The reverse of that post I’ve made a week ago…
Rules: pick one movie or series and explain why you actually enjoyed it despite the criticism.
For me: The JJ Abrams Star Trek movies, by far the best ST stuff ever made, I couldn’t take seriously the original universe with the dated effects and stiff acting, same goes for NG… These movies did ST actually great looking and much more believable, not just the effects.
I mean, 2 and 3 are also largely a deconstruction of 1. The Matrix is an incredibly well made movie with really stupid themes. 2 and 3 do an excellent job highlighting why stuff like “Neo is the Chosen One” is fundamentally bad storytelling, but there were a lot of audiences who loved The Matrix fully and completely. I can understand why those people were disappointed when 2 and 3 weren’t just more senseless violence in black trenchcoats, but ultimately the series wasn’t made for them.
IIRC, 2 and 3 were meant to be one film, but it got split due to studio meddling. I wonder if there is a mega-cut adapting the whole trilogy into a single runtime.