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Reviews for the latest Matrix movie have been all over the place as far as my social media streams go. I’m adding my voice to the choir: It annoyed me. Note, however, that there’s something I find interesting in my reaction to it. I really hate the pretentiousness of the wardrobe and dialogue. The latter is made even more grating by the fact that everyone is either whispering (presumably to sound cool) or yelling (presumably to force dramatic tension without necessarily earning it). There’s rarely any in between, or at least so little of it that I took it for granted. That kind of movie makes me want to punch everyone involved, both in-character and out-of-character. And who wears sunglasses indoors and at night? Someone I want to punch, that’s who.

Except Corey Hart. We cool.

What I find interesting about this reaction is that I had the same reaction to the other Matrix movies, but with the exception of a few notable quotables, over time the pretentiousness slowly disappears from my memory of them, leaving me only with the parts I liked. That’s a lot, which meant that my honest emotional reaction to those movies was overall positive. (Yes, all three of them.) Resurrections may not be so lucky, though. Part of what I liked about the original were the groundbreaking special effects and visuals, as well as a relatively new story. Resurrections doesn’t have that luxury. There was nothing I noted in there that could be deemed “groundbreaking” by today’s standards.

I’ll mention something that I did like about it quite a bit. Avoiding spoilers, I’ll simply say I liked how meta it was. I also liked a callback to a past character who’s all grown up. So, while the story was good enough, it was marred by a tone that always makes me sick to my stomach. I’m glad I watched it on HBO.

I’ll probably like it more someday. As always, YMMV.

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