How Much of Review Bruh Is a Character
"The Matrix Resurrections" is the commencement "Matrix" moving-picture show since 2003's "The Matrix Revolutions," but it is not the first time nosotros've seen the franchise in theaters this year. That stardom goes to "Infinite Jam: A New Legacy," the cinematic shareholder meeting for Warner Bros. with special celebrity guests that inserted Looney Tunes characters Speedy Gonzales and Granny into a scene from "The Matrix." Speedy Gonzales dodged irksome-movement bullets; Granny jumped in the air and kicked a cop in the face like Trinity. The 2003 animation motorcoach "The Animatrix" detailed how the Matrix was created, how an apocalyptic war against robots led to human suffering beingness harvested to fuel a world of machines; there should be an annex that includes this scene from "Space Jam: A New Legacy" to show what it all led to.
This is the reality that we alive in—ane ruled by Warner Bros.' Serververse—and it is also the context that rules over "The Matrix Resurrections." The movie bears the name of manager Lana Wachowski, returning to the cyberpunk franchise that made her one of the greatest sci-fi/action directors, but exist warned that no force is remotely every bit strong as Warner Bros. wanting a lighter and brighter accept on "The Matrix." "The Matrix Resurrections" is a reboot with some striking philosophical flourishes, and grandiose prepare-pieces where things get blast in slow motion, but information technology is also the weakest and most compromised "Matrix" film all the same.
Written by Wachowski, David Mitchell, and Aleksandar Hemon, "The Matrix Resurrections" is about building from beloved beats, characters, and plot elements; call it deja vu, or just phone call it a convoluted clip show. It starts with a new grapheme named Bugs (Jessica Henwick) witnessing Trinity's famous phone escape earlier having her ain swooping, bullet-dodging getaway, and later throws new versions of previous characters into the the mix. The wise homo of this saga, Morpheus, is no longer played by Laurence Fishburne, but Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who looks but as cool in nighttime color coats and sunglasses with two machine guns in hand, only has a confusing purpose for being there. "The Matrix Resurrections" will curve over backward, bullet-time fashion, to explicate why he is. The same goes for how heroes Neo and Trinity render, even though "The Matrix Revolutions" put a lot of care into killing them off. This is the kind of movie in which it truly doesn't matter when you last saw the original films; your experience might be fifty-fifty better if you lot haven't seen them at all.
Information technology is likewise about making yous painfully conscious of what constitutes Matrix intellectual holding, as it places Keanu Reeves' hero Neo, known in the Matrix as a vivid video game programmer named Thomas Anderson, in a board room with a bunch of creatives, trying to come with ideas for a sequel. He has received force per unit area from his boss (and Warner Bros.) subsequently his game "The Matrix" was a hit; "bullet-time" is discussed with awe by stock geek characters every bit something that needs to be topped. This is one of the movie's more reality-shifting ideas—to frame "The Matrix" as a new type of simulation, i that was created by Thomas Anderson within the actual Matrix, as taken from his dreams that come from taking a blue pill daily, instead of the eye-opening red pill he took in the original 1999 film. And yet like many of the Warner Bros.-related meta redirections, information technology all ends upwardly adding so very footling to the bigger picture.
"The Matrix Resurrections" brings back the honey story of Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) and Neo, our two cyber heroes whose romantic connection gave the before films a sense of agony larger than the apocalypse at hand. But hither, they do not know each other, even though Thomas' video grapheme Trinity looks a lot like Moss. In this world, she'south a customer in a Simulatte coffee shop named Tiffany that he'due south hesitant to talk to, in particular because she has kids and a husband named Chad (played by Chad Stahelski). Reeves and Moss are both invested in this whimsical arc well-nigh fated lovers, only the film plays too much into this nostalgia as well, relying on our emotions from the by movies to largely care near why they should be together.
The movie's greatest stake is in the mind of Thomas, 1 that's been having daydreams that are clips from the "Matrix" movies, while sitting in a bathtub with a rubber ducky on his head. He receives some guidance from his therapist, played past Neil Patrick Harris, who tries to make sense of the break from reality that previously had Thomas attempting to walk off a roof, thinking he could wing. Harris' part should remain a mystery, but let's say information technology'southward an unexpected role that does go you to take him seriously, including how he analyzes our own understanding of "The Matrix." Meanwhile, it becomes apparent that but as Morpheus is a little unlike than we think, in that location's a new version of large baddie Smith, played by Jonathan Groff, trying to imitate Hugo Weaving's slithering line-delivering that comes from a tightly clenched jaw. There are also copies of agents that have over bodies and wear impeccable suits and ties, chasing subsequently the proficient guys.
Enough of Matrixing is in shop once Thomas believes Morpheus, simply it's more than fun to witness in the picture than for anyone to explain in detail. But information technology includes the feeling of Thomas going back to where information technology all began, including a training sequence in which Reeves and Abdul-Mateen II do a rendition of the dojo scene in "The Matrix," only this fourth dimension Neo leaves with a different power that requires less movement. And equally part of Neo's journey dorsum down the rabbit hole, there'due south a breakneck, candy-colored fight sequence on a speeding train, in which Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer's blitzing score seems to be powering the locomotive.
Expositional philosophizing is also a part of the "Matrix" experience, and there'south a not bad line hither from one of the motion-picture show's villains almost fear and desire existence the ii human modes (you can practically imagine the line scribbled in Wachowski'due south notebook). But these wordy passages also muffle the picture trying to motility the goal posts, that the rules of the Matrix tin change however its saga about cyber messiahs needs it to keep making sequels. And while the apocalyptic, real world action has ever been less exciting than the stylized chaos up in the Matrix, that gap of intrigue is felt fifty-fifty more here. Behind the screens, with Neo, Trinity, and others plugged in, sure returning members of the underground land of Zion like Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith, aged forward) try and fail to convince you that this story absolutely needs to exist told, and that THIS is the ultimate world-saving chapter, even though the franchise no longer feels unsafe. That latter note becomes all the more obvious when "The Matrix Resurrections" gives us a micro, cutesy, fist-bumping descendant of the sentry machines that used to rip homo beings to shreds.
It's the action that proves to be the purest element here, robust and snazzy—for years we accept been watching directors imitate what Wachowski did with her sister Lilly with "The Matrix" films, and at present we tin become caught up again in her fast-paced activity that marries kung fu with acrobatic gunplay, often in lush slow motion. For all of this movie'due south cheesy talk about bullet-time (near killing the fun of beingness in awe of it), "The Matrix Resurrections" doubles up with sure scenes that combine two different slow-motion speeds in the same frame, painting some exhilarating, large-budget frescos with dozens of flying extras and hundreds of bullets. The moving picture's grand finale is an action gem, as it thrives on how much adrenaline yous tin become from layering multiple big explosions as things suddenly crash into frame, all during a loftier-speed chase.
And even so once the adrenaline from a sequence similar that wears off, you can't help but call up nigh the guy who sabbatum near Steven Soderbergh on an airplane and watched a clip bear witness of explosive action scenes, virtually making the manager want to quit filmmaking back in 2013. There's incredible merit in the activeness seen in "The Matrix Resurrections," but those aren't the elements that free the listen of the medium like assuming storytelling, like "The Matrix" preached and then became a game-changing archetype, only to become a docket for satisfying shareholders. Blue pill or carmine pill? It doesn't affair anymore; they're both placebos.
Available in theaters and on HBO Max tomorrow.
Nick Allen
Nick Allen is the Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a fellow member of the Chicago Moving-picture show Critics Association.
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The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
148 minutes
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