When The Matrix Revolutions came out, and tanked, it was both a sputtering end to what could have been the next Star Wars and the start of the series going underground. Aside from an MMO and a comic or two here or there, The Matrix has sat in Warner’s vaults. If this Kia ad is any indication, it probably should have stayed there.
Go ahead, time how long you can get into this ad before you have to hit pause and remind yourself Laurence Fishburne has many other roles that give him far more dignity. I made it approximately three seconds.
Yeesh, Morpheus? A valet? This ad goes from lazy to schizophrenic about halfway through, when Laurence Fishburne starts lip-synching to opera for no reason and it starts throwing Matrix quasi-references at you thick and fast, like this one:
Come on, you couldn’t hire some better agents? Or at least not have them joking at a restaurant before they get the word? True, they probably couldn’t afford Hugo Weaving or Carrie-Anne Moss, but Robert Taylor isn’t THAT busy with Longmire, you probably could have landed a cameo. Not even Family Guy is this lazy with the pop culture references, and at this point the writer’s room is basically seeing how far they can push it before Fox gives up and cancels them again.
The problem is that this is almost a good idea. If it had been a little tighter in the execution, or if somebody knew a little more about the franchise, this could have been a funny ad. Instead it’s mostly a reminder that The Matrix is probably still trying to pay off what Warners put into the budget, and that sometimes, even with millions of dollars, ad companies can still fumble the ball.
But, hey, Laurence seems to be enjoying himself. So there’s that.