The Matrix Resurrections (2021) review

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!

Baywatch (2017) review

Well, we’ve got another theatrical revamp of a classic TV series on our hands. In this instance, it’s an R-rated adaptation of the cult classic TV series about sexy lifeguards running in slow motion; Baywatch. Created by the trio of Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, Baywatch debuted in 1989 on NBC. It only lasted one season on the network but would see new life in syndication, ultimately ending at 11 seasons with a total of almost 250 episodes. The show, about a bunch of lifeguards who deal with all sorts of trouble, not just the stuff that happens on the beach, starred David Hasselhoff in the role of head lifeguard Mitch Buchannon. The show was also known for launching the career of Pamela Anderson, who starred in the role of lifeguard CJ Parker. Which brings us back to 2017 with this new adaptation that, as noted earlier, strives to be an R-rated action comedy. It certainly has some good people working on it; for one thing, it stars one of Hollywood’s most charismatic stars, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, in the role that Hasselhoff portrayed on TV. Add in other big names like Zac Efron and Priyanka Chopra and you have a promising ensemble cast. In the director’s chair is Seth Gordon, who’s had a solid career in the industry so far thanks to solid hits like his 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and one of the many surprise hits of 2011, Horrible Bosses. Seems like a solid assembly of cast and crew, right? Well, unfortunately, despite the best efforts of this film’s cast, this new adaptation of Baywatch is one of the most underwhelming comedies in recent memory.

On a sunny beach in Florida, Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne Johnson) runs the beach’s lifeguard division known as Baywatch alongside second-in-command Stephanie Holden (Ilfenesh Hadera) and veteran CJ Parker (Kelly Rohrbach). During their annual recruitment session, they end up bringing in three new recruits; Holden’s friend Summer Quinn (Alexandria Daddario), nerd Ronnie (Jon Bass), who has a crush on CJ, and former Olympic swimmer Matt Brody (Zac Efron), who won two gold medals but embarrassed himself in a team relay event. Despite Mitch’s insistence that Brody doesn’t have what it takes to be a Baywatch lifeguard, his superior, Captain Thorne (Rob Huebel), encourages him to bring Brody onto the team to help keep the program running, as the city’s been repeatedly cutting their funding. While this is going on, Mitch and crew start to find traces of drugs all over the beach. Things get even more complicated when the body of a city official winds up on the beach as well. Immediately, Mitch deduces that all the recent troubles on the beach are directly tied to businesswoman Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra), the new owner of the local nightclub. Thus, despite being constantly reminded by his superiors that this type of work is beyond his jurisdiction, Mitch leads Brody and the team on an investigation into Leeds’ operation.

Now, for the record, I have never watched a single episode of Baywatch prior to seeing this film. From what I’ve read, many feel that while the show was quite cheesy (we are, after all, talking about the show that’s perhaps best known for the scenes where the lifeguards run in slow-motion), it was still rather entertaining to watch despite this. As for this new take on the franchise, though, from the perspective of someone who’s generally unfamiliar with Baywatch, it doesn’t seem like this film represents its source material in a positive light. Again, from what I’ve read, the show, despite its cheesiness, played things straight despite its rather ludicrous plot of lifeguards delving into non-lifeguard situations. The film, though, strives to be a comedy, which is perfectly fine… except the jokes REALLY don’t hit here. I mean, the film isn’t completely humorless; there are a few chuckle-worthy moments here and there. But overall, in terms of humor, this has one of the worst hit-to-miss ratios that I’ve ever seen in a comedy. I wouldn’t say that this is because the film tries too hard to be an R-rated comedy, complete with numerous sex jokes as well as some jokes that poke fun at some of the show’s campier elements. In fact, I’d dare say that the film is quite tame compared to other hardcore R-rated comedies. At the end of the day, it’s just a mediocre screenplay. And as for the film’s other element taken from the show, the action, it’s not much better. I mean, the chase sequences are handled fine for the most part. The fight sequences, though, are another story, as those suffer from some very erratic editing.  

It’s a shame, really, that the film is severely lacking in humor because it comes at the expense of a solidly assembled ensemble cast. While it seems like everyone on the cast had a lot of fun making this film, most of them get stuck with mediocre material; not just in terms of humor, but also in terms of character development, which is practically non-existent save for Brody’s arc of trying to redeem himself after his colossal screw-up at the Olympics. And even then, the film’s handling of that plotline is iffy at best. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Zac Efron do have great camaraderie with each other and both have proven themselves to be great in other comedies… but here, neither of them get anything to work with. The same goes for Priyanka Chopra as the main villain, Victoria Leeds. Again, she’s clearly having a lot of fun playing a villainous character… and yet she doesn’t get anything to work with. This is the same situation for the other female leads in the film as well, like Alexandria Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach. They’re generally underutilized in favor of Mitch and Brody, who of course as I just noted earlier, don’t get much to work with either. Ultimately, the biggest standouts of the film end up being members of the supporting cast. Jon Bass does get a lot of the best moments in the film as the nerdy Ronnie, mainly through his attempts to flirt with CJ. General newcomer Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also gets some funny lines as Sgt. Ellerbee, who constantly reminds Mitch and the Baywatch crew that they’re not the police; they’re just lifeguards. 

  

Oh boy… this one was a major dud. It’s a shame, really, because they were really building this film up to be the big comedy hit of the summer. Just look at all the marketing that went into this. Unfortunately, though, the film ends up being a disastrous adaptation of a popular TV show. I honestly don’t know what went wrong here; it’s not really because of the film trying to be an R-rated take on Baywatch. In fact, the film doesn’t even really live up to what it wants to be, as it’s one of the tamest R-rated comedies in recent years. If they truly wanted to make it a ‘hard-R’ comedy, they should’ve just gone all the way with it. And as for the humor, most of the jokes ultimately land with a thud instead of a bang. Thus, the film’s cast is stuck with mediocre material packaged around an equally mediocre plot (Disclaimer: I’m not going to compare this to the film adaptation of 21 Jump Street, which has a similar plot, like a lot of other critics have been doing). Like I said before, I’ve never seen the original Baywatch series. I probably will check it out someday, but as far as this film is concerned? Let’s just say that if you’re like me and you’ve never watched Baywatch before, this film doesn’t paint a positive image of the show at all! I mean, I know that the show is not considered to be a masterpiece or anything, but I’m sure that it’s at least better than this.

Rating: 1/5