“The Matrix Resurrections” Review

By Quinn Marcus

Oh god, here it comes, the ultimate confession: alright, I’d never seen The Matrix until a few nights ago. I know, I know, it’s an absolute disgrace, but thank god I watched it in an attempt to have some sort of preparation for Resurrections because I have a feeling my reaction would have been very different had I not seen the original. Anyway, I thought that The Matrix was a masterpiece, a maximalist, grandeur film that dares to question reality and what we perceive as being inherently real under universal criteria. It was thought-provoking, thrilling, and so genuinely brilliant, I’d never seen anything like it in my life, and similar to films such as Inception, I could tell why it revolutionized what blockbuster filmmaking could be. So, I’ve been seeing lots of mixed reactions to The Matrix Resurrections lately from fans, critics, audiences, you name it. The film has a love it or hate it thing going on at the moment, and although I haven’t seen the sequels that came before this, I had a blast with The Matrix Resurrections.

Conceptually, the film is quite fascinating, making fun of nostalgia as much as it relies upon it, and boasting a commentary on how the growth of the digital age has affected humanity over time, whilst also leaning further into the concept of free will as explored by the original film. All of this is very interesting stuff, unfortunately, it does lead me to the biggest gripe I have with this film, and that is the script. Where The Matrix had so many quotable, poetic lines intertwined into a highly allegorical story, Ressurections’ screenplay was not nearly as ambitious nor as streamlined. At times, the script almost felt like an MCU script, packed with quirky, witty humor, and inspirational lines we’ve heard a million times before. Dialogue such as “she believed in me, but now it’s my turn to believe in her” is nice, but where hasn’t that line been spoken before? It does lack a significant amount of the original’s magnificence, and the pacing was a little off and on for me, especially during a relatively slow second act, but the fact that a big, large budget blockbuster is even remotely expressing themes and ideas such as those I mentioned is amazing.

Frankly, at the end of the day, The Matrix Resurrections is still bolder than the majority of action flicks released onto the big screen today. No, it isn’t Blade Runner 2049 or Interstellar, but I’d still place it among the few action films that dare to be truly epic. My biggest worry walking in was that the film was going to have a hard time being original, as it is essentially a return journey for Neo, rediscovering old memories and people, but the storyline was surprisingly clever in avoiding feeling too familiar whilst provoking a soft sense of deja vu for the viewer, something I greatly appreciated. It does rely on flashbacks to the original trilogy often, and I think they were largely unnecessary, not an issue, just kind of tagged on, especially if Lana Wachowski was going for poking at the back of the audiences’ memories. I felt as though she made her point, and constantly showing us footage we’ve seen before wasn’t trusting enough of the audience, but it didn’t take away from the experience for me, and that’s the most important thing.

I thought I was going to have a rough time getting past the removal of the classic look of the original Matrix movies, the awesome greenish-black tint, but the modern look of Resurrections impressed me. The cinematography by John Toll and Daniele Massaccesi was often gorgeous, and seeing the visual effects from the original through a modern-day lens was dope to witness. There’s this sequence at the very beginning which was easily a standout, where the opening scene from The Matrix was recreated for our new characters to interact with, and some of the action in there was mind-boggling, trippy, and intense, I loved it so much. One thing that was on par with the original was the soundtrack composed by Tom Tykwer and Johnny Klimek, the musical score was phenomenal, and contributed to the greatest scenes of the film. The action sequences are once again directed excellently, not as memorable or spellbinding as the original, but Lana Wachowski did a damn good job with these scenes, and the unique visual style just enhanced it even more.

The cast was simply solid, none of the performances particularly wowed me, and Keanu's character doesn't have a large variety of things to say, all of his dialogue was usually one-word responses or a question, but I could tell actors like Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Morpheus) and Jonathan Groff (Agent Smith) were having a great time with their roles, both of these guys were perfect choices for this movie. Hell, even Neil Patrick Harris was fantastic as Neo’s therapist and has this beautifully crafted section with Keanu involving slow-motion that worked flawlessly, I didn’t see that coming. Carrie-Anne Moss returns as Trinity and was not given quite as much screen time as I expected her to have, but the chemistry between her and Keanu brought out the best of their performances. I loved how the film explores this idea that Trinity and Neo’s bond is a force of its own, and it leads to a fittingly badass final battle that had some terrific moments shared between the two. Look, everything about this movie (mostly) works. It’s a step down from the film that started it all, and it’s not going to please everyone, but don’t take this review as a guarantee that you’ll like it, I can’t promise that; what I can say is that for the fourth sequel in a franchise, The Matrix Resurrections surprised me on a number of levels, and I hope that you find some level of enjoyment out of it.