The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Director: Lana Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Carrie-Anne Moss
Primary genre: Science fiction
Secondary genre: Action
Oh Lana Wachowski. You even managed to put it as a joke in the film; that the corporate overlords of Warner Bros will make a fourth Matrix with or without you. But despite this clever assertion, your “The Matrix Resurrections” offers virtually nothing exciting, innovative, ambitious or compelling in terms of story, visuals and action.
The original trilogy embedded several philosophies about choice, destiny, individuality, purpose and more with a unique and slick visual style that even to this day remains unparalleled while simultaneously emphasizing Hong Kong inspired action cinema (particularly that of John Woo and Yuen Woo Ping) with sequences that broke barriers and pushed the envelope.
And yet “Resurrections” fails on all fronts. The story lacks stakes and characters are walking expositions with no meaningful development. Leaning heavily on a distracting meta commentary (at least in its first act) with no actual plot to latch on, this bizarre creative decision hurts the film’s chances in establishing key players and events, replicating messily beat to beat iconic moments from the first film in the way that other legacy sequels have done (“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens“ (2015), “Halloween“ (2018), “Terminator: Dark Fate“ (2019)). And while you might suspect that Lana has a trick up her sleeve, the film really falls flat towards the uninspired second and third acts where a return to the world of Matrix feels numbed and rushed in a final confrontation that flirts excessively with fan fiction and has no teeth.
But even in terms of visuals, audio and action, “Resurrections” struggles in the modern cinematic world of 2021 to differentiate itself. Lana employs too many close ups and quick cuts during various banal skirmishes and shootouts with disposable SWAT like goons that you would think it was directed by a first timer. Gone are the long takes, the wide framing and the expert staging of legendary choreographer (and director) Yuen Woo Ping (“Drunken Master“ (1978), “Iron Monkey” (1993)) resembling a made for TV Netflix Original rather than a full blown 190 million dollar production (the train scuffle is particularly embarrassing). Any other known trademarks of the black coat wearing trilogy are entirely absent (the green filter, Don Davis unique brass-y score and novel sound effects) replaced by lesser versions as if we are watching a subpar Matrix Rebooted.
The biggest problem with “Resurrections” though is its insistence of revising a tale that has been already concluded and its attempt to rectify its outcome renders the choices and sacrifices in “The Matrix Revolutions” pointless. By bringing Neo and Trinity back, while it is not the woke travesty that many feared, lacks real pathos behind its reasoning. Watching Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss embracing the same chemistry as they did back in 1999 generates a warm feeling but the script ultimately lets them down, particularly Moss who has hardly anything to do in a two an half hour film. The narrative does not bring anything compelling to the post-apocalyptic table and the presentation of a newer city (named IO) and the machine fields manage to look boring in comparison to the epic scale that surrounded “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003) and “The Matrix Revolutions” (2003) twenty years ago.
Keanu does his best to keep things floating, especially early on in the film but the rest of the cast are almost borderline caricatures that explain things to move the story along with the script doing major disservices on key characters (e.g., Morpheus, Merovingian) by reducing them to one note individuals. And of course, we would not have a modern film without the attempt to insert randomly the much maligned Marvel humor which is a cause for some further eye rolling.
And that is it for “The Matrix Resurrections”. Gone are the philosophical finesse of the first installment or the breathtaking set pieces of the lesser effective but exciting nonetheless sequels. “The Matrix Resurrections” is a pointless cash grab, the latest attempt to kickstart a done and buried IP proving that Lana Wachowksi was indeed a one trick pony. Avoid at any costs and stick with the previous three.
A pointless cash grab
+Keanu is back in the iconic role
+…and still shares great chemistry with Carrie-Anne Moss
-Dull and boring action sequences
-Meta for the sake of meta
-Blunt soundtrack
-No stakes
-Weak acting
-Nothing memorable - characters, moments, dialogue
-No ambition