All posts by Alexander V Woods

Altered Carbon Season 2 finally released, and knowing that I’m quite busy during the week, as much as I’d like to binge watch the entire season in one sitting, I’m not the young person with tons of free time that I used to be. As such, I’ll be writing my initial thoughts on the first episode of the season (some spoilers!) and provide my review, and then I’ll write another review for the entire season as a whole.

Season 2: Taking cues from books 2 and 3

After the first season I have already caught some similarities or inspirations taken from the novels, but there’s a lot that is different as well, which is fun and refreshing in its own right.

Music Credits

I’ve always been very attentive to the music in the show, so this time I took special notice of musical composer Jeff Russo. He wasn’t credited during the title credits at the beginning of each episode in season 1 (I went back and checked) so it’s nice to see him front and center in Season 2. The music is slightly different, but still mostly the same.

Jumping right in: Quick exposition and setup

The episode jumps right in with Poe standing in the middle of a dive bar. Without explanation. He also wasted no time explaining to a random bounty hunter (who of course is none too random) that Kovacs’ new goal is to find his long-lost love Quellcrist Falconer.

This is already very different from the books, where the love aspect is almost non-existent. Sure there is some physical chemistry in book 3, but it never goes further than that. So it’s interesting to see this new direction Kalogridis has decided to take.

I really loved the set-up where we don’t know who Kovacs is, thinking it’s Mackie hiding in the shadows somewhere, before the shocking reveal. This was a lovely surprise and even when he revealed who he was, I was still dubious in believing it. This kind of playing-with-the-potential of the stacks universe is exactly what we need in the series.

Poe: Kovacs’ new constant companion

Poe’s survival is then explained away in an off-hand remark that he survived a “vicious attack on his personality” and that while he survived, he was left glitching as a result. This becomes quickly apparent that he will now be the comic relief for the series, which works surprisingly well in my opinion. There’s a reason why everyone loved Poe from the first season.

Spinning up into a new sleeve, one more time

I really liked the premise that Kovacs was brought back to protect a meth again, in return for being delivered to Quell. Which was why I was really disappointed when the meth was killed anyways right off the bat. What a waste! There was a lot of potential there.

I also found it surprising how hard it was for Kovacs to adapt to his new military-grade sleeve, considering as an envoy he’s supposed to be good at that. The way he summoned his handguns to his hands was a lot of fun to see, however, and is promising for more badass action to come.

Danica Harlan: Just not the same as the old meths

Unlike the books, the Quellcrist Rebellion is still active in this version of Harlan’s world. It was interesting to be introduced to Danica through her hologram and announcement about a cease-fire with the rebels. It paints quite a stark contrast to the wealthier-looking meths from Season 1 with their heads literally in the clouds. Danica seems a lot more active in governing the people of Harlan’s world, which makes sense. She just doesn’t have the gravitas as the Season 1 Meths.

Introducing the Yakuza: Classic Grade-A Cyberpunk Material

I really enjoyed our introduction to the Yakuza and their code of respect and conduct. Tanaseda and his grandson Yukito feature in book 3 and although the manner in which we meet them is different, Kalogridis kept true to how their characters were written, and it pays off with a really cool action scene and subsequent meeting between Taneda and Takeshi as they talk about their mutual past.

The Gore is back, too, if you’re into that

Just like Season 1, the end of the first episode hits you with body trauma in the form of Kovacs stabbing himself in the chest in order to make his sleeve remember where Quellcrist was and help him find a lead. “State-dependent memory,” his hallucination of Quellcrist tells him. This seems like a plot device to me and honestly an unnecessary way to continue the story, but then again, Morgan was pretty gory in his books too, so I guess this isn’t exactly new.

Final Verdict: 8/10

I’d give this first episode a solid 8/10. Because of its neon-rich visuals, solid characters, fun action and a few surprising twists, it’s a great first episode. There’s nothing too deep to dig into here, however, and at times things happen that feel more like plot devices to set up the story, rather than more plausible occurrences. Nonetheless, this doesn’t detract from an otherwise very enjoyable episode, and while Poe’s discussions with Kovacs provide unnecessary exposition for the viewer, he’s still the same charming Poe as the previous season, except even better as his glitches provide a fun comic relief to the series.

Books, Movies

The Influence of Philip K. Dick on Film

February 22, 2020 Alexander V Woods 4 Comments

The Grandfather of Cyberpunk

If William Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk, then Philip K Dick is undoubtedly its Grandfather. Although Gibson might not want it characterized as such.

Philip K Dick was a prolific science fiction writer who was born during the great depression in 1928 and died in March 1982 from a stroke. He wrote 44 novels in his lifetime and 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines like Science Fiction Quarterly. He constantly struggled with finances, had five wives, and at the end of his life attempted suicide multiple times. He struggled with drug addiction, an overwhelming sense of paranoia that became worse later on in life, and paranormal religious experiences that both shaped and confirmed his science fiction writing. If you had to identify a central theme to Dick’s writing, it was the uncertainty of reality.

His influence on Cyberpunk, Dystopian, and Alternate-Reality Movies

I keep on having my mind blown by how influential Philip K Dick was, and still is, on film. I thought he was simply the writer behind the novel that inspired Blade Runner, and maybe a couple other things like Total Recall, but that was it.

Nope. I was wrong.

Philip K Dick has in fact had a huge influence on the movies that have been released. You’ve probably seen many a PKD-inspired movie and didn’t even know it!

Don’t believe me? Allow me to give you a primer on everything he has done with the following list of nine novels or short stories that inspired major film productions.

Nine PKD-Inspired Films

The beginning of my tumble down the proverbial rabbit hole was with What the Dead Men Say, a short story that PKD used as inspiration for his novel Ubik. This is the only short story to inspire a novel in our list.

PKD’s work has led to a whopping thirteen films inspired by his work (s). The first one on our list is undoubtedly one you are already familiar with.

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner

We start off our list with nothing less than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which of course led to one of the leading works that founded the Cyberpunk genre, Blade Runner. In the book, the world has experienced a global crisis where animal life has died to such an extent that people own pets as symbols of wealth, since they are incredibly expensive. Those who can’t afford bona-fide animals (which are listed in catalogs with current prices much like stocks nowadays) have to settle for electric animals that mimic real animals. Of course the movie blade runner has none of this, but there is also a significant plot of androids being hunted and questioning their place in the world.

