck they wanted just to mess with the studio. 

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u/shannister 1d ago

It was a terrible film anyways, better erased from memories. 

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u/Dependent-Poet-9588 1d ago

The best scene is when they're talking about how the studio was going to make it one way or the other to pressure the actors to come back.

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u/gameonlockking 1d ago

No the best scene is the PS5 demo.

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u/roguefilmmaker 1d ago

The PS5 demo and the movie trailer were better than the movie

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u/youmustbedocholiday 1d ago

Yeah, I knew when I watched that scene, the director was talking directly to the viewer about the shit stain of a film it was going to be.

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u/hugcub 1d ago

I enjoyed the beginning because it felt mysterious and you were not quite sure what was going on, def gave me matrixy vibes. Then the last 2/3 of the movie existed and it turned into, just awful, painful, terrible nonsense.

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u/roguefilmmaker 1d ago

Yeah, the first act was mysterious and I was excited to see what would happen next but the rest of the movie was painfully bad

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u/SgtNeilDiamond 1d ago

Biggest letdown I've ever had in a film, felt so low effort and half-baked. Moving to NPH as the antagonist after Weaving just felt like a huge downgrade on top of it. Few movies I try to forget and that's one of them.

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u/AnInanimateCarb0nRod 1d ago

They should have gotten Glenn Howerton to be Agent Smith.

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u/McNuty 1d ago

It’s the smell…. They never thought about the smell you BITCH!

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u/Vilifie 1d ago

Is Trinity in danger?

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u/DevilMirage 1d ago

Oh my god take my money, that's hilarious

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u/ScramItVancity 1d ago

It was like a remake of the MTV Movie Awards sketch with Justin Timberlake but taken slightly seriously.

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u/Sexbomomb 1d ago

Absolutely foolish

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u/Pale-Club-4929 20h ago

The recasting choices in this movie are about 40-50% of its problem. Losing Fishburne was big - Yaya was fine, but obviously Larry and Keanu had a ton of chemistry and history. But recasting Smith as... Jonathan Groff? Again, a good actor, but so clearly not the same character in the least that like what was even the point of using Smith again?

Another 40% of the problem is the action, so shitty it seems intentional. The final 10%? "That's for using kids!!"

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u/gorklesnort 1d ago

Horrible movie. Absolute dogshit. Dodged a bullet.

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u/nice_one_champ 1d ago

There was some inspired moments in Resurrections (I quite liked the meta first act), but it had too many problems. And it’s most fatal flaw was including Morpheus and Smith:

-The screen time required to justify why/how they had both returned absolutely killed the pacing and strained credibility, which is insane because the plot mechanic required to make this happen was kinda introduced in Revelations with the Oracle

-And the worst sin was deciding to write a digital Morpheus into the real world, meaning they had to create that stupid plot mechanic. This was way too far and absolutely ridiculous writing from any standpoint, and not necessary (which makes me think that maybe there was plans for Fishburne to return early on)

-The actors were well cast, but the above writing issues absolutely hampered anything they could do to save this mess

-Neil Patrick Harris’ character was an ok villain (and was original at least), so beefing up his role could’ve worked to fill Smith’s part. And literally anything else would’ve worked than Morpheus being shoehorned in

-And to cap it off, by the end of the film (after going through the exhausting narrative hoops to make their inclusion happen)they feel completely unnecessary to the story. The meta-jokes about studio interference seem to be an attempt to justify this, but the entire this is an absolute clusterfuck as a result

/rant

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u/SupervillainMustache 1d ago

I think Yahya was fine, but the film definitely missed the presence of Fishburne and Weaving.

It turned out pretty badly though, so maybe it was for the best.

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u/NocNocNoc19 1d ago

Everyone should have turned down matrix resurrections

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u/Common-Answer2863 1d ago

They didn't want the Dwyane Wade statue in the movie.

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u/Keanu990321 1d ago

Morpheus dodged a bullet.

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u/fpaulmusic 1d ago

Absolutely brain dead move by producers 

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u/nmn13alpha 1d ago

Considering how brain dead the movie was, I'd say he lucked out.

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u/jim9162 1d ago

Probably for the best, matrix 4 felt like it was made by a college film student.

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u/nikilidstrom 1d ago

He dodged a bullet on that one.

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u/WoodyManic 1d ago

Fishburne should have been in the movie. He's the linchpin of the saga and a fine actor to boot.

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u/DisinterestedHandjob 1d ago

Hey guys, do another bullet dodged post! They're great!

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u/Octogenarian 1d ago

It was a terrible movie, best skipped.

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u/Mutex70 1d ago

We really didn't need more reasons to dislike The Matrix Resurrections, but thanks anyway.

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u/Si-Nz 21h ago edited 20h ago

Funniest thing about this movie is that, if this was the only recent movie you would have seen of Keanu Reeves, you would have thought the man is too old to still be starring in action movies. You can almost see the wires here, or the bad edits to hide him switching with stuntmen. He looks so old and immobile. Carrie too, the flying scene was... so so bad. Just a bunch of ropes holding an old woman in mid air (no offense to Carrie, she still looks great and im sure she can still portray a badass in a better movie)

..............But this was literally filmed in between keanu releasing movies for probably the most well known ongoing action franchise...where he looks like the most competent action star out there.... (John Wick...)

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u/Vertmovieman 1d ago

He dodged a bullet.........