scyphe

This sequel feels so amateurish and silly that I can't help but suspect that the Wachowskis got so sick of being nagged into making a new cash cow trilogy that they decided that Lana would make the movie that ended the franchise for good. This is it. I feel sorry for the main actors having to act like that, speak those lines and be a part of this debacle.

I didn't really expect much from Matrix 4 since the original trilogy had told the entire story. All the "meta" stuff in M4 was so cringeworthy that I've got to spend quite some time to remember something that was as cringeworthy as this movie.

This is simply a very bad movie, badly written/scripted and badly thought out. There's not much else to say really. Matrix is dead... offline.

If you haven't read the books there's a chance you'll be confused, esp. During the first 2-3 episodes with time skips and a serious lack of exposition. If you are attracted to glossy sci-fi CGI, great sets etc. You probably find this show interesting. If you've read the books you've probably realized that this show is veeeery losely "based on" Asimov's classic trilogy. There are very few resemblances between the story, setting and characters in the show and their counterparts in the books.

I'm a huge fan of Isaac Asimov's fictional work (and a few non-fictional books as well) and the first episode started out somewhat promising. Jared Harris cast as Hari Seldon is a perfect match. After that it all goes downhill. The characters sharing the name with the characters in the book are mostly invented from scratch except for the basic premise.

Every episode that was released was worse than the one before. It's almost as if David S. Goyer never read the books beyond the synopsis on the back cover. I realise that to adapt something so complex and epic as the Foundation trilogy they had to trim it down and use artistic license to turn it into a show. The problem is that Goyer and the other writers threw away most of Asimov's writings and replaced them with their own inventions.

When I first heard that Goyer was working on it as writer, executive producer and showrunner I felt quite worried. My worries proved to be spot on. There's very little of Goyer's work that I've enjoyed. To me he's a mediocre writer that (in case of adapting an existing book or comic) tend to only pick up the main premise and ignore the bigger and lesser details that made the source material so special.

I'm still waiting for a single good adaptation of Asimov's work.

It's a disappointed 4/10 from me.

EDIT: I changed the score from 3 to 4 after watching all the episodes. It had some moments and scenes that were interesting enough to warrant another star.

This one is a slow burner, a bit too slow in many parts. The story itself is good enough but the writing and pacing isn't even close to the amazing Hill House or the pretty good Bly Manor (which I found very slow in the beginning as well but it grew on me, as did the characters although it was written in the typical Victorian drama format which Henry James was known for).

In this one I don't really feel particularly invested in any of the characters including the main character/protagonist. But I do enjoy it, just not nearly as much as the aforementioned shows. If ("if", which is usually pointless after the fact but it sums up my above criticism) the writing had been much tighter and better paced without the loooong monologues, instead tightening them up and removing the superfluous chatter it could've been a great show instead of the slow meandering show we got.