Resurrecting The Matrix And The King's Man Creation

The final film look back is here.  It has been a long time coming but here we put the final bow on 2021 movies and look ahead to all that 2022 has in store for us like more Marvel things, another video game adaptation, Scream 5, and of course, the latest version of live-action Batman.  So before we can do that, we have the resurrection of The Matrix, for better or worse, it's for worse.  We also go way back in time for a prequel to the Kingsman franchise with the historical fiction piece, The King's Man.  This may be less of a party popper and a bit more of a fizzle to end this year, but let's see what wen right in these entries.  I do love me some Keanu, Carie Anne-Moss, Ralph Fiennes, and of course, Daniel Brühl.  So it can't be all bad, right?  So we will focus on some bad things, but maybe we can attempt to get lost in slow-motion backflips and stylish fight choreography.  What was your take on the latest entries in both of these franchises?  Let me know on social at Nick Nack Movies or Nick Nack_IC on Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Letterboxd!

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S3E2

-Intro

-Hey you, time to get the final 2 films from 2021.  We have not only the latest sequel from the Matrix series, Resurrections, on top of that we got the new version of a more historical fiction-based angle for the Kings Men franchise, now kicking off with The King’s Man.  So, let’s take one final look together at the films of 2021 before looking ahead to Scream 5 and another Marvel foray into the Multiverse, what madness!

-The King’s Man

-So now that we are all caught up on non-Disney Plus MCU show things, let’s go to this latest addition in the Kings Men franchise, a movie that wants to give us a prequel instead of a sequel, and not just a prequel with Colin Firth and Michael Caine, like a super prequel all the way back to WW1 with an entire new kooky cast of characters.

-If you have been seeing a lot of Harry Potter things in your life recently, either as Tik Tok trends or with the HBO Max Reunion special, you will be pleased to see Ralph Fines as the lead in this movie.  Apparently, Stanley Tucci is in this movie, but I for sure don’t remember his role.  If you are one of the many people who love Aaron Taylor-Johnson, this is not the movie to watch for you about him, he is barely in this.  But highlights have to be also for a smaller role but I love Charles Dance who continues to be in all British things I appreciate.  If you want a really good Agatha Christie adaptation with him in it before we see how Death on the Nile Fairs, go look up the And Then There Were None miniseries.  Also a smaller but hopeful bigger sequel role for Daniel Bruhl who I still can’t get over as probably the best part of Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  Jai-Moon Hahn-Soo also continues to pop up in movies I am watching post Guardians and Captain Marvel with this and A Quiet Place part 2.  Also if you want a bigger weirder role with Rhys Ifans post Spider-Man: No Way Home, you can see non-Lizard him play Rasputin

-With that name drop, yeah this is like historical fiction taking place in that World War 1 era where we, or at least me, did not learn a ton about in school, I feel like in my American tutelage it was American Revolution, Civil War, World War 2, those were the big 3.

-Also one more actor thing, the villain from Pirates of the Caribbean 3, not the tentacle beard guy, the small British guy Beckett who killed Norrington, plays 3 different royal siblings in this movie which is kind of funny.  A fun pirates connecting because that actor, Jack Davenport, was actually one of the first to die in the Kingsman series.

-So the connections to the main movie are kind of loose, more cheeky references, the style is there but with the time period being so much further in the past, some things just won’t be as cool, the gadgets are not really there and the infrastructure for sure does not exist, since the organization doesn’t truly exist until the end.  Also, the why of the naming and the codenames does end up feeling a little bit forced and stilly.  I remember when the movie ended, I was less than thrilled with the eventual attempt to bridge the two time periods, I feel like at times this is an unnecessary addition to the lore with the build to a sequel to the prequel when I really do want to see the continuation of the Eggsy storyline, maybe with Channing Tatum having more of an active rule.

-That being said, I did enjoy this for what it was, and the subtle references like Kingsman Whiskey being a thing, and other tongue and cheek references were neat.  

-But the story does have that style and action fight sequences, and some emotional moments to boot.

-The beginning is heartbreaking with Fine’s family off to a trip in a war in Africa where his wife gets shot and he injured, which shapes the course of action for these two men, Fine’s and his son.  There is some real understanding of a father in loss wanting to keep his son safe from the world.  Now this does lead to some conflict, but I feel like it always drags on just a bit, and the end conclusion gets us to a fun Wonder Woman esque war set piece, but the jumps here had me a bit at a loss.  I mean I truly love the war and betrayal stuff, The arch duke Ferdinand history points were fun, and the stakes building was super neat to see.  The shadow cabal of villains of History was admittedly a bit goofy, but it didn’t bug me as much as other reviewers.  

