For a film franchise that broke all the rules and changed the entire entertainment industry, subsequent adventures down the rabbit hole would be welcomed, mind-bending yarns. But alas – system failure – The Matrix Resurrections sports no significant advancements in this upgraded sequel. We’ll get that out of the way up front as that is probably the worst part about plugging back into the beloved series. So dig in, this is going to take a while.
Often times, sequels are all about familiarity. There is a certain comfort when expectations are met. So while Lana Wachowski is never content to do the same thing, she wanted this entry to be different (as it was mainly a vehicle to help her through some personal grief). Yet, if that’s the case, it is infuriating how much this sequel holds onto the past. It acknowledges it, and pushes the story forward in parts, but it becomes more of the same and finishes like an unnecessary retread. Not exactly breaking the mold.
Further, if pushing boundaries (in the same universe) is important, this film doesn’t do anything with all that reverence for source material. It feels like a fan film sporting cheap cosplay. Set designs are underwhelming, acting is mediocre, and many seemingly important action sequences are at the level of a decent TV show climax. In that respect, it almost feels like A Good Day to Die Hard which was, apparently, an entirely different movie until someone had the idea to shoehorn Bruce Willis in it and force it to be a Die Hard sequel. Forget red or blue pills, this calls for an antacid.
For those who need a slight refresher, the “Matrix” we got to know was completely destroyed and its code was upgraded/overhauled by the time the credits of Revolutions rolled. So one can accept that the rules of the new digital prison have been rewritten and this is an all-new universe. Right? Well, kind of. So then, deja-vu? Well, kind of.
Like all directors, Lana had to pick a lane, but she didn’t. When executing ideas, she should have chosen “or”, not “and” so all that excess really bogs things down. It’s not a breathtaking revival – a second coming if you will – it’s rather trivial and at times very, very goofy (cast and plot). What is nice are the ties to the resonant themes like free will vs. destiny. But all other intelligent code has been deleted.
The original cast looks out of place as they are faced with a world they don’t understand (and that’s the point!), but it is more smug than “The Architect” and somehow feels like pandering. To gain new, possibly younger fans, a lot of good things were jettisoned from the intellectual foundation the series is built on. Translation: things are really dumbed down. Is this what cinema is these days? Is this holding a mirror to modern audiences or still trying to thumb their nose at the establishment? IDK, but it’s surprising they didn’t call this The M4trix.
In the last 10 years, the best sequels (in our eyes) have been The Force Awakens and Creed. Why? Well, they succeed, in part, because they are a thinly-veiled remake of the landmark films that spawned them. There’s that familiarity again. But they also succeed in passing the torch, and the reverence for the original players allows them to take a side step and allow younger/newer characters to shine. But those films feel like substantive narratives derived from quality source material. The Matrix Resurrections feels rushed, convoluted and incomprehensible. “Swarm mode is sick fun.” Yeah, that’s a line in this movie. The trailer is actually quite thrilling, and somehow that’s not what we got.
It really feels like the writing team of Wachowski, Mitchell and Hemon leaned too deep into Cameron territory (where T2 was his chance to do the first film over again but with bigger ideas, budget and scope) which is not a bad move, but Resurrections does not make its agenda clear. That is bad. Moreover, we don’t know who we’re supposed to root for. By the end, it crams a new hero down our throat and that comes across cheap. At best, you could call this effort “reheated”. The side characters (new, re-introduced and reinvented) lack weight, purpose and, honestly, interest. So Neo and Trinity have to do all the heavy lifting.
Slight spoiler here, but it would be perfectly fine to make Trinity the hero (in this case anyone other than original players carrying the series forward would have really rung false), and that would be a fantastic film. Further, I’m happy to see a female-forward film (a la Cameron and Miyazaki), but it feels like an audible in the third act that doesn’t make it over the goal line. And that’s the saddest part. Why resurrect anyone if they don’t perform miracles worthy of having them back in our presence?
Now would I want to watch it again? Yes. Yes, I would and there are some solid ideas and things that do work well. For starters, Neo’s re-involvement is a bit of a shock, but it works. He exists in this world which is reimagined like a hybrid of Inception and Galaxy Quest: a meta, heady, self-referential landscape that is also just shy of satire. Mr. Anderson is a video game designer who created the wildly popular Matrix series (games, not films). In a post-Matrix world, he’s a digital God but only from an entertainment standpoint; he’s a personality, not a deity. That’s pretty clever, however it’s just a shame we lose the sophistication of Plato for a fast-food level of story that has a laugh at its expense.
Next, we see the advancement of the machine world and how they have fared in the 60 years since the purge. There’s also a bit of a connection to elements in one sequence from The Animatrix (Matriculated) which relates to the machines and that plot thread is a nice touch. Also, while we will go to bat for Don Davis, this new score is surprising. Gone are the post modern and minimal elements and Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer’s adrenaline-fueled soundtrack comes out swinging. At times, it’s very catch, and matches the heightened beats of the story so well. It’s a departure from the tone of the other films, but again that’s not bad either.
RULING:
In the end, thinking about it for days now, this is a big let down. The feeling one is likely to be left with is akin to a parent whose child continually makes poor decisions: “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.” In another life, maybe this could have been a hit TV series (it feels like it at times), but at 2 hours and 28 minutes this is so long in the tooth, all the while telling a familiar tale, its ho-hum finish is kind of insulting for the time spent on the ride. In the end, for all the good in the series – films, video games, anime – this is one franchise that did not need to be resurrected.
