The Matrix Resurrections reminds me of that popular meme of a horse drawing that starts off great but gets progressively worse. It starts off with a clever subversion about the nature of sequels and how they are soulless cash grabs that exist only because of corporate mandate. Halfway through the runtime, however, it becomes the movie it was making fun of only minutes before.
Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is an award-winning game developer who designed the Matrix trilogy of games. He is informed by his boss, Smith (Jonathan Groff) that Warner Bros. is going to develop a sequel, with or without Thomas. As he goes through the monotony of brainstorming sessions with his team, he also wonders about the connection he has with a woman he sees at a coffee shop, Tiffany (Carrie Anne-Moss). Eventually, he comes face to face with a program he designed for a ‘modal’ based on his old code from the Matrix video games, and he is pulled into a desperate struggle he’s not sure is real or a product of his imagination.
If that sounds like an intriguing premise, then imagine the disappointment of seeing it being squandered for a lackluster foray into the Matrix as Neo (the true identity of Thomas Anderson) focuses only on rescuing Trinity instead of focusing on the needs of the human race.
The action scenes are poorly shot, lacking the wide cinematography of the original trilogy as well as the choreography.
Neo is mostly reduced to doing ‘force pushes’ as he holds up his hands to stop bullets. We get two new characters in the human resistance, Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II)- and yes, he’s a new version of that Morpheus- but the rest are mostly nameless and also somehow immune to injury or death. Along with Morpheus, we also get a recast of Smith. But these characters struggle to be their own persons, and they would have probably benefited by being re-imagined as entirely original characters.
One thing I appreciated about the movie was how it explained that Neo’s actions weren’t entirely meaningless.
He did bring about peace between humans and the machines, and it’s just a product of time and other obstacles that the machines ended up going to war against each other and uploading a new version of the Matrix. The new lore about humans and machines working together also feels like a meaningful step forward, as compared to the Star Wars sequel trilogy where everything is just a retread of the original trilogy.
The main antagonist of the film is an interesting choice, but he is a bit too smug and not as imposing as the Architect or as menacing as Smith. Speaking of which, Smith’s role in this movie is so short that he may as well have been removed entirely.
The Matrix Resurrections is a very flawed film that probably will not stand the test of time.
If there are going to be even more sequels after this, then I only hope they are at least marginally better than this one. Then again, for a franchise that only had one pretty good movie, maybe it’s time to call it quits before things get even worse.