The Matrix Resurrections

Never has a film trilogy quite turned off its audiences the same way The Matrix managed to do so with The Matrix Revolutions in 2003. It was a bloated, drudgery of an experience that I have not returned to since its DVD release, and this was not helped by the also disappointing second film, The Matrix Reloaded, which did little to capitalise on where the highly acclaimed original from 1999 succeeded. It's best compared to Game of Thrones which has a prequel series set to release this year but, having crushingly disappointed its audience, does anyone care? I couldn't find much excitement when The Matrix Resurrections was announced but maybe Lana Wachowski could bring new life to the franchise and win over us fans of the original, or is this one trip down the rabbit hole best avoided?

Revolutions ended with Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) sacrificing themselves to defeat the machines and bring freedom back to the people of Zion, but now Neo finds himself living out a new, quiet existence as a videogame designer who is plagued by vivid dreams which he puts into his stories. Can he trust his reality or is there more to this world than what he sees?

The critical response to Resurrections has been mixed and the audience's has been quite damning when you look online. This played on my mind as we went to watch it last night and, while the film is messy, it is also a lot of fun if you're willing to go along with the ride. However it takes its time in the first half with a mix of moments that break the fourth wall while also re-treading much of the first film which will not be for everyone's taste. In a word; uneven. 

Unfortunately, Resurrections is missing the original trilogy's cinematographer and composer which leaves us with a film that feels very different to the Matrix of old that fans might hope to find here. The action is frenetic but lacks the impressive choreography the with the martial arts sequences or jaw-dropping moments of bullet-time the first two films delivered. There's one sequence on a train that is shot and lit in a way that was very hard to follow, feeling as if it came from your standard Hollywood blockbuster instead of from the makers behind the genre-defining original. 

When characters went into the Matrix in the previous three films, the world felt unsettlingly cold, remote and hostile which raised the stakes as you sensed some characters might not return. Sadly that sense of peril is practically absent here and, while the action is fun, it lacks the substance and spectacle of what made the original a success. Thankfully, Wachowski is able to deliver fine performances from Reeves and Moss, as well as from the newcomers with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris and Jonathan Groff, who all help to keep the story moving along with some exciting visuals. 

The Matrix Resurrections is an improvement over the two sequels in some regards and is also very entertaining if you can accept the 'meta-ness' that might derail some viewer's enjoyment in the first act. It's not nearly as carefully paced and constructed as the original but Lana Wachowski has, if you forgive the pun, resurrected the franchise for me through her inventive direction and I will look forward to seeing where this story goes to next. I'd give this a cautious recommendation if you feel like taking the red pill again.