Deadline reports that The Martian writer Drew Goddard has been tapped to pen and direct another Matrix movie executive produced by Lana Wachowski. Currently, the new film has no title or projected premiere date, and there’s been no announcement as to whether franchise stars like Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, or Jessica Henwick will return.
Goddard has a bit of a mixed record in my mind. He wrote Cloverfield, Cabin in the Woods (which he also directed), and The Martian’s adaptation, which were all great.
But he also wrote and directed Bad Times at the El Royale, which was not good at all.
Then you have the bigger issue that Lana Wachowski clearly doesn’t have any idea why people liked the first Matrix, because all three sequels were bad to terrible.
As I understand it, Matrix 4 was basically Warner Bros telling the Wachowskis that WB was going to do it with or without them, so they did it, but it was essentially a giant Fuck You to WB and, well, the audience.
It’s amazing that WB is trying this again.
Hollywood needs to learn that franchises sometimes just need to die. Or at least go away for a very, very long time.
This was a reminder to me that there was one other film I really enjoyed in the franchise, which was The Animatrix! I still need to track it down on Blu-ray. Or maybe wait? They might release a 4K version one day?
I was so excited to see Matrix 4. And I guess I still am. To me, it’s still stuck in a coronavirus-and-new-baby time vortex and hasn’t come out yet, along with In The Heights and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
I should have caught it on Max while my brother-in-law was sharing his password with us. Well, maybe it will come around on another streaming service eventually.
For The Matrix 4 and 5, as long as
Yuen Wo Ping is the fight coordinator,
Guns, lots of guns,
The Wachowskis’ overarching premise – that in the far future, The Machines are dutiful and sometimes loving caretakers for their defeated foes The Humans-- is thoughtfully explored,
As is the potent mix of dual and/or transgender identities, and the relationship between tools and tool-users, and messianic prophecies and their subversion, and rebellions against established orders and the importance of controlling those rebellions, with allusions to religion, philosophy, pop culture, nerdy niche culture, and,
There is a pulsing soundtrack filled with the best of headbanging rock, trip-hop, and politically-minded rap-rock,
So the Wachowsis are ironically making a bad movie and we are ironically watching it, and WB is collecting the ticket revenue. This seems to me (a millennial) like peak Gen X.
I tend to like most of Drew Goddard’s stuff, so I’ll likely give it a chance. I mean, I watched 4 despite knowing it was most likely going to be terrible (and it was!) so I’m sure I’ll catch this one as well.
As one of the weirdos who likes all the sequels including 4, I am glad the IP is not dead. Goddard is mostly good in my book so I am definitely curious about his take on it.
I watched the first movie several times. I love it. I watched 2 and 3 once each, and while I might watch 2 if it shows up on TV at the right conditions, I don’t want to watch 3 ever again.
