All I can remember from matrix 2 and 3 was that bizarre cave rave/dance party with Morpheus pumping up the crowd lol

Yeah, basically that scene and the horrible CGI that made fight scenes look like I was watching a video game.

Oh man 2000's CG where they animated people was ALWAYS bad, especially when they try to do closeups

Actually it's still really bad.. Even the biggest budget Marvel movies look really fake and cartoonish when they try to animate humans. Especially now that everything is digitally projected and very clear, you can see how fake it is.

If they can't get it right by now, I don't think they ever will. Maybe if it was today's animation quality with 2000's era film and projection it could work.

It's wild to me how you can watch a movie like Black Panther, and see how utterly terrible the CGI is, yet a movie like Jurassic Park (almost a 30 year old movie) can still hold up nowadays.

Goes to show you how using practical effects, combined with minor CGI will never truly age, and yet these CGI monstrosities we're creating nowadays will never last the test of time.

It's the same reason why people find the first Matrix as a far better in terms of its visuals, as opposed to the latter films.

The Mandalorian gave me hope that we may be finally getting away from these heavy CGI produced theatricals.

I believe with the older stuff they did a better job of knowing their limitations and working around them. ie having bad weather in parts of Jurassic Park, only using CGI to fill in fast paced, long distance shots in LotR.

Though I do love seeing some of the old movies that don't really stand up to being upscaled to HD too. Like in Resident Evil, those zombie dogs were suuuper creepy in SD, but now when you watch the BluRay it's quite obvious they just stuck some stuff onto a couple dogs :lol

I found it interesting that the last 2 matrix movies both came out in the same year. (2003)

^Bad move on the studio's end.

They tried to make it a "Matrix Year", which really fucked up the franchise.

No one needed to see 2 Matrix films 6 months in between one another.

I was trying to think of what I had watched recently where I was actually impressed with the CGI and I think it was The Mandalorian as you said Mike, the only thing that really caught my attention and occasionally you’d have those moments wondering if it was CGI or not

You were probably impressed because they aren't utilizing green screens in the way that Marvel movies do, and more practical effects.

They're utilizing virtual sets, with a massive LCD screen projecting the live background using Unreal Engine, it allows for more realistic lighting in the foreground.

https://www.insider.com/green-screen...alorian-2020-4

It's really neat stuff, makes a huge difference. The movie Oblivion used similar tech.