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TIL Madonna turned down a role in The Matrix, one of the biggest regrets of her career
(www.billboard.com)
this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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Will Smith passed on playing Neo in The Matrix to do... Wild Wild West. He had previously said it was his biggest regret in acting.
Nah, I'm glad he did WWW instead. I'm just not seeing him in The Matrix, but as someone who grew up watching WWW, Will nailed James West, and I thank him for that.
Unpopular Opinion Time: WWW is a better movie than The Matrix, because it doesn't try to be more than it is - a goofy, silly, wild west meets new technology time... Just like the TV show was. The Matrix tried too hard, took itself too seriously and instead delivered tropes as if they were messages from beyond. I cringed when I saw it. The action was fun, but oof, that story. At least WWW could laugh at itself.
Most definitely an unpopular opinion. When the Matrix originally released it was a technical marvel, that moment Neo is dodging the bullets in slow motion was incredible. I think as the years have gone on the story has lost some of its charm because the wachowskis have been butchering the franchise to try and protect it in some strange way. As a standalone movie The Matrix story and technical implementation were phenomenal, as soon as they made sequels, and other movies started to copycat, it began to lose that magic
I walked into it totally blind, to a an almost empty theater on a weekday afternoon. I had no idea about the plot, but I was bored, and liked Johnny Mnemonic, and sci-fi in general, so.. fuck it, let's watch a movie.
One on the most enjoyable and pleasant surprises of my life.
Technically it was a marvel. Visually stunning.
I saw it with some coworkers who were 15 years younger than me, and one of our managers who was 25 years older than me.
He and I looked at each other in the first 15 minutes and just shook our heads. Our younger coworkers were awed.
It was a lame conflation of a bunch of myths that I'd read in books written in the 50's and 60's, and some stuff taken from different religions.
That never happened. You're either just trolling or just severely revising history. My bet is trolling.
Yesh, the first 15 mins is all action and then suspense as Neo gets the message about following the rabbit. Other than stylish execution, standard action movie stuff.
I have some bad news for you. The books written in the 50s and 60s were inspired by prior books and included stuff taken from different religions.
The Matrix didn't take itself too seriously in my opinion. You didn't see the Wachowski's flaunting their film as if it were some auteur bullshit like you might see Zack Snyder do today. They did something new and they did it well. So well that it permanently left a mark on the genre.
If you watch the matrix now after so many copy cats it loses its magic, but at the time it was thought provoking.
Eh, only if you hadn't read any sci fi before in your life.
As someone who grew up steeped in the Big Three, it was nothing mindblowing
It was for movie goers who may not read sci-fi. I remember many colleages and some family members freaking out a bit "Like what if we are just in a simulation/hologram existance?" a bit of existential dread/anxiety from it.
i oof/cringed at your comment here
I mostly agree. I also think WWW ages better.
It will age far better.