-The royals of 3 different countries and their reactions to make a fictional spy organization work in WW1 was fun to watch, those moments were the best, the spy conniving, the sad parts, this franchise does those great, and of course the fights.   

-The best of these had to have come with the full spy squad, father and son included went in their fancy group to take on Rasputin, get information, have a fun spy party, and an amazing weird fight scene, this had to be the most like everything I have come to adore in this fun younger flashier and crasser James Bond modernization.  The army storyline had to exist with the time period, but once this Rasputin scene happens, it feels like the movie takes a plot step backward. 

-The retread of his son wanting to join the army and not do cool flashy spy stuff is something I don’t super get.

-I mean the battlefront stuff was great, especially the semi-stealthy knife hand to hand battle, that scene was shot great and gave you mad anxiety watching, and after all that our son who could have been a main character in other movies was this entries surprise death, all these movies have at least one, even if the Colin Firth one was a fake out that was spoiled by a trailer before people even saw it in theaters, I am sure I have talked about that marketing miscue and how amazing the build of the movie was made if that scene was not included in that trailer.  It happens so sudden by confusion and tension of his own side, and it happens so quick shooting him in the head with no chance of him coming back, that scene was shocking in the best way.

-But the immediate aftermath did feel like a retread of wallowing in depression and the movie really slowed down.  Yeah the part 2 teamup sequence is fun, it just slowed down before this, and the cool flash of traipsing around to get to the final big bad hideaway is so quick, and could have been the bread and butter of this movie.

-The villain reveal and eventual persona was a little goofy too, but the action in this last third was so much fun, swordplay, shootouts, and stylish fighting, they didn’t really know what to do with Jai-Moon Hahn-Soo at times in this final battle, but it was fun to watch, and the post credit, if this has a sequel will have more Daniel Bruhl and Hitler, so there is something to look forward to maybe. 

-But that previous statement is what I would classify this movie, just fun, it may not be as smart as it tries or wants to be, especially with how much I felt for sure the first one and the sequel to a slightly lesser degree.  This is something that has cool visuals and some nice emotional moments, but you kind of had to turn your brain off at times, which is not what I expected going into this movie, but passable enough, which is more than I could say on my first watch through of the next and possibly final Matrix movie.

-The Matrix: Resurrections

- So before I get too into this movie, I was absolutely disappointed in my first theater watch through, I have heard super conflicting opinions, so I had to make time for one more at home HBO Max watch just to make sure, and here is my opinion. 

-So first, yes I am happy with Keanu and Carrie Ann-Moss, I don’t know if Jada Pinkett Smith did a ton for me and the reintroduction of the Merovingian, was a travesty, his look and storyline was brutal.  And yes, the original actors for Smith and Morpheus, Hugo Weaving and Lawrence Fishburne, are not present.  This is just awful as two huge parts of the franchise, and no, I don’t care about some random online game killing Morpheus being canon.  Those two actors, not just characters, are integral to what makes this franchise, what it is.  I say that with the first being a classic, the second being fairly good, and the third being a bit more pedestrian, there is a clear correlation to more time outside of the Matrix and the quality of the movie in question dropping.  The second time I have wanted Hugo Weaving back but it did not end up that way, ahem Infinity War and End Game, no shade to Ross Marquand who has done some amazing work on the later seasons of the Walking Dead.

-We will get to all the newer actors as we talk more about this plot and their role in this story.

-I’m not gonna lie, hearing that theme and seeing the green WB logo again, I was like very hooked.  Early on I was crazy excited for this movie with the green code and a similar feel to the first one, I mean hacking stuff and a super cool remastered version of the start of the first movie with Trinity but a bit remixed, it just looks like a better done up first movie and some immediate Trinity stuff, it was interesting to see a not generic white agent played by Yaha Abdul Mateen the second, our hybrid Smith and Morpheus like character, fake Morpheus, let’s go with forpheus for short.  Also, it is kind of fun to see Jessica Henwick in a different role, I mean I will miss her Marvel days with the Netflix crowd, she apparently could have been in Shang She but rolled with this instead.

