Calling The Matrix a staple of the sci-fi genre would be the very definition of an understatement. Upon its release in the spring of 1999, this highly ambitious sci-fi action flick directed by sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski immediately became one of the most iconic films of its time. Not only was it a massive critical and commercial success, earning over $466 million worldwide, much critical acclaim, and four Oscars, but it also inspired numerous films that would come after it with its groundbreaking visual effects and extensive use of wire-fu stunt choreography. It would then pave the way for a wide array of media in 2003 to turn it into a full-blown franchise, including two theatrically released sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. And while neither film was as necessarily well-received as the original, they did their job in helping to maintain the franchise’s strong position within the pop cultural zeitgeist in the early 2000s. However, following their release, that was mostly it for the franchise as far as theatrical releases were concerned. Lana and Lilly promptly moved on to other projects and repeatedly rejected ideas for follow-ups to the point where Warner Bros. brought in screenwriter Zak Penn to develop a potential prequel or sequel without them. Ultimately, though, Lana Wachowski returned to the franchise in 2019 as the prospect of bringing back main protagonists Neo and Trinity, who had both died in Revolutions, allowed her a chance to cope with the recent loss of her and Lilly’s parents and a close friend. And while the loss of their parents was the reason Lilly Wachowski didn’t return, instead opting to take a hiatus from the film industry, Lana’s return to the franchise that made her and her sister some of the most famous filmmakers around provides us with an emotionally poignant, visually stunning, and very much self-aware sequel.
Despite all the success that he’s achieved thanks to his
greatest creation, a trilogy of games known as The Matrix, video game
designer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) has recently been struggling to cope with
the dreams that he’s been having that suggest that his reality isn’t what it
seems. And while his therapist (Neil Patrick Harris) attempts to help him by prescribing
him blue pills, the situation only proceeds to get more complicated with each
passing day, especially whenever Thomas crosses paths with a married woman
named Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), whom he seems to have some sort of unclear
history with. It is only through interactions with a woman named Bugs (Jessica
Henwick) and her AI acquaintance Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) that Thomas takes
the figurative and literal red pill and finally remembers who he truly is; the
mythical heroic figure known as Neo AKA ‘The One’. It has been more than 60
years since Neo was able to successfully save humanity from the machines that
had turned the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland by harvesting humans for
energy while keeping them locked within a virtual world known as the Matrix.
And while said victory had originally thought to have come at the cost of Neo’s
life, it is revealed that the machines have resurrected not only him but also
the love of his life Trinity… who now lives within the Matrix as Tiffany. Thus,
when Neo learns that he and Trinity were vital to the Matrix’s current operation
and that his awakening has now put her in danger of being killed by a system
reboot, Neo joins forces with Bugs and the crew of her ship, the Mnemosyne,
to rescue Trinity before that can happen.
With The Matrix Resurrections, Lana Wachowski and
co-writers David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hermon craft a story that’s very much
self-aware of its status as not only the fourth installment of a well-established
franchise but also as a follow-up released several years after what was initially
perceived to be the franchise’s finale. As such, this film is full of meta-commentary on sequels and the process of rehashing old franchises, and while
said commentary may get a bit over-the-top at times in the ways that have made
some Wachowski films rather infamous, the writers do an excellent job when it
comes to ‘how’ they go about continuing the franchise’s plot. In other words,
instead of just making your standard ‘legacy sequel’ that sets up a new ‘human
vs. machine’ conflict with new characters mixed in with the older characters, The
Matrix Resurrections is, simply put, a story about Neo and Trinity, the
franchise’s definitive couple, reuniting with each other. As I alluded to
earlier, this was the exact reason why Lana Wachowski ended up returning to the
franchise after all this time, and because of this act of unabashed wish fulfillment,
The Matrix Resurrections has what is easily the best emotional hook out
of any installment of the franchise. And overall, I’d say that this helps the
film overcome the fact that, admittedly, it doesn’t boast the same kind of brilliantly
choreographed action sequences that the original trilogy had, especially since
this is more of a story-driven plot than an action-driven one.
As it has often been with the Matrix films, The
Matrix Resurrections largely revolves around the lead duo of Neo and
Trinity, and Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss slip back into their iconic roles
with ease. Admittedly, Trinity’s role in the film isn’t as big as Neo’s since
the whole plot revolves around the process of rescuing her from the Matrix, but
without spoiling anything, the route that they take with her character at the
end of it all is one that I personally think longtime fans of the franchise will
probably find incredibly satisfying. As for the other major characters in this
film, they very much fall in line with what I noted earlier about ‘legacy’
sequels that combine new characters with the returning ones. Series regulars
such as Jada Pinkett Smith’s no-nonsense captain turned resistance leader Niobe
and Lambert Wilson’s infamously snooty Merovingian are largely relegated to
supporting/cameo roles while more time is spent with newer characters such as Bugs
and the crew of her ship, the Mnemosyne. Sure, most of the ship’s crew
members don’t get a lot to work with but Jessica Henwick does headline this new
group of characters quite nicely as she adopts the kind of ‘audience surrogate’
role that Neo had in the first film. Apart from all that, arguably the most notable
development with this cast was the recasting of two significant roles; Yahya
Abdul-Mateen II as an A.I. version of Morpheus (who’s established to have died
prior to the events of this film) and Jonathan Groff as the reincarnation of
Neo’s arch-nemesis, Smith. Neither of these two admittedly factor into the film’s
proceedings as much as you’d think, but at the very least, they both do a solid
job following in the footsteps of their respective predecessors, Laurence Fishburne
and Hugo Weaving.
As was the case with The Matrix Reloaded and The
Matrix Revolutions, it’s clear that The Matrix Resurrections has
been an incredibly polarizing release in the eyes of both critics and
audiences. In fact, one could say that, in this instance, it’s a lot like a
certain installment of another big sci-fi franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi,
since, from what I can gather, there’s been a lot of discussion about this not
being the kind of film that Matrix fans were expecting. Instead of being
an action-packed sci-fi extravaganza like the previous three films were, Resurrections
is a more introspective and personal story driven almost entirely by the
enduring romance between its two main protagonists… and yet, that’s why it
works so well. It may not possess the exact level of visual finesse as its
predecessors, but it more than makes up for that with its solidly engaging premise
and strong emotional poignancy. And because of how effective it is as a source
of meta-commentary on narrative sequels, it’s clear that Lana Wachowski went
above and beyond to make a Matrix film that was more than just your
standard cinematic sequel. That level of ambition has obviously defined much of
the Wachowskis’ filmography, and while not every project of theirs has been as
successful as The Matrix (longtime visitors of this site may recall that
I wasn’t too big on Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending), you can
never fault them for trying.
Rating: 5/5!
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