The Matrix Resurrections – Film Review

To find out if his reality is a physical or mental construct, Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), aka Neo, will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more. If he’s learned anything, it’s that choice, while an illusion, is still the only way out of — or into — the Matrix. Neo already knows what he has to do, but what he doesn’t yet know is that the Matrix is stronger, more secure, and far more dangerous than ever before.

When The Wachowski’s released The Matrix back in 1999, it took the world by storm. Blockbusters up to that point were most definitely a thing, but nobody really knew just how smart and intelligent they could be. The Matrix pondered on philosophical questions such as the meaning of life, what makes humans… well… humans, and the meaning of our fate. Virtually every single line of dialogue had some level of intelligence to it. Heck, even the fight scenes were game-changing.

But, of course, seeing as how the film was a colossal success, sequels were inevitable. It’s just a good thing that they were actually quite solid. Reloaded is a more action-heavy film than the first while also still retaining that same sense of brilliance, whereas Revolutions was mainly just about guns and explosions. Did the ending land? It really depends on who you ask. Personally, I think it was a perfectly solid way to cap off the series. It wasn’t the best possible ending we could’ve gotten, but it still worked for what it was.

Fast-forward to now and, believe it or not, we’re going back to The Matrix in the form of Resurrections, the newest film from Lana Wachowski. “How is this even possible?”, you must be asking and I don’t blame you. After all, Keanu Reeves’ Neo was dead at the end of Revolutions, so how in the world does Reeves portray Neo once again in this film? The answers are given to us here and they weren’t what I was expecting, but in a good way.

My favorite aspect of this new installment is the fact that the screenwriters simply didn’t care about fan expectations. This can often result in some massive fan backlash, which most notably happened with Rian Johnson‘s Star Wars: The Last Jedi – a film that looked like it was going a certain direction, only for the final product to go down a completely diverting path. One that many audiences hated exploring.

However, I found myself enamored with what Johnson did, and in the case of Resurrections, I found myself feeling the same. Both films were written by somebody that wanted to challenge what was possible with the respective franchise and try out new things, and both of them succeeded greatly. Resurrections is, interestingly, the most self-aware film in the franchise to date, and that’s saying a lot because the first entry was lauded for being so meta.

And yet Resurrections finds some legitimately genius things to say about our world and even pokes fun at the series as a whole. Yes, seriously. However, there does become a point in the film in which it seemed as though the writers found themselves using the same exact tropes they were joking about, so not every scene lands as the writers intended.

This is a Matrix movie and so audiences can certainly expect to be taken on a trippy, mind-bending journey no matter what the story is about and there is no exception here. The story, for the most part, is deeply interesting and one that’s never boring. Sadly though, there are certain plot points that simply don’t make a whole lot of sense. If you were to pause and think about things for a moment, you’d slowly start to realize that tons of the story beats here are all over the place.

Plus, this film really didn’t justify its existence which was the biggest let-down for me overall. The last time we were graced with a Matrix film was 2003, so you’d think that the filmmakers would have good reason to come back after all these years. There must be some humongous, game-changing ideas on display here, right? Well, not really. Aside from being impressively self-aware and outrageously fun on an action and world-building scale, The Matrix Resurrections doesn’t even try to explain why it’s even a thing.

That’s not to say the film is bad, because it’s genuinely quite solid at the end of the day despite its fair share of hiccups. It’s also wonderful to see another huge blockbuster franchise dare to take huge risks that some fans will be left divisive about. Either way, Lana Wachowski has offered us a red pill to swallow, and I’m certainly glad that I took it, even if it didn’t go down as flawlessly as I had hoped.