-And she is involved in some super cool different style of action sequences, and this alone leads to a super fun modern take on people becoming agents in a special effect laden way, I really was feeling this movie early on, I don’t know what I wanted here, but an updated reimagining in this super cool world was something I was invested in, even the doorways to different parts of the Matrix code, super interesting upgrade to the rules of the formula while still feeling true to what it is.  I do love Yaha, he is great in Aquaman, and even I like him in this, but this is no Fishburne, no one could ever be.

-I even like the parts where the operator is a digital construct in the Matrix, the phones were cool in the original, but this was a cool upgrade, I think I really loose things when people are allowed to get out of the Matrix seemingly much easier than before

-That and having Neo be a game programmer in this real world with alive Trinity in boring everyday life, it is weird to see it.  I mean I do love the coded language and relationships to other Matrix things teases, lines like being raised by machines and more do make you smile.  I have to say, I kind of like Jonathan Groff as a villain who gets some fun Smith lines and great overall menacing but smooth acting in, but no he is no Smith.  

-As someone who appreciates all meta things because of the Scream franchise, a super recent concept to bring up.  But the Matrix movie making jokes at WB and at the world within a world within a world, like a bad Inception.  Also, for the most part, I don’t know how much I roll with the role of NPH in this movie, the big bad in the chair but much more in the open than the architect in the second movie.

-Also, they make such a fuss with the blue pills overall in this movie.  Also, straight up, this movie has some huge letdown slowdown moments of just seeing the monotony of his existence and having everyone just talk about Matrix things, every time I see cool scenes from past Matrix movies I wonder, what am I missing.  There is good artistry and thought-provoking things in this entry, and it has some interesting trauma exploration, which you know I am all about.  

-The chemistry and love story of torture distance and eventual reconciliation is great, both Carrie and Neo have amazing chemistry still, and we knew this movie was going to have some fun questions about how they brought back Neo and Trinity, who both died.  Somehow the one alive character of the three is the dead one, go figure.  

-Now cool fun things happen, but they seem random and not truly predicated on anything prior, forpheus in a flashy suit shooting up security people in slo-mo and doing back flips while fake smith, fith for short, also picks up a gun, goes crazy faced and starts saying Agent Smith words, all of this is super fun and wild, but it takes ages to amount to anything, and if they could have found anyway to use the initial actors, and somehow make this story actually connected to the past, I don’t know.

-A cool scene and it is over as quickly as it began back to more therapy you know blue glasses therapist NPH is up to no good.  Also, the black cat being back and literally named Déjà vu is, if nothing else good for a chuckle.

-So my big problems with this movie mostly come from new Matrix rules I don’t mostly like.  But yeah, agents were literally sleeper cell people, which is fun, but having them look like regular people, I mean, that is a bit as-if for me personally.  Especially the mob/zombie mode, it is just a bit whatever for me, and I hate just how much changes with everything.  Also, speaking of changes, the new crew is particularly, boring, I mean they did not do much in the first one either, but Mouse Apoc Switch and Cypher were way more memorable, even Tank and Dozer felt better than what we have here.  There was a rumor somehow NPH would have been like Cypher, which while neat, yeah we probably did not need it. Yeah I like the fight sequences even early on, not because they are fighting random generic everyday looking people, but that one moment where a rocket launder go through one Matrix world portal to the other one, that was a pretty cool moment, way better than somehow using mirrors to exit the Matrix this time around, like I said, something is missing.  But the new special effects make the pod scene much grosser in the machine world, and that does give us a true look at Trinity still existing somehow also in the real world

-I can tell Yaha is having a blast in the role, righty so, I mean even having forpheus and Neo kung fu fight, is neat, but so many times I see this movie as some neat set piece moments that have random threads connecting it that I am just rarely interested in, sometimes this movie looks and is great, other times I wonder why certain things are happening and I get legit annoyed.  These Neo powers are way less cool and exciting, instead of backflips flying and stopping bullets in a not lame way, and tons of cool fighting, mostly he just makes these jank force field bubbles that just look, super duper lame. 

-And speaking of lame, the new human settlement is, not cool, super aged Niaobi is not at all like a character I care about, the machines and her making strawberries and hanging out, I like that machines can be good or bad, but we knew that already with the family in the third one, I mean the way they got out Neo out of the city with friendly machines makes way more sense than how he somehow got out of the first one I still don’t really know.  

