Rating: 6.8
The Matrix Resurrections was an extremely frustrating, boring, bland and even generic action movie. It somehow lost everything that made The Matrix so special, and in my opinion doesn’t even live up to the sequels. Its so peculiar to experience; it has moments that are quite interesting but ultimately bogged down by being in a terrible movie. Where The Matrix had revolutionary action and philosophical undertones, this had none of that. The action was quite lacklustre, some of it was okay but none of it was worthy of the Matrix name. It even felt quite mindless, it didn’t have any real philosophical questions to ponder in it; just felt like a jumble of ideas thrown onto the screen. It quite literally made me laugh and roll my eyes multiple times (when I wasn’t supposed to), and even had the audacity to retcon and revise the original movies, to the point it didn’t even feel like they mattered. It felt somewhat like “Terminator: Dark Fate” in how it really betrayed the movies that came before it. I felt like there was potential at the start but as it went along it got progressively worse. The trailer is truly the best way to experience this movie.
This really did feel like it was a reluctant sequel. You can tell through the meta commentary this movie has (and there is a lot of it) that Lana Wachowski did not want to make this movie. There is lots of dialogue about how no one wants to return to the Matrix, and strong commentary that really attacks the culture of Hollywood studios’ over-reliance on reboots and sequels. There’s even a line about how the studio will make a 4th Matrix with or without Thomas Anderson, which is exactly what WB did to Lana Wachowski. It felt like a bit of a middle finger to Hollywood; accepting the job and making this very mediocre at best movie with meta commentary attacking them. I enjoyed the meta pieces of the film and thought they were quite clever, but I will admit they took me out of the film at many points. It also led to moments that felt cheapened by nostalgia or meta narrative, such as the use of footage from the original films. It was such a mistake to intercut this footage as it was jarring to the point of stupidity and even made new cast members really seem terrible.
I actually really liked Neil Patrick Harris and Jonathan Groff in the film! They were definitely miscast but I still felt they popped where the others didn’t. Neil Patrick Harris was just so much fun to watch onscreen, and while Groff does a terrible Hugo Weaving impression, he is pretty good when he does his own thing and really sells the connection between Neo and Smith where Weaving didn’t. Yahya Abdul-Mateen was fine as new Morpheus, but he can’t compare to Lawrence Fishburne who I really missed. It was interesting what they tried to do with the character, but it really didn’t work for me. It was nice to see Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss in their classic roles, but it doesn’t feel like they had anything new to offer here. Carrie Anne-Moss was also barely in the movie, but did have a great monologue. Neil Patrick Harris also had a good one too, in one of my favourite moments in the movie.
Aside from these interesting monologues the dialogue felt like it was written by a five year old. Same goes for the story. It has some good ideas but they just never went anywhere with it. The movie tried for high concept without bothering to layer in logic. I did like what they did with Neo at the start of the movie, but it just completely revised what the end of the 3rd film meant. This movie also had much lower stakes and just didn’t feel as interesting, it was more about the relationship between Neo and Trinity rather than saving humanity; it doesn’t play like the 4th film in a franchise. There also seemed to be so many WTF moments where it was hard to tell why/what was happening, especially in the last 30 minutes. It also didn’t feel like much happened in the film overall.
This movie just felt cheap. It didn’t feel like a Matrix movie to me and was even visually boring. There were a few cool shots but nothing like in the first movie. It really had nothing new to offer, and felt like a rehash of the first at best. The most interesting parts were the meta narrative, but ultimately the movie is nothing special. I didn’t hate it, there were some good moments, but they just didn’t amount to anything good; I just didn’t like it as a whole, but really liked some scenes. It just wasn’t good. If you like the Matrix sequels I’d check it out, but it is quite disappointing when compared to the groundbreaking original film and feels so disconnected with what made it special. I’ve heard some people think its great though… so maybe you’ll like it! It just wasn’t for me.
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IMDb Rating: 5.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%
RT Audience Score: 63%
Metacritic Score: 64
CinemaScore: B-
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Warner Bros
Directed by Lana Wachowski
Written by Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell & Aleksander Hemon
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne-Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Jada Pinkett Smith, Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Runtime: 2hr 28min
Rating: 14A
Action, Sci-Fi
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To find out if his reality is a physical or mental construct, Mr. Anderson, aka Neo, will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more. If he's learned anything, it's that choice, while an illusion, is still the only way out of -- or into -- the Matrix. Neo already knows what he has to do, but what he doesn't yet know is that the Matrix is stronger, more secure and far more dangerous than ever before.
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Fun Fact: Lawrence Fishburne told to Collider movie news that he was not in this next Matrix movie. When questioned, he replied that someone would have to ask Lana Wachowski why, because he didn't have an answer for that.
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