2. We Can Remember it For You Wholesale and Total Recall

The second adaptation on our list is We can remember it for you wholesale, which was a short story adapted into a more famous movie called Total Recall played by Arnold Schwarzenegger that came out in 1990, and then later remade in 2012 with Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy, and John Cho. While the original Total Recall takes place partially on Mars, and has surprising things like mutants, the remake settles on basic action and a world with an elevator that goes through the core to connect a poor and rich world. All three stories play with the meaning of memory and how it can shape what you think is your identity and reality, but in different ways.

3. The Minority Report and Minority Report

Third on our list is the short story The Minority Report, which inspired Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report with Tom Cruise, a tale about free will and controlling the future. While PKD’s short story is obviously more straightforward, it focuses less on action and more on political intrigue and pitting free will versus determinism. While Spielberg’s Minority Report is similar, the theme of political plotting is almost non-existent, replaced instead by a fast-paced game of cat and mouse as main character John Anderton (Cruise) tries to escape his old division of pre-crime to solve the mystery of the murder he is supposed to commit but hasn’t yet. There is a strong focus here on broken families again, which is a theme that seems somewhat common in Spielberg’s work.

4. A Scanner Darkly (same name)

The novel A Scanner Darkly resulted in the brilliantly-imagined, drug-addled roteroscope film called A Scanner Darkly, with Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic), Robert Downey Jr., Woodly Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. I have not read the novel yet, but it is said to be semi-autobiographical, and is set in Orange County, California, in the then-future of 1994 (it was published in 1977). Apparently the director Richard Linklater worked closely with the PKD estate to adapt the movie faithfully from the novel, since it was one of PKD’s favorite and most personal ones.

5. Adjustment Team and The Adjustment Bureau

Next on our list is the short story Adjustment Team, later adapted into The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon (Elysium) and Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow). Originally an insurance salesman in the short story, the screenplay writer George Nolfi wanted a character that would have consequences to his life choices past himself, and thus settled on Damon playing an up-and-coming politician. The story revolves around the idea that fate is actually a certain group of everyday people that decide your fate for you, modifying your reality in subtle ways in order to fit their own party agenda.

6. The Golden Man and Next

Next we have, well, Next, which was adapted from PKD’s short story The Golden Man about someone who could predict the future. The short story was in a science fiction novelette set in a post-apocalyptic future where mutants exist as a smaller demographic of normal humans. As a result they are hunted, but when the government catches the main character Cris, it finds it difficult to kill him due to his powers of precognition. Meanwhile, Next starred Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel. Cris Johnson can see the immediate future in Las Vegas but as a result is the target of a terrorist group, and then becomes wanted by the FBI to fight that same terrorist group.

7. Paycheck (same name)

and Paycheck, with Ben Affleck, Paul Giamatti, Uma Thurman, and Aaron Eckhart.

Paycheck was another science fiction novelette where the main character, Jennings, completes a secret 2-year contract and then has his memory wiped in return for being paid a lot of money. Upon waking up after his memory wipe, however, he finds that he had asked to be paid with a bag of trinkets instead of the money. He then gets arrested by the police, but the bag of trinkets helps him escape, because during his tenure he had been able to see the future so the bag of trinkets are a carefully-chose set to allow him to escape the police. The film adaptation is actually surprisingly similar to the novelette.

This last one was especially interesting because it was directed by John Woo, who was one of the Wachowski’s favorite directors. They liked his films so much that for the Matrix sequel video game, The Path of Neo, the player plays Neo in an exact replica of the Teahouse shootout scene from Woo’s Hardboiled. The other interesting thing I noted about Paycheck is that the trailer for Paycheck features the same song that was written for a scene in Matrix Reloaded, called Zion by Fluke (the rave scene in Zion). Matrix Reloaded came out in May of 2003, but Paycheck came out in December of the same year.

8. Second Variety and Screamers

Second Variety is next on our list, a short story about a future war in the trenches between American and Russian forces. Autonomous robots with rotary blades called Claws live in the sand and attack anyone designated as a target, before they start developing the second variety, which are androids that look like humans. The movie Screamers follows the same premise, except for the added aspect that the android can only be properly identified as such when it screams.

9. Impostor (same name)

There was also a film adaptation of the short story Impostor, with the film using the same name, starring Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, and Vincent D’Onofrio. Impostor was a story about a man who thinks he is human, until his colleagues intercept him and insist he is actually an android impostor, that his real human self was killed and replaced with his android counterpart in order to carry out a terrorist act sometime in the future without knowing it. The movie very much follows the same story and stays faithful to the short story.

An Excellent Source of Inspiration for Hollywood

So how many of these movies have you seen? How about the books and short stories? Have you read them all?

If you’ve seen all the movies and read all the works, then you can truly consider yourself a die-hard PKD fan, and you probably question your reality. So make sure to get a can of Ubik in a store near you!

Television

Altered Carbon Season 2: Final Trailer and Release Date!

February 15, 2020 Alexander V Woods

Altered Carbon is Back!

Well, the wait has finally paid off, folks–Altered Carbon Season 2 is finally almost here! The release date has been announced for February 27th, and all eight episodes for season 2 will drop at the same time in true Netflix fashion. Make sure to keep your calendars open!

Teaser Trailer

Last week on February 4th we were blessed with a new teaser trailer for the new season, which you should check out below!

As you can see there’s a lot to unpack here. You can bet that the first time I saw this teaser trailer I paused the trailer ad nauseum to take in what each still in the trailer was telling us. We hear Anthony Mackie say the following:

“This is a ghost story. Technology has conquered death. But with endless future comes endless past. We are trailed by specters. They cling to us like shadows. But if you chase after your ghost, you just might become one.”–Takeshi Kovacs

What to Expect

In the teaser trailer we definitely see what appears to be preserved ruins of Martian bodies, which would definitely be from book 2 of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, Broken Angels (for a primer on what happened in that novel, check out my review). We see more little scenes of what looks like Kovacs’ childhood, as well as his connections to Quellcrist Falconer, which is examined considerably in book 3, Woken Furies (which you can also read my review for here). We also see a ship exploding, which could be the one used to go through the portal in book 2, as well as Kovacs fighting an unclear group, and Kovacs in a new sleeve where he can summon handguns to his hands.

