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  "The Matrix 4: The Matrix Reboot" only got a fan rating of 5.7 on IMDB, and coincidentally, it also received a 5.7 rating on Douban.

Under the influence of the epidemic, the distributor Warner Company continued to adopt the strategy of integrating the academy and the network, and the global box office just exceeded 100 million US dollars, which is far from the standard for the film's 190 million yuan investment.

  It can be said that in business, this restart operation not only did not cure the system, but completely crashed the computer.

In fact, in the development history of the first three "The Matrix", the first one (released in 1999) returned a box office of more than 460 million worldwide with a mere $63 million investment. Immediately decided to make 2 and 3 consecutive sets (released in 2003).

2's box office hit $740 million, and 3's fell back to $420 million, all seeming to imply that audiences are quite dissatisfied with the future of the series.

And this "Matrix Restart" has completely proved that this theme is outdated.

  Maybe young audiences have forgotten that "The Matrix", which was born in 1999, and the two sequels that followed, really set off a wave of fans around 2000.

Even beyond movies, it once became a cultural hotspot in society.

At the turn of the century, with the computer technology problems similar to the "Millennium Bug" and people's expectations and yearning for the future development of the world, globalized network technology and virtual technology have brought good or bad to many people. Many fantasies.

At that time, "The Matrix", whether it was an innovative application of film technology or a theme discussion in philosophical speculation, painted a picture of a new life for mankind in the future, a perfect one, but hidden the horror truth. new world.

  In fact, as early as the 19th century, literary works such as Brave New World and 1984 brought readers to ponder on literary themes such as the deception of the masses and the suppression of human nature in a centralized society.

The war between humans and robots has also become the theme of Japanese comics, science fiction, and even mainstream movies like "Terminator".

It is close to the time of "The Matrix", and there are also two small and medium-budget sci-fi films such as "City of Souls" (1998) and "Hackers of Different Dimension" (1999), which also have excellent visual effects. Whether the world is real or an illusion of creation" is a similar speculative theme.

The setting of the "virtual world" in "The Matrix" is actually a renovation of a large number of previous works, not out of thin air.

  But for the detailed description of the virtual world in the film, as well as many connections with the Bible hidden in the cultural imagination of the new world, it is an innovation in the details of The Matrix.

These include the name of the protagonist "Neo", which is an English variant of "One", implying that he is "the only savior"; the name of the heroine "Trinity", which implies the Christian concept of the "Trinity"; and the last Zion, the place of judgment, Memphis, the guide, and even the source of the name of the villain Smith, can all find corresponding characters and descriptions in the Bible.

These details were already hidden in the film when the first part of "The Matrix" was still produced at a small and medium cost, which shows the careful thinking of the director for the creation of the world view.

  The main creators of the Wachowski brothers—the writers and directors were brothers in the past, but later they both changed and became the "Wachowski sisters"—these ideas probably stemmed from their learning and reference to Japanese manga.

In the animation "Neon Genesis Evangelion", which was born soon at that time, Hideaki Anno added a lot of myths related to the "Bible" in the description of the future world, which made the atmosphere of the work appear thicker and more mysterious. sought after by young people.

When "The Matrix" was most successful, similar decrypted articles also analyzed the meaning of many of the semiotic codes to the level of even "philosophical works".

After that, with the release of the second and third parts, an animated short film "The Matrix Animated Edition", which brought together creators from Japan, the United States and South Korea, further expanded "The Matrix" with several independent stories. The space of the world view also shows the Wachowski brothers' love for animation style and oriental culture in their creative careers.

This kind of integration of Eastern and Western cultures and a globalized cultural vision have run through their subsequent creative careers, such as "Super Sense Hunting" or "Cloud Atlas", which have brought different cultures to European and American audiences or oriental audiences. Freshness and inspiration.

  This fusion is not only the theme of "Zen", "religious" and "mysticism" at the story level, but also combined with the unique pursuit of visual effects.

For example, the unforgettable "bullet time" in the first film is the effect of multi-camera collaborative shooting and post-processing in terms of shooting technology, and in terms of action imagination, it can be freely rotated after the 3D technology of animation and games matures. Modeling brings the creative way.

At the same time, these designs are also inseparable from the film action director Yuan Heping, who has many years of experience in "Kung Fu Action".

In the second part, more fights of the protagonist Keanu Reeves also brought a lot of traditional Chinese kung fu shadows, which made European and American audiences shine; in the third part, the "mechanical octopus" battle The scene of "Mecha Soldier" has a strong sense of Japanese animation design.

All these scenes seem to have some similar sources, but they rarely appear in mainstream live-action films in Europe and America, indicating that the directors Wachowski brothers have good collage and learning ability for visual creation.

For commercial film directors, this is often an ability to innovate the film's bridge segments without making the overall style too detached from the audience.

  The detailed world view and unique visual effects made "The Matrix" open the audience's horizons more than 20 years ago, and was infected by the film, and began to think about the philosophical proposition of "are we really alive".

In addition to the dark world view that "human beings are used as machine nourishment", which is borrowed from animation, it is really a bit of a terrifying taste.

Behind these audience's reflections on philosophical and social issues lies the great reputation of the Wachowskis and the huge profits of the film production companies.

  In fact, "The Matrix" is still essentially an "action movie" with a "slightly dark story style", and a "game movie" linking from one scene and NPC to another scene and NPC.

The world view is good, but it seems that it is difficult to appreciate the details of the film's story.

Especially in the ending of "The Matrix 3", when Matrix and Neo reached an agreement, by eliminating the virus "Mr. Smith", in exchange for the common and coexistence of humans and the virtual world, this setting seems to be a happy ending, but how can it be The audience couldn't get up.

Fortunately, the "Matrix" series ended abruptly here.

  But today, when pseudo-philosophical speculation, visual effects and game-like scenes have become the mainstream of today's films - such as comedy action films like "Out of Control", the creative weaknesses of the director in "The Matrix 4" will only be exposed. more obvious.

To sum up, this film generally has these very obvious defects:

  1. Find a pair of male and female protagonists in their 50s to fall in love, and design fighting movements based on them, which is somewhat uncomfortable for the audience in action movies;

  2. The film continues the previous style, quickly dividing from one scene to another, each scene seems to be full of nostalgia and reminders of the previous history, but the audience is actually not interested in the transformation and connection of these scenes, nor Except for the revolving lights, there is nothing new;

  3. In the core plot, such as the presentation of lines, stories and character relationships, most of the details of the film script are unclear. The audience cannot clearly understand the entanglements and contradictions between the characters, and even the focus of their conflicts is blurred.

The plot of the entire film is unbelievable.

  Perhaps most of these problems stem from the creation of the director, who still remember too many details of the previous trilogy, and feel that every word the characters say is full of meaning, but forget that even the audience who watched the film in the past, they still forget it now. about there.

Not to mention that there are still a large number of new audiences who have not seen it. For a brand-new film, it is difficult to understand the worldview and the contradictions between the characters for the first time.

  But in essence, these weaknesses all come from the creative characteristics of the Wachowski sisters - although the main director is her sister Lana -: they like all kinds of novelties that are too big and inappropriate, but for the real emotions and dilemmas of the characters, often One pass, neglected performance.

  When the novelty elements are no longer novel, "The Matrix 4" is the same age as the protagonist, faltering and aging.

The feeling it brings to the audience cannot be compared with the previous three films.

Maybe the art of cinema still needs young creators to keep up with the tastes of young audiences. A group of old people are working hard to make action movies, and it seems that no matter how hard they work, it seems very difficult.