Kuei Feng Tung

Cast Paul Mescal (Lucius), Denzel Washington (Macrinus), Pedro Pascal (General Acacius), Peter Mensah (Jugurtha) all acted with incredible distinction maybe 5 stars. The movie mainly lost a star for me due to pacing - some emotional parts were too short and some fighting parts too long or focused on the action/gore too much and not the stratagem enough. There was also two big missed opportunities. At the end, the director Could have had two roman legions do a small skirmish battle like but not yet as deadly as the opening scene to make it come full circle, Then have the Lucius character de-escalate the conflict or something, as opposed to just have Lucius duel an older gentleman ruthless business man type and easily kill him. The other is they could have ended the film by letting both armies totally fight it out to the end leading to everyone dying and the collapse of Rome to complete the Vengeance overarching theme - Lucius is supposed to have come full circle to forgiven Rome for the destruction it caused to Numidia (the opening scene city that adopted Lucius) but the pacing, lines, and camerawork skimmed over that forgiveness arch without really feeling it. So the pacifist/only the figureheads duel it out while two armies watch ending seems a bit forced or naive or unlikely? Lastly, I just wanted to say it's so good to see Sandor Clegane, also known as "The Hound" from Game of Thrones, get a part in this. He really fit in, good job casting him. His acting was amazing too.

Amazing movie 😁 9/10, great acting, plot, and pacing.

The matrix trilogy was breathtaking on multiple fronts serving a edgely, slick, action, empowering, mend bending twists, and explores existential metaphysical dread. To follow after this means this fourth one has to serve more of the same in higher doses, or introduce new themes into the Matrix. This movie even has a snippet of the film do this very debate amongst fans/developers. It seems Lana the director decided to go with the 2nd option. Realistically speaking it would've been really difficult to be even more technologically earth shattering, or more mind bending, or more existential. And imo would've been quite boring in it's predictability. I remember rewatching all three movies prior to going to see Resurrection with the wife, and she specifically said she loved the trilogy But felt Trinity's role was not explored enough. Lana felt exactly the same and decided to reexamine the Matrix through the paradigm of a love story. Which, it definitely is. The original trilogy made a big deal about how their love was the source of their matrix breaking powers but didn't explore that more. Resurrection was the necessary addition that wrapped up the last part of the 'puzzle' of the original, if you will. I think this movie will not be rated as high by it's fans simply because it 'subverts' their expectations by serving them a movie with all the same names, but different faces/themes, which is also allegorically portrayed in this movie. All the stuff you loved about the trilogy is still here in Resurrection, but there's now also love mixed in. You may have noticed that I mentioned a lot of self awareness in this film. This movie broke so many fourth walls, I still have dry wall in my hair writing this review. Definitely worth watching.