Clues from Episode Titles

We also know the names for all eight episodes, which are below:

Ep 201 “Phantom Lady” – written by Laeta Kalogridis, directed by Ciaran Donnelly

Ep 202 “Payment Deferred” – written by Sarah Nicole James, directed by Ciaran Donnelly

Ep 203 “Nightmare Alley” – written by Michael R. Perry, directed by MJ Bassett

Ep 204 “Shadow of a Doubt” – written by Sang Kyu Kim, directed by MJ Bassett

Ep 205 “I Wake up Screaming” – written by Cortney Norris, directed by Jeremy Webb

Ep 206 “Bury Me Dead” – written by Adam Lash & Cori Uchida, directed by Jeremy Webb

Ep 207 “Experiment Perilous” – written by Nevin Densham, directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield

Ep 208 “Broken Angels” – written by Alison Schapker & Elizabeth Padden, directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield

Because of the strong emphasis Season 1 and the trailer has put on Falconer, and the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to shoot the whole season on Mars or in space, I suspect Season 2 will be taking parts of book 2 (the Martian ruins, Carerra’s Wedge, and Col. Ivan Carerra) and adding them to the plot of book 3 (finding Falconer again). Oh, and it’s set on Harlan’s World, with one main character being Danica Harlan, and that’s definitely from book 3 as well.

The fact that the last episode is called the name of book 2 is very interesting, however. The angels in question referred to spirits of the dead or gone Martians, so I wonder if that will play any part in that final episode.

A New Instagram Grid for a New Season

At around the same time the official Altered Carbon Instagram was scrubbed and refitted with promotional pictures on their grid. Just look at this beauty.

Altered Carbon Season 2: The Main Trailer

On February 12th, about two weeks before the release of Season Two, we FINALLY got a complete trailer that dropped on YouTube. Let’s check it out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MzbLQBeR9Y

So one of the first things I really enjoyed seeing right off the bat was the sky above Harlan’s World. You see, Harlan’s World is where Kovacs was born and raised, where he spent his misfit youth before he joined different military outfits. On this planet, Martians left behind an array of satellites that will automatically shoot lasers to vaporize anything that goes too high in orbit over the world. As a result, it’s very difficult to get anything onto the world from space. The only way to do so is to slip in through small cracks in the defensive satellite network. No one knows why the Martians left them behind or what they were for, all they know is that they’re there and they are still operational.

Harlan’s World and the Satellites of Death

In one of the first shots of this trailer, we can finally see how Kalogridis envisioned this satellite network of death, here dealing shots of blue lasers.

Your Resleeving is Now Complete

Mackie’s resleeving this time also looks a lot smoother than Joel Kinnaman’s resleeving. Here we get to know all the cool new military features Mackie’s sleeve will have.

Kumalo Bioware

In the trailer Poe asks Kovacs what compelled him to return to Harlan’s World, a place he swore he would never return. He seems to respond “I’m still looking for her, and I can’t walk away.” This suggests that he came to Harlan’s World by choice this time.

Another difference here is that it looks like Kovacs will find Falconer, in her original sleeve, here on Harlan’s World. This is very different than in the book, where she was found only in digital form. Unless if in fact what we are seeing is in virtual space?

Colonel Ivan Carrera and Carrera’s Wedge

We then see Danica Harlan ordering Col. Carrera to find and kill what I’m guessing is Kovacs and Falconer together. This would make sense, since Quell was trying to lead a rebellion against the Harlan family, and perhaps still is here in Season 2. We also hear “the whole planet is going to be hunting you” because, well, it’s literally Harlan’s World.

We are Trailed by Specters. They Cling to Us Like Shadows

Then, at 1:58, we get a very exciting view of…Will Yun Lee as the original Takeshi Kovacs! This refers directly to what happens in book 3, which I won’t spoil if you haven’t read it, but it’s very important indeed.

So after this trailer I think I have a good idea of what to expect from Season 2. The beginning premise might not be as exciting as season 1, but once you discover the twist, it might become a lot more interesting.

What were your impressions on the Season 2 trailer? Comment below!

Movies

Review: Ghost in the Shell (2017)

February 1, 2020 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

The Premise

Ghost in the shell is directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) and based On Masamune Shirow’s anime by the same name. It stars Scarlett Johansson as the main character of The Major (Motoko Kusanagi), along with Takeshi Kitano (Chief Aramaki), Michael Pitt (Kuze), Pilou Asbaek (Batou), Chin Han (Togusa), and Juliette Binoche (Doctor Ouelet). Set in the future in Japan, The Major is part of an anti-terrorist bureau called Section 9 that is tasked with investigating a Cyber-terrorist called Kuze, while discovering her own origins at the same time. The Major is also a Cyborg Super-soldier, more machine than human, and grapples with her own human-machine identity.

Starting us off

The movie starts with a beautiful introduction, providing the credits as Major’s synthetic body, her shell, is being created. This is very similar to the introductory scene in the 1995 anime, but in my opinion, Clint Mansell’s soundtrack is a lot nicer. Although a lot of people love the music of the original anime introduction, to me, the chanting voices always were rather jarring. Mansell’s light semi-electronic notes wafting slowly throughout the sequence provides an almost mystical, alluring atmosphere.

The movie suffers again from needless exposition by explaining what Hanka Robotics is and what kind of world this is. Perhaps this was done to make the movie more palatable to a wider range of audiences, but they really would have made the movie better without it.

Visually Stunning–How a Cyberpunk City Should Be

The first real scene, after Major’s awakening, is the first sign of how gorgeous this film will be. This scene feels like a proper tribute to what a cyberpunk megapolis should be, made in a modern style without an excess of digital effects. To be honest, ever since I saw this movie in theaters, the image that comes to mind of a Cyberpunk city is always this city, this world.

Yep. Cyberpunk.

Taking it all in

Upon re-watching this movie, there’s a certain beauty in simple scenes that aren’t immediately apparent. Like Batou feeding the stray dogs, including the basset hounds that are a trademark of the original Ghost in the Shell anime. Or the scene right before when he gets the bones for the dogs, where we see what street markets look like, with all the basic meat vendors casually sporting enhancements including entire android arms like it’s nothing.

