THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS:
FOURTH INSTALLMENT GETS META AND A LITTLE MESSY BUT WILL LIKELY MAKE FANS OF THE LONG-RUNNING FILM SERIES HAPPY!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
The gateway to the Matrix has been reopened in The Matrix Resurrections, the highly anticipated fourth installment of the Matrix franchise and follow-up to 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions. This marks the first Matrix film not to be directed by both of The Wachowskis with Lana Wachowski (Bound, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas) helming the entire project.
When the original Matrix came out in 1999, it was a huge phenomenon and a gamechanger in not just the action movie genre, but the motion picture industry as a whole. The film had groundbreaking special effects (Many of which still hold up today), exhilarating action sequences, and a thought-provoking narrative that proved action movies could be so much more than just running, shooting, car chases, and things blowing up.
Because of its success, the film spawned two back-to-back sequels both released in 2003, The Matrix Reloadedand The Matrix Revolutions, which had a lot of potential, but sadly fell short of people’s expectations. They still had spectacular action scenes and dabbled into some interesting ideas, unfortunately, it resulted in a very disappointing conclusion to The Matrix trilogy…or so we thought.
That’s where The Matrix Resurrections comes in with Keanu Reeves (Bill & Ted trilogy, Speed, John Wicktrilogy) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Memento, Chocolat, Jessica Jones) reprising their roles as Thomas Anderson/Neo and Trinity, which seemed to have come out of nowhere and was hyped once the news broke out that a fourth film was being made. I was excited to see a new Matrix film in theaters (Though, it is also available on HBO Max if one desires!) but I also expressed some concern, mostly because of the subtitle “Resurrections” which is such a clichéd sequel title and usually not a good sign when it comes to franchises (Remember Alien: Resurrection?).
Upon seeing it, I can say about the first half of this movie is great and they even play around with very meta and self-aware material that cleverly hints whether or not the events of the previous films actually happened and was almost like a Matrix version of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which I found to be a lot more fascinating than whatever the previous sequels tried to do, but then the rest of the film is just kind of okay.
The Matrix Resurrections is an improvement over the last film, and I like the basic setup of this movie a lot, but somewhere in the middle it becomes overly complicated with a ton of exposition being thrown at you and a few really stupid moments, but the acting is solid and the ideas it explores are interesting to see unfold, even if they don’t quite follow through with them.
The film follows Mr. Anderson AKA Neo, now working as a successful video game developer and creator of games based on his dreams in the Matrix. However, when he runs into a woman named Tiffany at a coffee shop one day, who bears a striking resemblance to Trinity, Neo starts having trouble separating dreams from reality and must return to the Matrix in order to determine whether his life is a physical or mental construct, but a lot has changed since his last venture into the Matrix.
The film also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Candyman (2021)) replacing Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Marvel Television Universe) as Bugs, Jonathan Groff (Taking Woodstock, Frozen franchise, Hamilton) replacing Hugo Weaving as Smith, Neil Patrick Harris (Harold & Kumar trilogy, How I Met Your Mother, A Series of Unfortunate Events) as The Analyst, Priyanka Chopra (We Can Be Heroes, Citadel, Cowboy Ninja Viking) as Sati, Jada Pinkett Smith (Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, The Nutty Professor (1996), Princess Mononoke) reprising her role as Niobe, and Lambert Wilson (Timeline, Sahara, Ernest & Celestine) reprising his role as The Merovingian.
Overall, The Matrix Resurrections is a flawed but fun blockbuster that has just enough intelligence to balance out its mindless action, even if it pales in comparison to the 1999 original. I got a huge kick out of the meta and self-aware commentary of the first half of the film which could have been a movie all its own, but that plot point gets abandoned around the time Neo goes back into the Matrix and it never gets brought up again which I was personally very disappointed by.
It’s the kind of film that starts off strong, but at the midway point it loses some of that momentum while gaining a little bit back during the climax. I just wished they followed through with these ingenious ideas or at the very least devoted an entire movie to them.
The action is very exhilarating like in all the other Matrix films, while the special effects on the other hand are a mixed bag. Some of them look quite good (Even though none of them are on par with the original) and other times they look like rejects from the Enter the Matrix video game or leftover effects from the Star Wars prequels.
Most of the acting is top-notch especially from Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinity who I think have improved greatly since the earlier films. Not saying they were bad in the previous movies, but some of their dialogue and line delivery felt a little wooden whereas here they add some more charisma and charm to their characters and it’s just so cool to see these two reprise their roles after so many years. Besides them, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jonathan Groff are decent replacements for Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving as Morpheus and Smith, though I personally prefer Fishburne and Weaving, Abdul-Mateen II and Groff put their all into it.
The pacing, plot structure, and runtime are what kills the movie for me a little, it commits the crime of telling rather than showing, which is something I gave a few Christopher Nolan screenplays a lot of flak for when done incorrectly. There is so much exposition-dumping in this film while plenty of it could have been shown visually instead of overflowing the audience with information that just isn’t that interesting!
The film feels very stitched together in editing, it feels like a movie that tries to do too much at once to the point where it becomes unfocused. With that said, I think there’s more good elements in this film than bad.
The Matrix Resurrections is a very divisive movie, but there’s enough in here to admire and experience in theaters…or maybe a second time in IMAX. It won’t win everyone over, but those nostalgic for the Matrix franchise will find things to admire about it.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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