Does anyone ever get the feeling that those making the movies put too much pressure on themselves due to the perceived pressure they apparently feel from the fans? This is what it tends to sound like when cinematographer Bill Pope, who worked on The Matrix, decided to blame a method described by Stanley Kubrick that the Wachowski’s decided to utilize. The method is simply to wear actors out until they give an honest and natural performance. In other words, wear people down to such a level that anything they do is going to be completely natural and won’t be due to skill, talent, or anything other than raw, visceral reaction. Anyone saying that this worked for The Shining, considering what happened to Shelly Duvall, might need to think twice before following anything Kubrick says because as cynical and wrong as it sounds, he didn’t do this to everyone. He didn’t treat Jack Nicholson and the kid that played Danny in a manner that was designed to break them, so the hypocrisy of such a method is fairly easy to notice. It’s a shame that the Wachowski’s didn’t take that into consideration, but if they did then they disregarded it in a big way since the Matrix sequels were, as many people would attest to, not nearly as effective as the original.
One very big reason for this is that The Matrix was a revolutionary movie that showed the people something new and exciting and presented an idea that wasn’t entirely new but explored the possibility of humans not being in control from a different angle. Had the Wachowski’s decided not to move forward it might have been a better idea. The sequels offered up their fair share of fight scenes and interesting dialogue, but they became so bogged down in exposition and existentialism that a lot of people were turned off halfway through the second movie, and were only willing to see the third movie since it promised an end to the conflict and as a result, this meant another fight scene. But the final fight between Neo and Smith, the realization of the inevitable in other words, was highly disappointing to many people as well since by then CGI had pretty much taken over and there was no doubt that there was no coming back. The Wachowski’s and Bill Pope knew that people were watching, judging, looking, and otherwise expecting something just as great if not better, but somehow they failed to grab onto the bar again and instead tried to coast beneath it in an attempt to give people something great that didn’t stretch their creative muscles as much. Oh yes, I said it, they skated by and thought no one would notice.
Once a person creates something great there are a few options left to them. They can retire with the knowledge that they made a mark in pop culture and will be remembered for many years to come thanks to the change they helped create. It’s possible that they can spend some time, effort, and money to come up with something that’s just as great if not better in order to let the world know that they’re not a one-hit-wonder, a fluke, and will be remembered but otherwise pushed to the side when someone with more ambition comes along. Or, they can fade off into the distance after failing to make anything worthwhile after their first big hit. Obviously this third option isn’t exactly the best since it’s tantamount to admitting failure and never learning from it, and many people would never choose it if such a fate can be avoided. There are many other courses to take as well, but one thing that can be said about Wachowski’s is that they’re forging ahead with another sequel to the Matrix and hopefully this one won’t be half-drowned in CG. The audience might be forgiving and they might be willing to come back, but their tongues will still cut like razors the moment that anyone finds any fault within the movie, and it won’t be enough to simply blame Kubrick’s method and the Wachowski’s attempt to follow up on it. There’s been enough time spent between sequels that the filmmakers should be able to have come up with some way to present the material in a manner that will wow the audience once again and get them thinking that the sequel was worth the wait.
But to blame Kubrick? That’d be like blaming Stephen King for creating The Stand, which the current pandemic has been likened to. Kubrick was a genius in his own right but definitely had flaws in his thinking, just like anyone. Hopefully, the Wachowski’s can make the sequel into something that people will enjoy, otherwise, it might be another disappointing foray into a story that’s had a good start but a very lackluster ending.
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