The last time I saw so many casually augmented people in an urban city was in Alita: Battle Angel, and it’s incredible to see all the diversity. I literally have to pause the scenes to take in everything I’m seeing.

Part-Tactical Spec-Ops, Part Reflection on Humanity

Another excellent part of the movie is the tactical nature of the film, in addition to the self-reflecting nature of the film. We often see Section 9 moving as a unit, working and planning together. Aerial shots of them closing on locations make this that much more fun and palpable.

Motoko (Major) is trying to figure out what makes her human, or machine, or whatever she is in between. You can see this as she studies a human prostitute with wonder, and as she looks at geisha bots with scorn, wondering how she is any different. She seems to consider herself unworthy of human value in the same way that her fellow humans are–because she is just a machine, and perhaps also just a weapon, what she thinks and feels has no importance. At least, at first she seems to think this. She then begins to question it, the more she tries to find this Kuze character who seems somehow familiar, while trying to stop his terrorist actions of hacks and manipulation and killing.

There is a particularly potent scene that displays this as she comes face to face with Kuze. For the first time, we see what’s underneath her skin–her metal shell. It’s easy to see how she grapples with who she is, made even more so once she goes back to the person that had always been the closest to her mother–Doctor Ouelet. When she learns the truth of her past, the audience can feel and see how truly alone she feels. That her once-enemy, who granted is morally bankrupt, is the closest she has to what resembles a brother.

This then leads to another great scene–the harbor scene, where major looks for answers in the underwater depths, surrounded by darkness and perpetual blissful silence. We also get some more great shots of the city in the distance.

Batou

I’ve always loved Batou, but Pilou Asbaek’s performance here as the resigned, kind, understanding team partner really shines. I love his slow, almost drunkenly deliberate movements, as he’s trying to understand what his friend is going through. The audience once again is treated to a beautiful dark cityscape behind the two on the little fishing boat.

In general this is simply a beautiful film. There are scenes reminiscent of the Kowloon walled city in Hong Kong, like when she goes to visit a particular woman of interest. The giant superstructures are so iconic in Cyberpunk films, with beautiful circular shots looking up. Pausing in these scenes almost gave me the impression that I was watching Inception. The Tron-like Motorcycles, the neon-lit highways, all are very iconically Cyberpunk.

In my opinion, the ending was very satisfying, although a little different from the Anime version. This is one of those movies where you really need a second viewing, or a third. But even after multiple viewings, it’s still a beautiful, enjoyable movie with a great soundtrack and solid plot.

Final Verdict: 9/10

Due to its beautiful cinematography, interesting characters, exciting action and tactical sequences, and excellent score, I give this movie a final score of 9/10. I would have liked to go a little deeper with the characters, to have them explore the human/cyborg element a little more than they did (and I know this is possible because it is done better in the anime). But other than this minor element, this film is excellent, and I highly recommend it.

Movies

Bloodshot: The upcoming 2020 Cyberpunk Film no one’s talking about

January 25, 2020 Alexander V Woods

Less Cyberpunk Content than 2019

2020 has plenty of Cyberpunk content set to come out: Of course, the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 in ~~April~~ September, and then its smaller brother Ghostrunner in August. But those are both video games. What movies are there to look forward to?

Unfortunately, other than the widely-anticipated Season 2 of Altered Carbon, there aren’t a lot of cyberpunk films set to come out this year. One of them you may not have heard of is Bloodshot.

Bloodshot: the Cyberpunk film of March 2020

Due out March 13th in the US and end of February/first week of March in Europe (for the complete list of release dates, since they’re surprisingly country-specific, click here), Bloodshot will hopefully get us our cyberpunk fix for that month, provided you haven’t finished watching Altered Carbon’s Season 2 already.

Comic Book Origins

This is actually a film adaptation of a comic book character of the same name coming from Valiant Comics, a smaller and lesser-known comics publisher similar to DC comics or Marvel. But while DC and Marvel have traditionally focused more on good superheros, Valiant tried to carve out a slice of the market for itself by focusing more on anti-heros, like Bloodshot.

The result that we get is what looks like a slick action-focused flick starring Vin Diesel as Marine Raymond “Ray” Garrison who is reborn by a team of scientists with nanotechnology after his wife is suddenly assassinated. The nanites allow him to become somewhat of a superhuman, with enhanced strength, senses, and healing factor. Originally amnesiac after the operation, his memories start to come back to him as he trains with fellow super-soldiers, until he breaks out to find the man that killed his wife. However, not everything is at it seems.

Check out the first trailer below and see for yourself.

Expectations

Bloodshot is the latest movie set to come out in 2020 that I would deem Cyberpunk enough to warrant the label, although it’s definitely heavier on the action side. We’ll see how much low-life and high-tech elements it actually has. For now it appears rather similar to Terminator, but without the androids and with a dash of Total Recall and Wolverine. It at least has a character with android arms a la Doctor Octopus or reminiscent of Max from Elysium.

Cast

In addition to Vin Diesel in the titular role, it looks like what I imagine to be the main villain will be played by Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3). Jared Leto had been considered for the role, which would have been another Cyberpunk film for him to star in, but ultimately the role went to Diesel. Also cast have been Sam Heughan (Outlander) and Eida Gonzalez

The Role of Bloodshot in Valiant Comics

If you’re curious to learn more about the backstory of Bloodshot and his important role in the lesser-known publisher Valiant Comics, check out this excellent breakdown from Comics Explained below.

I for one am definitely excited for this to come out, especially since I’m a big Vin Diesel fan. But the fact that it just got a PG-13 rating is tempering my expectations a little.

Make sure to check out Bloodshot before it leaves the theaters, and make it something to look forward to.

Movies

Review: Babylon A.D.

January 18, 2020 Alexander V Woods

Babylon A.D. is Cyberpunk enough.

Babylon A.D. probably doesn’t pass the test of being “Cyberpunk” for some, due to its sparse high-tech elements, but its low-life quota more than makes up for it and along with its interesting dystopian world, it merits a mention here. So here goes.

This movie really isn’t that bad.