-Also, somehow nobody ever truly acknowledges that Forpheus is not real, especially neo straight up calling him Morpheus just, it all feels like is ruins the legacy of Lawrence Fishburne

-One thing I really do like, shortly introduced from Sense8, a super strange lovely Wachowskishow on Netflix, the actor Max Riemelt was the most action based in that show and I felt he would be the best transferred to the Matrix universe, happy he exists and gets at least a little action and screen time, short point, but had to make it

-I really do with some more crew fatalities occurred, especially when they mentioned it, but I do love Smith a bit as a menacing figure, especially just talking and being conflicting, as cool as that scene was, having the exiles look disgusting, and having the Marivingin, looking horrible, just say things, I don’t know the fighting was cool for a time but, so many things just were a bit lost on me, the cool pieces were cool, but there was so much nonsense in between that just is exhausting, I don’t know how I would have found a way to continue the story, making it original and still fun, star wars episode 7, that did it right, the latest Scream did it super right, more on that later, but this antithesis to a sequel and the Matrix as a whole, something just went super wrong.

-It is not just that this is a love story, look I like love stories, especially tragic one, the original Matrix trilogy ending, the continuation of the Dewey and Gale love story, good, but they nerf Neo and do some just super weird choices that feel like a bit of a letdown for someone who obviously liked the first one but I still feel fairly good about both 2 and 3, which most people won’t say, but at least you know where I am coming from.

-The idea of tortured love powering the entire Matrix is also, like kind of silly, more than a bit.  Also, how Neo is somehow slowed down more than NPH in a terrible slo-mo looking effect, why, why does it look so bad in 2021!

-You know what, at times menacing NPH is actually working for me, not always, but that one actual evil reveal is actually pretty strong, much better than the finale moments with his character

-One of the few nostalgia blasts I did love was seeing an adult Sati, not sure how amazing Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays the role, but honestly the role doesn’t get a ton of important screen time, but her existence did make me smile more than most things outside of the opening of the movie, which once again, was the best part of this movie.

-Even the end conflict setup was kind of neat, Neo, Trinity, the new and less exciting crew, NPH, and all these military guards.  But when that becomes a weird chase, even if the no flying joke was kind of funny, but I super don’t care for swarm mode, I love zombie movies, I loved the first Matrix and the other 2 are fine, but making this a boring zombie movie is just not it for me, at all.  I do enjoy Trinity getting powers and kicking ass for a short moment, even if once against some of these glitch effects are just, not good.  

-Like I want to like this movie, and before watching it I really wanted and needed a win here, and the end part of this, while the Smith final moments and the bar fights aren’t all bad, the swarm mode stuff is just a driving video game sequence and force bubbles.  The nose-diving people wrecking cars with their jumping out building windows was also, like kind of dumb.

-Now I like the love story as a concept, especially the end game with Trinity getting powers too, I just wish Neo had cooler looking powers and overall this movie was just cooler and better, the end of them coming back to the Matrix to threaten the newer leader NPH, that kind of harkens back to the first one at least, also the post credit scene was a mockery of a lot of things, which at times this movie felt like too.

-So the Matrix Resurrections had some interesting ideas, and action set pieces, the beginning really did excite me, but some of these good pieces can’t make up for some real rubbish that at times flies in the face of what make the first one cool, stylish, and interesting.  The cool breaks can’t help make the in-between parts and lack of Hugo Weaving and Lawrence Fishburne worth it. I will watch 1-3 again and again, I might be done watching Resurrections and having it in the same family as Amazing Spiderman 2.

-So now that that is done, let’s look at my true letterboxd ratings for these, spoiler alert, they are going to be a bit more pedestrian reviews for things I really expected more from.

-Letterboxd ratings

- The Matrix: Resurrections – 3 stars

- The King’s Man – 3.5 stars

-wrap and call to action 

-So the 2021 final wrap-up is done, and while it wasn’t closed out with the bang I had hoped for, there were some true gems in this continuation of strained movie productions with the ongoing pandemic, but fear not, another year upon us and another chance for some absolute bangers, and boy oh boy I can’t wait to talk about the latest Scream movie, which may actually be our first guest of the young season so far.  So did you have a different take on either the first chronological Kings men movie or the latest Matrix chronological matrix movie that I can’t tell if I want to watch after this or just keep it out of my per view like I do with Amazing Spiderman 2 and Kick ass 2.

-Well, that is all for now and keep up with us on all social platforms, Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and more on Nick Nack underscore IC and Nick Nack Movies.  So as always, until next time cinephiles.