December 2021 – Page 3 – Voenix Rising

We saw two movies over the holiday: Matrix Resurrections and Don't Look Up. The former was on HBO+, the latter on Netflix.

The best way I can describe my opinion of Resurrections was that it entertaining but not engaging. I appreciated the way it broke the fourth wall and basically poked fun at itself, but I was not drawn into the story, it seemed overly long, and by the time the fourth act rolled around I really didn't care what happened to any of the characters and just wanted it to be over.

While Jonathan Groff is always easy on the eye, I wish they'd been able to have the penultimate Agent Smith—Hugo Weaving—as well as the original Morpheus, Laurence Fishburne, return to reprise their roles completely instead of just as momentary flashbacks. Maybe the actors weren't available? Whatever the reason, in my opinion the film suffered because of it.

When it ended, Ben turned to me and said, "At least we didn't pay to see this." (Actually we did, but it's not like we dropped money at a theater.)

Don't Look Up came highly recommended via reviews and Netflix itself, but there were many times I just wanted to hit the "back out" button on the remote and call it a day. It's biting satire on the abject level of science-denying stupidity currently permeating our society; the obsession with social media and "likes." The cast—while all well known and definitely not D-Listers—prompted Ben to ask who they owed money to in order to have to appear in this film.

The premise is simple: there's an extinction-level event comet with a 100% probability of impact heading directly toward earth and no one can be bothered to do anything about it until halfway through the film, and then the plan is aborted when its discovered there are valuable minerals contained in the rock and a plan is hatched to mine the minerals rather than deflect the threat away from the planet. Needless to say—spoilers—meteor/asteroid hits earth and everyone dies except the ultra rich who escape via secret spacecraft to the nearest earth-like planet, where after traveling 24000 years in suspended animation, the president (played Meryl Streep), who personifies everything currently wrong with society—steps out onto the new planet and is immediately eaten by the native fauna. That at least was satisfying.

UPDATE 12/28: This actually sums up my opinion of the movie the best.