Film: The Matrix Resurrections

 

GENRE: Sci-Fi Action
RATING: R for violence and some language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 28 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Keanu Reeves (John Wick, Speed, Point Break, Bill & Ted)
Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones, Memento); Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist)
DIRECTOR: Lana Wachowski (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas, Speed Racer)
WRITERS: Wachowski (The Matrix films, Jupiter Ascending, Bound)
David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas-novel); Aleksandar Hemon (newcomer)
PLOT: Is Neo back in The Matrix as Thomas Anderson again? Which reality is he in? Let’s follow that white rabbit again.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: Expectations tempered as I disliked the sequels.

STORY STUFF: Better than I thought it would be but not as great as it could have been. The film is slick and does a great job with the ‘history repeating itself’ stuff. The variations are welcome in my opinion and there are some great callbacks and some meta comments. I thought I only had to re-watch the first one (which I did) but apparently, it references the other two sub-par sequels as well. If you haven’t seen at least the first one, you’d best avoid this film as you’ll be hella confused. What I hated about the sequels it they got too involved with Zion and too many supporting characters. This film runs into the same problem. When it’s focused on the core group with Neo and Trinity, it’s pretty awesome. As soon as they introduce a new city called Io and its inhabitants, I lost a bunch of interest. I only want to root for a very small group of well fleshed out characters. The story is full of action and great moments but it is also bogged down by lots of exposition. Luckily, they stick the landing.

ACTING STUFF: Reeves and Moss perfectly recapture their characters and keep me rooting for them. I liked the playfulness of Watchmen’s Yaha Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus more than the original (but I’m biased as I don’t like Laurence Fishburne much). Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) steals most of the scenes he’s in as does Jonathan Groff (Hamilton). I liked Henwick’s work as Bugs as the rest of crew aren’t given as much depth. Not a fan of Jada Pinkett Smith reviving her role but that’s more to do with the whole Zion/Io issue I have.

ARTISTIC STUFF: The visual effects and martial arts fighting is impressive but we’ve been exposed to it since 1999 so it’s not jaw dropping. There are some cool new effects though. The production design fits nicely with the previous film. When I wrote that they stuck the landing, I was referring to the visuals. The female led Brass Against’s cover of Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Wake Up’ makes a point but does not pack the same punch.   

VERDICT: Three and half stars out of five (almost four)
SEE IT IF: You enjoyed The Matrix and could tolerate its sequels.  
UPCOMING REVIEW: Don’t Look Up