You can now stream a sci-fi western on Amazon Prime Video that Will Smith still regrets today. He should have made The Matrix instead
Kenneth Branagh in overacting mode, plus a charismatic buddy duo and a giant robo-spider in the Wild West. When I saw Wild Wild West in the cinema in 1999, my youthful soul succumbed to the charm of the endlessly exaggerated science fiction western. But I was quite alone in this. Because the film by Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld was an unparalleled financial failure, even though Independence Day star Will Smith played the lead role
The actor still regards Wild Wild West as a “thorn in his flesh” and one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
Will Smith turned down Matrix and shot a flop
In any case, Smith can laugh again about his career decisions. In a 2021 video, he explained the background to his decision not to make the later classic Matrix and to make Wild Wild West. He felt that the concept of The Matrix was simply too abstract. Or at least more abstract than a steampunk western directed by his Men in Black director. At the time, he also declared:
I would go back to Wild Wild West and I would say, ‘Asshole, why didn’t you make Matrix?
In Wild Wild West, Smith doesn’t play a chosen one, but a top agent in the USA in 1869, who, together with a dissimilar colleague (Kevin Kline), is tasked with finding out why the best scientists in the United States are disappearing one by one. Behind it all is a Southern millionaire (Kenneth Branagh), who lost several limbs and organs in the Civil War and had them mechanically replaced. This is also how the robo-spider comes into play
How to watch the sci-fi western
Whoever wants to watch Wild Wild West should sweep their pretensions under the carpet and embark on a journey to a foreign era – not the 1860s, but the 1990s, when the blockbuster business burned money with some complete absence of sense and reason.
Wild Wild Wild West has recently been added to the Amazon Prime Video catalog. Alternatively, you can stream the movie in the Sky WOW flat rate
