Quentin Tarantino didn’t enjoy the two sequels to a sci-fi classic that revolutionized early 2000s fighting aesthetics, “The Matrix.”
Chance of the calendars, in May 2003, Kill Bill: Volume 1 finds itself out in the United States on the same Friday as Matrix Reloaded, highly anticipated sequel to the first Matrix of the name, which had seduced the entire planet with 757.8 million dollars reported against 103 million budget (figures adjusted for inflation).
Tarantino is shaking. A blockbuster of this importance risks stealing all its potential entries in the first part of its diptych tribute to the films which rocked and built its cinephilia in the 70s and 80s: those of the video clubs. Then Tarantino saw Matrix Reloaded, and he was reassured, as he confided to the media vulnerability :
[Matrix 2] was the sword of Damocles above our heads. I saw Matrix Reloaded at the Chinese Theater the day it was released and walked out of the theater singing Jay-Z’s song. I was like, ‘Damn, come on, was I worried about that?!
And when in 2009, Sky Movies Asked him to share his list of favorite movies, the Pulp Fiction director opened up about how Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions he said hurt the Wachowski saga as a whole:
“There was a time when I would have considered Matrix my number 2 after Battle Royale. they ruined the mythology for me and took the Matrix down my list, frankly (…), they didn’t annihilate it entirely.”
Warner Bros.
Tarantino therefore still saves the first Matrix a little despite having visibly hated its sequels, which in his eyes reduced the impact of the original film. As for his opinion on Matrix Resurrections, he has not (yet) shared it.
Tarantino was never a big fan of sequels. His filmography bears witness to this, since he always wrote original screenplays that ended once the feature film was finished. That being said, there is still a “tarantinesque” connected universe since fictitious marks and more or less direct winks link his films with each other.