That’s what I’m going to start with for this movie. I had seen it as an option to watch on Netflix, but a quick perusal of its reviews online scared me away. The cover photo was also B-movie bland and there were no scenes to get me excited about the film. Once I finally watched the trailer, I also felt lukewarm about trying out the movie.

But sometimes, there’s an itch to watch a new, high-quality cyberpunk movie that simply needs to be scratched.

I like Vin Diesel, but when I saw Michelle Yeoh was in it (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) I was convinced that I needed to see this movie.

Yeoh kicks plenty of ass with her fists in this film. But she’s still willing to pick up a trusty handgun from time to time.

With my expectations already set abysmally low, this movie was actually able to surprise me in a very good way. The movie jumps right in without needless exposition that plagues so many other movies (I’m looking at you, Ready Player One) and the viewer is able to see a dystopian world somewhere in eastern Europe where everything is run-down, food is extremely scarce, and guns are as commonplace as cigarette butts on the streets. There’s an early scene with a handgun that lights up, but other than that, we don’t see much high-tech until much later in the movie, and even then it’s still very sparse.

That doesn’t hurt the movie, though. Vin Diesel is great at being the emotionally-hardened killing machine that the likes of Bruce Willis and Jason Statham have similarly made successful in their straightforward action flicks.

Pictured above: Vin Diesel completely out of fucks to give.

Babylon A.D. feels like an action flick set in a dystopian future. If seen in that light, it’s a lot of fun. There are shootouts, explosions, hand-to-hand combat, and even random military elements like combat gear and even a giant military helicopter that is retrofitted for transportation purposes. The pacing is solid except for some moments that dragged, and I was frequently surprised by sudden events happening throughout the film.

The Story

Vin Diesel plays mercenary Toorop who is hired by a Russian mobster, played by Gerard Depardieu (The Man in the Iron Mask) to bring a young woman named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) from Europe to New York City. Once given a UN passport, he must bring Aurora and her guardian Sister Rebeka (Yeoh) from their convent in Kyrgyztan to New York by traveling through Russia to Vladivostok and across the Pacific to Alaska.

The trio fights, bribes, and smuggles their way toward their destination, as the viewers slowly learn more about Aurora’s mysterious past. Through the difficult journey they become somewhat of a family, until the movie comes to a head about an hour in once they arrive in New York.

Then something happens, which makes little sense to me, and which honestly lost me for the end of the movie. Up until that point, I had been enjoying the movie immensely. I guess you just have to bear with them until their conclusion, which unfortunately lost the emotional gravitas it was probably striving for.

However, there was one small consolation prize: this guy.

“You see, there is only one constant. One Universal. And that is…that I LOVE French wine.”–What I imagined him saying in this moment.

That’s right, folks! Lambert Wilson is in this movie too! Unfortunately he has only a small role, but seeing him play yet another smug man of power with his sublime French accent made me not only like this movie even more, but realize just how much I loved his performance as The Merovingian in the Matrix franchise.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

You should definitely see this movie, especially if you have a Netflix account. It would have been an 8 if the movie hadn’t gotten in the way of itself during the last 30 minutes (it was so close to being great!) but it also would have been worse if not for the performances of Yeoh, Wilson, and Diesel. It certainly doesn’t warrant the 6% on Rotten Tomatoes (seriously??). Nonetheless, with good acting from most of the actors, fun action, decent pacing, and an interesting idea (for the most part), this movie is worth a viewing for any proper fan of Cyberpunk and Dystopia in particular.

Video Games

Ghostrunner: Mirror’s Edge Meets Dishonored, Turned Cyberpunk

January 11, 2020 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

What am I?–What you as an android are probably thinking.

A Combination of Great Gameplay Mechanics

If you’re someone who liked Dishonored but wanted a faster pace in the action, and you liked Mirror’s Edge in its landscape-crossing Parkour action, then you may like Ghostrunner. It’s not due until August of 2020, but it apparently stole the show in its reveal in Cologne’s Gamescom last year.

Ghostrunner is a first person hack-and-slash using bullet-time and wall-running to cross (or ascend) levels.

Check out its release trailer below.

Recognizable Inspiration

It also wears its inspirations with pride.

“We obviously drew from several works of pop culture,” admits lead designer and producer Radoslaw Ratusznik. “For example, similarities in the life of a society living in a closed off area can be found in, among others, the movie Snowpiercer. The idea of a superstructure in which everyone lives was depicted really well in Dredd, while the notion of being a savior and the “bullet time” effect may remind you of The Matrix. There will definitely be more references and similarities to other works in the final product.”

Release Timing

But what about its release date? Isn’t the team concerned about releasing a Cyberpunk video game the same year as Cyberpunk 2077? Apparently not. What’s more, they’re as excited about the blockbuster release as anyone else.

“We’re players ourselves and we can’t wait to get our hands on the game. We don’t really perceive Cyberpunk 2077 as competition, it’s a gigantic AAA production, while we’re targeting hardcore players.”

The Game Itself

This game looks absolutely amazing, and I for one can’t wait to get my hands on it. The classic Cyberpunk visuals, the music, the story…

The wall-running aspect reminds me a lot of the campaign in Titanfall 2, where you had to solve problems to figure out how to cross each platform. Combining that idea with a vertical high-rise superstructure like the one seen in Dredd seems brilliant. Besides, what’s cooler than katana swords glowing neon blue? Using it combined with bullet-time slow motion in order to take on the challenge of bringing a knife to a gun fight–all while performing split-second moves to the sound of killer synthwave and retrowave tracks.

The Story

The story goes as follows: Set in the future after a global cataclysm, the remains of humanity live in a tower built by someone called The Architect, who died mysteriously some years ago. In this world, a person’s worth is only determined by the number of implants they have. However, these implants are given at birth, and also determine which social group they will belong to.

You play as a cyber-warrior who is capable of fighting both in the real and virtual worlds, something incredibly rare in this dystopian future. Your mission: to ascend the tower to take out the despotic ruler called The Keymaster while uncovering more about yourself and the tower itself.

The story itself is a classic story of revenge, redemption, and antiheroism, along with class conflict and transhumanism–all common tropes in Western Cyberpunk.

To get a taste of what’s in store, check out this incredible 5-minute gameplay trailer, and you’ll see what I mean.

So what do you think? Will this game compete with Cyberpunk 2077 or will it benefit from the publicity of its AAA-rated Cyberpunk sibling? And are you as excited about trying out this game as I am? Let me know in the comments below.

