Welcome back to THE MATRIX! MOST of your friends have returned, but most importantly, Neo and Trinity. Why, hello there old friends! You haven’t aged at all! You look fantastic! What have you been up to? What? You are back in The Matrix? Well, at least you are not dead.
So I just watched The Matrix Resurrections, and I’m left feeling… meh. Seeing I have not been to a theater for 2 years now, this is not a horrible response. Most movies at home are… meh. This is not to say that TM4 is a bad movie, I’m just not sure if it is good. Certainly I would have made different choices, but in my hands, it would have been total fan service, and with the recent nostalgia factor in movies, fan service is not necessarily a BAD thing.
We open the movie with Mr. Anderson (Neo) now living as a prolific game designer, who has created the old, but very successful game trilogy, The Matrix. But we soon learn that he had a mental breakdown, mixing reality and the fiction of his game, which has lead him into getting treatment from his therapist, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Mr. Anderson has a contentious relationship with his business partner (Jonathan Groff) which is why he cast his in the game as Agent Smith. This all makes sense to Mr. Anderson, but he constantly feels disconnected to his reality, and must take a blue pill everyday to cope.
He is eventually found by someone named Bugs, played by the fantastic Jessica Henwick, and is again asked to choose the red pill or the blue pill.
It is at this time that the audience is confused by a number of reveals, which touches back to the way we were all confused in the original. Unfortunately, it only TOUCHES on that feeling, but doesn’t pack the same punch. That being said, NOTHING can compare to that feeling we all had from the original.
There are certain things that totally work in this film. It answers some major questions left after TM3, including what the humans are up to now, what happened to Morphious and how are Neo and Trinity still alive.
However the problems, for me, outweigh the original idea for a fourth film. My major problem is the character of NEO. I loved is evolution of his character over 3 films, but this fourth film strips him of his journey, like a person coming out of a coma and learning to walk again. The best part of Neo is BAD ASS NEO! Not to say he is not bad ass in this movie, just not as bad ass as I want him to be.
Because this is non-spoiler, I won’t go too much more into this movie, but the stand-outs are definitely Jessica Henwick as BUGS and Jonathon Groff as the business partner/(spoiler.) There are some nice call backs to other characters from the first 3 as well as some cameos.
Now let me say something about the ending. It’s VERY WOKE 2021. I have seen some reviewers disagree with my on this, but hey, that’s just how it came off for me. It’s great that people has a different view, it’s an indicator of a good movie.
It was nice to revisit old friends, but TM4 is more of a nostalgic film than a good film. Revisiting old friends is nice, but after 20 years, I would have preferred a total fresh look reboot, more than a one-off.
And it seems like a one off, since the director said so,
During a recent interview with AP Entertainment, director Lana Wachowski was askied about The Matrix Resurrections being the start of a new trilogy, and after joking about deflecting the question to her producers, she simply said, “No.”
So gather the kids around, and enjoy this for Christmas. By New Years Eve, you’ll forget all about it, and slip back into The Matrix.
