A Review of Matrix Resurrections: The Sad, Confusing, and Cheap Knockoff of the Original
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW
Did the Matrix Trilogy need a sequel? No, it didn’t. Neo and Trinity died in the last movie. You could argue Neo’s death may not have been a real death, but Trinity’s certainly was. Having seen their deaths myself in the last movie, I struggled to guess how Lana Wachowski was going to resurrect them. In other words, my attitude toward this film is best described as weary.
Prequels and sequels are everywhere. Sometimes they are natural and thrilling continuation of our modern epics. They work because the story allows it. In other cases they are joyless cash grabs. From the first announcement of a Matrix sequel and the trailers that followed, I was deeply worried that Matrix Resurrections was the latter.
So here is what they came up with: the machines repaired and rebuilt Neo and Trinity, realizing their potential as a unique power source. It isn’t their physiology but their connection to one another, love. Combined that with Neo’s “Oneness” and you got an alternative means of running a matrix. The machines honored the truce for a while but eventually rebuilt the matrix. The humans have thrived and discovered some AIs still desire peace. The two coexist now trying to build together.
Sixty years have passed and a new hover ship and new crew find Neo and break him out. He learns of everything that has happened and learned—once again—he is the key. The machines, personified in the new matrix by Neil Patrick Harris, need him back to restore power. The humans want him to free Trinity and dismantle the new Matrix.
It’s like the first movie, except you know everything heading in this time. In fact, the movie goes full meta in one scene. When we meet the new Neo, he is a mentally unbalanced game developer. The machines gave him this identity and convinced him his memories of the past were really his idea for a video game. None if it is real, it’s just the story from his game. Neo’s partner calls him in to his office and informs him the company wants a sequel to the game trilogy he designed years ago. The company: Warner.
So there they were, two characters pointing out the silliness of a sequel to a finished trilogy. Neo is forced to do it due to contractual obligations, which is hysterical. “I thought they couldn’t do that,” Neo argues. “Yes they can,” his partner simply responds. That’s it. No further struggle needed. The corporate executives and their lawyers say you have to do it, so do it!
Did Lana say the same thing when Warner pitched the idea? Was it their idea or hers? Is this why only one Wachowski worked on this one?
It’s possible Lana and others wanted this scene to show that the producers were on the audience’s side. The scene seems to say, “hey, we know. This is a dumb idea, isn’t it? Totally corporate and stuff.” Except… you did make the movie. This is it. We are watching it. You made it and cashed the check. If you want to tell the audience “hey, I know this is a joyless cash grab,” that doesn’t change the fact you made a movie that is just a joyless cash grab.
Arsonists don’t get credit for admitting they’re arsonists and commenting on how awful arsonists are. They’re still arsonists. They still set shit on fire. They are still going to prison.
Watching the movie’s attempt at going meta fail miserably made me wonder if meta works in movies at all. After a couple Google searches, it became clear that it can but not often. It definitely didn’t work here and seems a poor choice for any speculative fiction movie. Reminding the audience they are watching a movie and commenting on the decision to make the movie annihilates the suspension of disbelief. It annihilates the basic foundation of what a spec fiction story needs.
One exception is Deadpool. There is no breaking of the fourth wall, like in Deadpool, but Matrix Resurrections gets pretty close. However, Deadpool is a unique comedy, with a comic book character who is meant as a parody of its genre. Matrix Resurrections is neither a comedy nor does it parody anything about cyberpunk, science fiction, or anything other than itself. The best movies that go meta are often a commentary on their genre like Scream or a commentary on film-making industry, like Tropic Thunder.
Notice a pattern? The movies are not only self-aware but are usually a parody or making a commentary on something beyond the movie itself. Most are comedies. If there was an attempt to parody The Matrix, or provide a commentary on the previous film trilogy, it failed. the movie isn’t a critique of the previous trilogy, it is just mocking itself. You could argue it is taking a swipe at Hollywood’s addiction to sequels, prequels, and reboots of existing properties but there’s nothing novel or clever about that. It didn’t work.
I focus on the meta aspect because the rest of the movie is undeniably inferior to the original. It has most of the exact same story beats as the first film. Only this time, you know it is coming, so there is no build up of tension or drama. Also, the execution of each plot point is inferior. The strange world-building rules around entering and exiting the matrix don’t make much sense. The seizure-invoking camera work and blurry gunfights and martial arts are a major downgrade from the original. The movie’s sad attempt to replace Lawrence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving stand out as downgrades as well.
I love Keanu Reeves but he is no longer a convincing kung fu master. It’s impressive that he can still do action movies at his age but Neo is not John Wick. Wick doesn’t fly or engage in gravity-defying hand-to-hand combat sequences. Carrie-Ann Moss can still command the screen but her kung fu days with Jedi-like athleticism are also behind her. The chemistry between the two is there but the writing did them no favors. The movie relies heavily on their connection from previous films, and just can’t seem to kindle something of its own.
As for the new characters, none get much opportunity to develop. Bugs, played by Jessica Henwick, is the new Morpheus/Trinity character, the freed mind searching for Neo. When she speaks to Neo, nearly all of it is exposition. Despite getting a large amount of screen time, there isn’t much the audience learns about her. While Henwick may be a decent actress, her performance in this movie is forgettable and nowhere near as compelling as Fishburne or Moss.
The movie tries to milk the nostalgia by resurrecting the protagonist and the love interest, centering the story on the two of them, rather than Neo simply being the One. A number of characters are resurrected with them, including Agent Smith, the Merovingnian, and Sati. Their presence in the movie felt unnatural, as if they were shoehorned in to score some fan service points.
The new Agent Smith was inferior in every way to Hugo Weaving’s antagonist. He’s not the antagonist anymore, at least not the main one. He is some kind of foil but really feels like a side quest to give Neo and the others something to fight for a couple scenes.
Then there is the action and special effects, which dominate the painfully long movie. The Matrix was revolutionary in its camera work and incredible CGI. Even 20+ years later, it holds up well. Side-by-side Matrix Resurrections, with access to 20 years of new development, refinement, and innovation, still manages to look inferior.
There were also a few deus ex machina moments:
Bugs and new Morpheus know all about how Neo met old Morpheus and Trinity, down to the rabbit tattoo
Agents Smith remembers who he is and who Neo is by picking up a gun
Sati’s Dad created the new heavily-guarded cradles for Neo and Trinity, and knows of a backdoor to get them in to save Trinity
Agent Smith is not affected when the Analysts slows time in the new Matrix
Trinity miraculously remembers who she is and rejects her new comfortable life when her fake husband Chad is a little too pushy, is then able to cause scream explosion somehow
Trinity has One powers that save them in the end
There’s no reason to go on. The movie is an abysmal failure for all the reasons above and more. Critic reviews, audience reviews, and box office performance all point to this being one of the greatest film disasters of all time. It will likely lose Warner Brothers hundreds of millions of dollars. What is shocking is that it was entirely foreseeable. It is obviously inferior to the original film in every way. How did no one at the studio recognize that and put the brakes on the project?
That is a question for the next post.