The Matrix Resurrections

Scott Hardie: Clearly Warner Brothers wants to get another franchise going, and they're willing to throw as much money as necessary at folks like Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, who could not have been thrilled to go through the months of training and another physically demanding shoot. By all accounts, Lana Wachowski was essentially told, "We're doing this with or without you," and in that position I think I'd have made like Lilly Wachowski and stayed out of it. There seems like no need for this to exist and no story worth telling here, even in an America that has become more open to explicitly trans stories than in 1999. But that's just the vibe I get from the project now, without seeing it. Once upon a time I'd have done anything to see another Matrix film, but this one looks sadly quite skippable. :-( − December 26, 2021 • more by Scott

Scott Hardie: And not one hour after I wrote that did Kelly walk into the room and insist that we watch this. Weird timing. :-) − December 27, 2021 • more by Scott

Scott Hardie: What didn't work for me:

• The creepy, uncanny-valley CGI that aged Jada Pinkett-Smith.

• The return of the frustratingly tedious Agent Smith. He was such a slick and compelling villain in the first film, but he increasingly became the most annoying thing about the early sequels, endlessly bloviating without making a point and wasting countless minutes as a side distraction while the movies strained to carry on without him. Once again, he turned up here to do much of the same. When it became known that Hugo Weaving had a scheduling conflict, they should have simply cut the character entirely.

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is fine, and I appreciated how his (rushed) character arc in the prologue did some necessary work to establish that this sequel would be a different take on familiar material, but come on, nobody can replace the great Laurence "don't call me Larry" Fishburne.

• Keanu's long hair frequently covering his eyes. I just have trouble buying him in the action scenes when he can't see what he's doing. Same goes for the parts of John Wick that I've seen.

What I liked:

• Jessica Henwick is tailor-made for this, isn't she? She's the ideal Wachowski avatar in the tradition of Bae Doona, but with the film & TV resume to impress the studio and pull off complicated action stunts. I just wish she'd been given more to do; she's by far the best of the new characters, and presumably the one on whose shoulders any further sequels would rest. (Those pink pants can go, however.)

• Some belated sequels ignore all earlier sequels and draw inspiration solely from the original hit (ahem), so I was pleased that this treated all three prior Matrix films and The Animatrix as roughly equally important, with several references to The Matrix Online too. The Wachowskis didn't always have perfect taste in world-building but I appreciate Lana's commitment to sticking to what they made.

• Evie said she grew tired of the constant callbacks to the earlier films, but I grew to appreciate them, because the first act made them part and parcel of the experience here. Like the similarly meta Scream sequels, this one openly acknowledges that it's a studio-mandated sequel to a beloved movie and has to hit the same beats, so having it show flashes of the original films whenever it imitates them felt like merely addressing the elephant in the room. At least the characters are as aware of the mimicry as we are.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − December 27, 2021 • more by Scott

Evie Totty: Yeah - more and more I keep feeling like I need to give it a rewatch. Perhaps my 4am, exhausted state wasn't the best idea. − December 27, 2021 • more by Evie

Samir Mehta: Scott, I am a bit like you. I adored the original trilogy. To me, they were actually meaningful. I am a very rare person who thinks the last one is the best. Because, for me, it wasn’t an action or adventure story but a spiritual one (the whole thing is deeply influenced by Buddhist and dharmic ideas).

All of this to ask this - should I skip this? Is it actually good or just fun? Fun I don’t need. − December 30, 2021 • more by Samir

Scott Hardie: Samir: I am not familiar enough with formalized concepts in philosophy or religion to evaluate how well this one dealt with any. A quick search of Wikipedia brings up ideas about the highest possible self and real truths beyond the physical realm, which, yes, are again themes in this sequel. I would say that this film is lowercase-s spiritual in that the first act deals with the soul-deadening feeling of modern life, a questioning of whether our accomplishments truly mean anything, and a weakening grip on reality. (The trailer captures a bit of this.) Then the plot kicks into gear and it settles into a more conventional sci-fi action film; it still briefly raises questions about topics like free will and the utility of war, but doesn't dwell on them.

The action film that it becomes is merely meh; I wouldn't recommend it on its own. So, I would say that this is one-third of an actually good movie. Whether that's enough for you is something you'll have to decide for yourself. I will add that you have appreciated Charlie Kaufman's work and other meta films in the past, so I think you'd get a kick out of that aspect of this film's first act too. I'll follow up with a second comment behind a spoiler warning... − December 30, 2021 • more by Scott

Scott Hardie: ...to add two more points:

1) Just like the original The Matrix, this ends abruptly, without answering many of the philosophical questions that it raised. So if the first one's incompleteness bothered you, factor that into your decision to watch.

2) If part of what you loved about The Matrix Revolutions was the meaningful sacrifices of Neo and Trinity, and it worries you to see them alive again in the advertising for this, I can say that this movie tries to have it both ways -- it tries to resurrect them for another adventure while still ensuring that their sacrifices meant something. I think it was mostly successful, but you might or might not agree.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − December 30, 2021 • more by Scott

Scott Hardie: Something has bugged me since I saw this: Neo doesn't feel at all like Neo. The Neo of the original film and especially the early sequels was serious, poised, confident, decisive, and completely devoted to his cause. He also had highly specific fashion sense. I get that quite a number has been done on the "Thomas Anderson" of this film at the start, but gradually he "wakes up" and remembers the entirety of the original trilogy and who he is... and yet he retains the confused, hesitant personality and the shaggy-dog look (despite Reeves being willing to shave for the ship-bound scenes). What gives? Reeves gets picked on for his acting sometimes, but he's a professional; he didn't simply "forget" how to act, so this had to be a deliberate creative choice. I just don't get it.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − January 7, 2022 • more by Scott

Evie Totty: Yes - it's been a common complaint. − January 7, 2022 • more by Evie

Scott Hardie: Samir, this scene demonstrates some of the fun that the movie has with being meta. That's Jonathan Groff replacing Hugo Weaving. − October 19, 2022 • more by Scott