Jack Orion

Even though it felt that the curse is too convenient for the plot to work, the horror comes from how stupid and selfish humans can be. Choose or die proposes a concept that can be very powerful but like most modern games, the choices it presents to the protagonist felt hollow and lacks theme or subtext. But compared to most horror films of today, filled with jump scares and cheap horror, it brings a new perspective to what modern sci-fi horror can bring without being able to deliver on it.

There's no way to live up to the first movie because it was revolutionary for its time, not just because it's a great story. To top it is a grand test, especially while still following in its veins. Let's get that out of the way first. And minor spoilers for some characters. Now The Good of the movie: it's an entertaining action flick, a welcomed continuation of the Matrix universe and the early meta-ness actually works for the narrative. Do note that I said "early". Bugs is my favorite character out of this movie and I actually want a movie of her. If this was about them discovering Neo's existence, it'd be awesome but hey. The power of love - cheesy but hey it's better than the non-existent love story between Neo and Trinity in the first trilogy. We miss sincerity in modern cinema and I love a bit of cheese. The Bad: Action choreography for Neo. Look, we all know Keanu can still pull off cool stunts. Look at John Wick. To replace all the cool action sequences of Neo with just a force push is... disappointing. It also suffers from the Force Awaken syndrome of hitting the old movie beats which just makes it harder to distinguish from it. The Ugly: This is about my personal wishes but people probably still enjoy it. The Meta humor. It overstayed its welcome. Second, wish they use different characters in place of Morpheous and Smith if they don't want the original actors to return. Not to mention the many flashbacks, just making these new actors stand on their own performance. Summary: It's a good watch, a sequel flick if you want to see how the universe of the Matrix turned out. But some lacking actors and bad action choreography for a badass lead make all of this feels like a cash grab attempt than a loving sequel. Do go and watch if it's not a bother but I'd recommend catching this on a stream.