Interviews, News

Interview: Simon Herzog and the Cyberpunk Protests in Hong Kong

January 4, 2020 Alexander V Woods

The Fugitive Offenders Amendment Bill

On April 3rd, 2019, Hong Kong lawmakers were given a pretty straightforward extradition bill called the Fugitive Offenders Amendment bill. In response to a legal issue, the bill would have allowed extradition of suspected offenders from Hong Kong to mainland China under very specific conditions, and on a case-by-case basis.

A “Special Administrative Region”

While Hong Kong technically belongs to China, it is considered a “special administrative region” of China with its own set of laws, currency, and government with a strong pro-democracy, pro-independence movement. While this status is set to end ominously in 2047, many residents of Hong Kong are afraid of mainland China trying to end it early. This extradition bill could have allowed that to happen, because if Hong Kong residents are extradited through dubious claims to mainland China, they could then be made to disappear, and then who knows what would happen to them.

Cyberpunk Protests in Hong Kong

Thus, the uprising began, and although the bill was later rescinded, protests have been going strong since April with many of them feeling very cyberpunk in nature due to the use of gas masks, bows and arrows, umbrellas, face masks, flashlights and lasers to avoid CCTV detection.

In order to experience this firsthand and get a better understanding of the massive Cyberpunk protests in Hong Kong, my friend Simon Herzog decided to go there himself, where he spoke with locals and snapped some photos of everything he witnessed. He agreed to an interview with Cyberpunk Matrix to share some of his thoughts below.

Hi Simon. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

I translate between different disciplines and help bridge cultural and human differences through entrepreneurship, art, and design. I spend most of my time organizing or teaching workshops in innovation and problem-solving methodologies like design thinking and service design, helping organizations create more human-centric products and services. Other than that, I use photography and video for storytelling and have side projects like designing and making an ultralight backpacking tent from scratch.

Art by Benjamin Last

Why do you like Cyberpunk? What does it mean to you?

Like a lot of science fiction, cyberpunk casts a light on the worlds we have already built. I appreciate its stories for the resourcefulness of its characters in the face of overwhelming forces such as corporations, governments, or technology itself. It allows me to vicariously experience an extreme version of the adaptability, preparedness, and pragmatism I take so much pleasure and pride in in my own life. On top of that, I love the aesthetic and the sense of anarchy and possibility, and the sense of meritocracy that comes from an unyielding environment where skill is everything.

The aesthetic is definitely pretty cool. And what brought you to Hong Kong recently?

I had been following the protests since their beginnings in March, and it felt right away like something important was happening. It’s difficult from afar to form a balanced opinion and to understand what is really happening when there’s social upheaval like this and both sides have a vested interest in presenting their side favorably, and I wanted to be in a place where the news is happening and talk to people on the ground. Also, I saw some of the resourcefulness and anarchic creativity that marks the characters in cyberpunk stories in the protesters, and was curious to see it for myself. When I had some business in Kuala Lumpur in December I decided to extend my trip and stop by Hong Kong for a few days.

Can you explain what is happening in Hong Kong?

The introduction of a controversial extradition law that would have allowed mainland China access to people arrested in Hong Kong and Taiwan triggered severe resistance from a large portion of Hong Kongers who see themselves as a quasi-sovereign nation and are eager to preserve their relative independence from China for as long as possible. The Chinese government is keen to begin assimilating Hong Kong into its authoritarian system even before the official end of the “one country, two systems” arrangement in 2047, and in a way the protesters are trying to delay or prevent this most likely inevitable outcome. From the initial rejection of the extradition law the protests have evolved as a largely leaderless movement to include five demands, ranging from an independent investigation into police brutality to universal suffrage in deciding the government of Hong Kong. The government has been relatively unyielding, other than withdrawing the extradition bill, and clashes have steadily escalated over the past several months.

Interesting. And what happened when you went there?

I have some friends in Hong Kong and I had relied on one of them in particular to invite me to some protester Telegram groups in the weeks before my arrival. That’s how I found out about what was happening that weekend, and I went to a small rally on Saturday and a gigantic one with over 800,000 people on Sunday, December 8th. This march was one of the few that had received official approval from the government, which is likely why so many people attended and it did not result in significant clashes. Still, as the masses of people were churning through the streets and reached the official end of the marching route, the overwhelming momentum of the crowd pushed it past the finish line, unable or unwilling to disperse, and into a large riot police blockade. The police had lined up across an entire wide avenue in full riot gear, trucks with water cannons behind them, and they were holding up the yellow flag warning protesters to not approach any further. The police use a color-coded system of flags to announce their increasingly severe response – from a passive warning to a vague threat of force to tear gas to live fire. That day, things didn’t escalate to real violence, and I didn’t end up having to use the gas mask or any of the emergency gear I’d brought. At the front lines, some provocateurs had dismantled street barriers and were wielding steel bars they had pulled from those barriers as weapons, but most other front-liners, though visibly prepared to fight, repeatedly pushed the line back and away from the police in order to avoid a confrontation.

What do you think will come next for the city?

I had a chance to speak to people with a range of opinions on the protests, from young people that had been actively a part of them since the beginning, were in the streets every weekend, and boycotted pro-Chinese businesses, to professionals who were concerned with or disapproved of the methods of some of the protesters and were discontent with the disruptions the movement had caused. At its core, the issue is about Hong Kong’s quasi-sovereignty and its relationship with China, and even many moderate Hong Kongers have gotten used to and value the special privileges of living in a state with some of the features of Western democracies such as freedom of expression. Virtually everyone under 30 in Hong Kong now identifies as Hong Kongers rather than Chinese, a record figure. There is also a class dimension to the protests; many wealthier professionals rely heavily on business with China for their income and therefore tend to be more pro-Chinese as a group. Still, the recent elections represented a strong vote of confidence from the general population in favor of the protests. I believe they will continue for some time, but I do not expect either major concessions from the government – since showing weakness would embolden other dissidents and separatists – nor, hopefully, a major escalation of force. Eventually, I anticipate that some minor concessions will be made and that the protests will eventually lose steam.

Last, but not least, why do you think Hong Kong is one of the most Cyberpunk cities in the world?

