This comment was made unironically. I hate Reddit so much.

[BonnieMcFarlaneMe2]

I remember the fat Milwaukeeans (not Pat, the other ones) kinda praising it and saying it was like Gremlins 2 and I couldn't disagree more.

The reason Gremlins 2 (and other good parody/self-lampooning movies in the same kinda vein like Airplane, Naked Gun, Tropic Thunder, etc) work is because the silliness is played straight. It's filled to the brim with goofy gags and cartoonish characters but the protagonists behave like there's nothing out of the ordinary and react to it all in total earnestness. That's where the comedy comes from.

Matrix Resurrection is the exact opposite. The narrative is conventional and devoid of wit and in lieu of jokes or humor, the movie just has the characters do blatant meta-commentary out of the blue every once in the while. It's not clever or funny to have Neo pretty much look at the camera as he's goes, "Golly, isn't it cringeworthy when movies do this", as he's doing the cringeworthy thing; it's fucking gay and obnoxious. It was insufferable when Rick & Morty pulled that same shit but that show at least had crafted jokes and some thought put into it. The new Matrix doesn't even have that, it has absolutely nothing to offer the viewer beyond the stupid meta shit, which it tries to use to cover for all its inadequacies.

I've heard the argument made that at least it's not as bad as the straight corporate reboot that they would've made anyway but that logic fails. At best, it means you're drinking half a glass of shit instead of a full one. It's still shit and should never have been made. In reality, it's still the same bland MCU style quippy horseshit but done with an ironic eye roll. It stinks.

I usually don’t like when they break the fourth wall but 30 Rock does a great job of it and I thought it was pretty well done in Clerks 3. I expected it to suck but I enjoyed it. First Matrix was good but the rest suck.