The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
It’s been another life, beyond the one…
There’s some contention towards tonight’s movie. Probably the main reason it took me so long to get to it was just that it’s two and a half hours long. That being said, the franchise was relatively agreeably on a decline - which in part was probably just because the first started so strong it was pretty hard to follow up, and the final might have gotten perhaps a bit too on-the-nose instead of background philosophical. Still, the trilogy was complete, people had moved on - and then out comes a new one, a new one we are going to check tonight - it’s The Matrix Resurrections.
The matrix is still around. Things are pretty mundane, repetitive, normal. Then one day, someone outside the matrix happens to find an interesting loop - and investigating this leads to a real weird twist - a program dressed like an agent that happens to believe it is in fact Morpheus. Back in the world, a game programmer wonders who the heck just hacked into his game experiment. He likes to go to a little coffee shop and watch a lovely lady that seems oh-so familiar to him. When he gets called to the bosses office though, things are about to get stressful - turns out they’ve been told to make a sequel to his hit game trilogy, and it’s the start of a mental breakdown. Only one problem though - it’s not a mental break, and he actually is Neo and it’s time to break him it out again. Unravel the mysteries of why he is, why Trinity is, and just what’s happened in the world since we all though he defeated the mega-Smith for peace in the worlds.
Acting is pretty good here. Yes, not everyone from the original trilogy returns - sometimes the characters do, but not the actor. That being said, nobody really does a bad job here. The worst you really get is all stuff that feels in-character still, but can seem like it’s a bit heavy-handed. As an example, the “game ideas pitch meeting” doesn’t feel like bad acting, but it does feel a bit like an obvious iteration of feedback from the other movies over the years. Sometimes, you can even call an actor a bit quirky - but this isn’t always a bad thing either. Look, I get it that some people might not be impressed with some of the acting, but to me none of it feels bad - just sometimes it lacks a little energy or at other times a bit cheesy, so it’s just a little something to think about.
As for the characters, this quickly ends up being one of plays and twists. One character might present as one way, then go completely a different direction as to who it is. Most the time, however, you’ll be able to figure out whose what rather quickly and they don’t really try and fool you otherwise. On the largest end, it’s a bit of a Neo-centric story, which is well done while we deal with the preamble “am I in the matrix” section, but then turns into that same old moderate energy Neo that we all remember - focused, but not exactly delivering lines with the energy of Macho Man Randy Savage. The side characters, as a result of only being in this movie, don’t really feel like they have a ton of stuff too them and that’s fine given the intent is very much not on them, it’s supposed to be this journey about Neo and Trinity, with all these philosophical arguments pasted in bright colors on top of it while giving just enough to allow an updated world and make us wish we could see some of the little bits teased out that took place outside of the matrix.
Every which way but loose.
The story does feel a lot more straight forward in a way, with the ditching of the largest back and forth “deep” questions instead feeling a bit more like a on-tracks roller coaster where it’s not a matter of having choice, and instead just realizing and coming to terms with your choice. That being said, you might think that means there’s a ton of action because i said roller coaster, and that’s slightly misleading. There’s a lot of “down time” as we set things up, update the world, and get to the parts where things are actually bustling with in-matrix carnage. The deep thinkers will probably be disappointed by this, as it doesn’t feel as much like there is stuff to discover for oneself as much as it is all just spelled out on screen - but that being said there is some fun details with colors and the likes that float around (although they don’t get used across the board, making it feel a bit at times like it’s just coincidence instead of intention).
The action scenes when we get to them are pretty good for the most part. Admittedly, I see a heck of a lot more shaky camera in this one than I remember in the previous ones, but I can understand it for some scenes. In the train action set, as annoying as I find camera shaking wildly in close-to-mid shots that feel pretty tight in it fits the intended feeling of disoriented because the shaking makes it hard to follow whats even going on. On the other hand, the final action set is pretty smooth, and the only real complications to following it come from the massive number of people in one building and the cuts, until it opens up into the final segment and it’s all quite impressive and fun to watch. Really, I know some folks will find complaints about it like the few bits i just mentioned, and I would have personally loved for it to be far more clean than it was, but I still found it enjoyable even if some questions could come up from the action scenes that don’t really get all that answered.
The effects that go with them are largely good. There’s a few bits that look a bit computer-heavy, including an early scene that’s very Jackie Chan inspired in my opinion that looks a bit off for whatever reason. Sure, you can do some heavy nitpicks about background elements and lighting and the likes if you really wanted to - and I have seen some do it for either fun or in all seriousness - but they never really took me out of things unless they were meant to within the scope of the movie. Somewhat a part of all the categories, there is a bit heavy usage of the “clip show” in this movie. There’s a lot of reuse of the older trilogy scenes, and sometimes it works great - like the mental breaks that come off as these PTSD flashes for Neo while he’s still just ordinary programmer man. Other times, it can feel a little bit like padding, which isn’t really necessary in a movie that’s already over two hours long. My guess is that perhaps they just figure people have forgotten the older movies in the time it took to get to this, and might need a little push - but largely it’s something although it didn’t bother me, I found it could have been left on the cutting room floor after the PTSD style real life or memories segment was finished.
I’m not the only one with bathroom problems.
I don’t know if I’d put it on par with the first, but the first has that nostalgic new flavor to it, where it did a lot of things right at a time where those things weren’t super saturated and over-used. Here, those things don’t seem so new (especially when the flashback clip segments go off), but they are still fun. I could maybe have done with a bit less of the self referential content as well, even if they did work it into the story in a manner that works. Just feels a bit like patting one’s own back you know? All of that being said and out of the way, I enjoyed my time with it even with the little nitpicks, and my biggest complain ends up coming down to not having a good Matrix video game where me and my friends can live out all those new game mode fantasies.