There are certain places in the world – Dubai, Hong Kong, Chongqing – where the reality is already stranger than fiction. Hong Kong has the look that defined a lot of the greatest cyberpunk aesthetics, such as Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner. Few other cities have both the verticality and the claustrophobia of Hong Kong, where millions are crammed into a finite space, and buildings grow as tall as they can while apartments are as small as humanly possible. Hong Kong was also until 1993 home to the Kowloon Walled City, easily the most cyberpunk place to have ever existed, and also the densest human settlement in history. For readers of this blog not familiar with it, it’s very worth researching.

The Kowloon Walled City

Thanks for answering our questions here at Cyberpunk Matrix, Simon!

To see or learn more from Simon Herzog, you can contact him via his website here or follow him on his instagram.

Photos courtesy of Simon Herzog

Interviews, Movies, News, Television, Video Games

2019: A Year in Review for Cyberpunk

January 1, 2020 Alexander V Woods

A Time to Look Back

We are lucky that the end of the year brings us two weeks of holidays, for Christmas and New Year’s, where we can sit down and take a minute to reflect on what the year has brought us. My last Year in Review, for 2018, described how I learned about and became obsessed with the genre of Cyberpunk. While different from 2018 in that I now know what the term means, 2019 has been a year of incredible growth for me personally and for the genre of Cyberpunk in general. On the first few days of 2019 I wrote the following:

I wonder what 2019 will bring, but one thing I know for sure is that my love for everything Cyberpunk will continue. I will carry on consuming and writing about cyberpunk media, starting off with this new year with watching the newly released Bandersnatch episode of Black Mirror, and then hopefully from watching Replicas and then Battle Angel: Alita. I’m also excited to read the newest addition to my cyberpunk library, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, as well as learning more about Philip K Dick–his life, his writing, and his philosophy.

Bandersnatch ended up being a creative new way to watch a series, but the ideas that came with it proved insufficient to warrant writing a review yet.

Replicas ended up being good, but it took me a lot longer to watch it than I expected. Alita: Battle Angel was amazing, as expected, but Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was so boring in the first 30 pages or so that I couldn’t even finish it. So that was a little disappointing.

So Many Great Surprises!

Nonetheless, I was happily surprised by a myriad of interesting new Cyberpunk releases that 2019 brought, many of which were things I could have never in my wildest dreams predicted (like Keanu being in Cyberpunk 2077 or Matrix 4 being announced!)

So now, dear reader, let’s take a look at each month and what cyberpunk news or media production was released.

January 2019: Replicas

The year started off lightly with the indie production of Replicas, released on January 11th in the US and featuring Cyberpunk legend Keanu Reeves, who plays a neuroscientist who tries to bring his family back to life via digitizing their consciousness into clone bodies. The movie was pretty good! More of a solving-a-series-of-problems thriller a la Da Vinci Code than action or horror film. I definitely recommend seeing it though, if you haven’t already. You can check out my more in-depth review of it here. The film got very little press coverage or mention, and I think was mostly ignored by the general public due to funding. The cyberpunk genre still hadn’t grown into its own at this point.

February 2019: Alita: Battle Angel

February 2019 came with the long-awaited GUNNM anime adaptation called Alita: Battle Angel. This movie did pretty well at the box office, and put the Cyberpunk genre back in the spotlight for the general public with its high production value and marketing. Released on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, the movie did an amazing job displaying both Motorball and Parkour in its film, while giving an overall palatable romance between the cyborg Alita and human Hugo.

March, 2019: Love, Death & Robots

As the picture above describes, this was a NSFW (Not Suitable For Work) animated Anthology series of short stories all related loosely to the themes of Love, Death, and Robots. While some stories showed just science-fiction, and others showed just fantasy (like vampires and werewolves), there were a total of six clearly Cyberpunk episodes in this Anthology. They were Sonnie’s Edge, The Witness, Suits, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Zima Blue, and Blind Spot. For my favorites and a more in-depth review of each episode, you can check it out here. This Anthology was very interesting because it made clear, in my mind at least, the different kinds of Cyberpunk sub-genres that exist: Action, Horror, and Mystery/Drama.

April: Organ-Harvesting and the horrors of the Uyghurs

After seeing a report of this on CNN and then later on the news, I shared the horrors of what sound like basically concentration camps for ethnic Uyghurs who are being targeted by the Chinese government. Very dystopian indeed. This story, sadly, is still developing.

May: Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

Despite probably not officially Cyberpunk, I shared my views on how Pokemon Detective Pikachu had some decidedly Cyberpunk themes in it. It was also an all-around fun movie to watch, especially with Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu.

June: Cyberpunk 2077 Trailer with the legendary reveal of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand

This is the moment where internet fandom went into overdrive. At E3 fans first heard Keanu Reeve’s voice, then saw his digital likeness come on screen during Cyberpunk 2077’s newest official cinematic trailer for their video game due to be released in April of next year. Few will forget the moment when Keanu himself then comes onto the stage to announce the game’s release date, and that fateful fan who yelled “you’re breathtaking!” to which Keanu responds “no, YOU’re breathtaking! You’re ALL breathtaking!” This, along with John Wick 3, officially hailed the beginning of what some are calling the Keanussance. August’s big announcement didn’t help in this regard.

July: …I’ve got nothing.

August: Matrix 4 announced

This was perhaps the one biggest announcement that I couldn’t have even ever imagined happening in my lifetime. Matrix 4 was officially announced, with many of the actors from the original trilogy returning, including Carrie Anne-Moss and Keanu Reeves himself. Since the original announcement I have been following any further updates as we have been getting them, such as concept artists, hopes and predictions, and October and December updates.

September: New Gameplay Trailer for Cyberpunk 2077

September brought us a new video of the gameplay we could expect in Cyberpunk 2077, including a deep dive into the locations, classes, and factions we could expect from the videogame. Which class will you be?

October: Terminator: Dark Fate

Retconning the sequels after T-2 and intended to be a reboot of the franchise, James Cameron returned to produce this sequel, creating a movie that was pretty good in my opinion but lacked any significant wow-factor. It performed alright in the box office, but not well enough to jumpstart the franchise again. Will this be the last Terminator film we will ever see? Time will tell.

November: Tesla’s Cybertruck

The much-teased Cybertruck was finally introduced by Elon Musk, in a manner that was probably meant to be a big trending epic reveal but ended up being a bit of an embarrassment for Elon as the supposedly bulletproof and shatterproof windows of the Cybertruck broke (twice!) during the live demonstration in the unveiling. Oops! “We’ll fix it in post” Elon tried to nonchalantly say, but the damage was (literally) already done. Nonetheless, it still turned heads and didn’t stop multiple preorders from being submitted, promising that this truck will be the newest hot item to hit the roads. Whether the trend will last, no one knows, but it was worth noting how mainstream Cyberpunk has become considering how similar the visuals and fonts were for the Cybertruck and the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. Elon is clearly a fan.

December: Expanding the community: Interviewing and collaborating with NeoSkies

The most recent development from the last couple of months is more of a personal development which has been discovering and interacting with other Cyberpunk fans who enjoy the genre and like creating content as much as I do. One such fan has been NeoSkies. It’s been great to follow NeoSkies’ content production online with Instagram, Twitter, etc. and to engage in her surveys and discussions with the Cyberpunk Community around the world. We’re not alone! It was also similarly great for me to have the opportunity to interview NeoSkies on her process and inspiration, as well.

Looking to the Future

So what does the future hold for Cyberpunk? Something very exciting indeed. Just look at all the great content, announcements and surprises we got from 2019! So while it’s impossible to say what surprise announcements or content we will get, what we can do is predict things that are already in the pipeline and have been announced.

Altered Carbon: Season 2 should arrive to Netflix in February 2020, which will start off our year right
Cyberpunk 2077 will be released in April, which should really kick the Cyberpunk genre into front and center of pop culture, especially considering it’s in the name of the game itself.
Matrix 4 isn’t expected until 2021, but 2020 will bring with it more and more production and casting updates, as well as hopefully story clues, so the production of Matrix 4 will be very fun to watch. Production should begin in February as well.
While not exactly Cyberpunk, Denis Villeneuve did an excellent job with Cyberpunk 2049, so his adaption of the science-fiction classic DUNE will be very exciting to see. There may be some cyberpunk elements present, but it should be a mostly science fiction tale.

So what new Cyberpunk media are you looking forward to seeing/reading/playing in 2020? Let us know in the comments below!

Movies

Matrix 4: December 2019 Latest Updates

December 22, 2019 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

It’s been a slow drip of news for Matrix 4 updates, so I wait until the end of the month to give you all the most important, juicy details altogether. Here’s what’s new with what we now know with Matrix 4:

Casting Updates

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris has been cast, and his role is still unknown. You may recognize him as Barney from How I Met Your Mother. He’s also been in movies such as Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Gone Girl, and a Series of Unfortunate Events. This is one of the most surprising choices to cast, and it will be interesting to see what role he will be in.

Jessica Henwick

Jessica Henwick has been cast, and her role is still unknown as well. You may recognize her as Nymeria Sand from Game of Thrones, or as Colleen Wing in The Iron Fist. She can definitely kick ass, so she’s an exciting martial arts casting choice.

Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff is another surprising cast choice. He’s probably best known as voicing Kristoff and his reindeer Sven from Frozen and Frozen 2. He’s also a main character on the series Mind Hunter from Netflix, where he plays an FBI agent, so he can definitely play some serious stuff.

Toby Onmuwere

Toby Onmuwere has been cast, and once again, his role is as of yet a mystery. This casting actually wasn’t much of a surprised to me, since he’s a main character in the Wachowski’s series Sense 8. Not only is Sense 8 seasons 1 and 2 some of the latest work that the Wachowskis have made, it has also been written by David Mitchell and Alexander Hemon, who both helped contribute to writing the script for Matrix 4. I’m expecting to hear more casting choices from people who contributed to Sense 8, especially Doona Bae for instance, who is in Sense 8 too and was a major character in the Cyberpunk scenes of Cloud Atlas, which was also by David Mitchell.

Other News

Keanu Reeves has a girlfriend!

Keanu and GF

That’s right, internet, Keanu Reeves is unfortunately off the market! Considering it’s the age of the Keanussance, it was big news when this story broke on November 6 that Keanu was walking down the red carpet holding hands with Alexandra Grant.

After meeting and getting together with Jennifer Syme in 1998, the couple experienced their first tragedy when she had a stillbirth after 8 months of pregnancy. It devastated the couple, who separated, and then not even two years later, Syme was killed in a tragic car crash.

So now after being single for about 15 years, fans were very happy to learn that he found happiness again! Also for someone as cultured and interesting as Alexandra Grant, who is a multilingual visual artist who is also a feminist and has published two books with Reeves, “Ode to Happiness” and “Shadows”.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss are working out again to prepare for their roles

“That was such a shocker,” Moss said to ET when she learned she would be returning to the Matrix franchise. “I’m still processing it that I’m going to do that again.” About playing Trinity, she added that it’s not about “trying to replicate something. You’re trying to expand it.”

“It’s definitely 20 years later and I have to remember to take my time because I get pretty into it,” she says with a laugh. “I have to be so incredibly strong to do it.” She remembers this because when she was filming the Matrix trilogy, she actually broke her leg doing it.

“That happened,” Moss said matter-of-factly about getting hurt. “Every day I was making those movies was incredible. Even when it was hard, even when we were dealing with tough stuff.”

Although it will be tough, grueling stuff, Moss reports she’s ready for the challenge. “I’m just so happy to be in it and being part of it,” she said, adding that what she remembers most about her time working on the franchise is how much she loved doing it. “To me, that’s the only part I have control over is my experience on the project — not necessarily how it’s received or how it does.”

Moss concludes by saying, “I’m taking it one day at a time for sure.”

Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves is back at Taran Tactical to train for both The Matrix and John Wick movies. So perhaps we can expect…

Image result for guns. lots of guns gif

Guns. Lots of Guns.

Last, but not least: Matrix 4 finally has a release date!

Matrix 4 has finally been given a release date, so mark your calendars: It’s May 21st, 2021. For now this is conflicting with John Wick 3 release date (which still doesn’t even have a script yet) but it’s expected John Wick will be bumped to a later date. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop mega-fans from dubbing the day as Keanu Reeves day.

keanu reeves day.png