MOVIE REVIEW: The Matrix Resurrections

 (Local Hero - Dire Straits)

When the first Matrix movie came out in 1999, it shook the entire industry on a number of levels. No one had ever seen the kind of martial arts, cinematic effects, or plot contained in the film, and it served as a massive boost to the careers of several notable actors.

Then the sequel came out and people went even more nuts for it...right up until we were dealt a massive plot bomb in the last 5 minutes of the film.

Theeeeen the threequel came out and things went absolutely off the rails, resulting in a movie that many felt was the weakest in the franchise BY FAR...but one with a very definitive ending.

For as insane as the last film was, the original Matrix trilogy stands out as one of the hallmarks of cinema, breaking barriers with special effects that we still feel the effects of today. It has been meme'd, parodied, aped, and generally loved for what it brought.  Because of that, and regardless of how batshit crazy the third film was, people kind of went nuts when folks started talking about a fourth film, one with several of the original stars. More than 20 years after the first film, people were still so eager to return to the Matrix.

Should they be?

THE SHORT VERSION:

It's good enough and certainly not great.

THE LONG VERSION:

Yes, the special effects are bonkers and yes, the martial arts are bonkers and yes, the eyewear is bonkers. Let's skip right past all of that and get to the heart of the matter:

The plot.

It should come as no surprise that the plot of this movie is murky at best but we should have at least had a few legs to stand on after the first trilogy concluded itself. Except...we sort of don't. The Matrix is, upon reflection, a series of films that repeatedly makes a promise and just as repeatedly fails to deliver on it.

Bottom line, the Matrix is still a thing, there are still lots of people plugged into it, and there are still lots of people who think that THOSE people should be set free, or at least given a choice. The first movie ends with a promise that this choice will be given to people. Let me refresh your memory:

I don't really feel like this ever happened. People were never really shown what Neo was talking about here. Over and over again, these films keep coming back to 'Choice', and the argument keeps being made that people would choose to stay in the Matrix rather than being unplugged because of the state of things out in the real world. That just...never gets realized on-screen, not even at the end of the third movie when Neo ostensibly makes a better world. I shall refresh you again:

This, I feel, is pretty cut and dry, right up to the comment that the Architect makes about releasing those that want out. In particular the fact that the Architect promises to keep his word because he's not human and therefor has no need to lie is -very- relevant. 'Resurrections' sort of...ignores this. Actually, it doesn't just sort of ignore, it actually tells you flat out that none of it mattered.

Seriously, at about an hour in the movie, Neo and Bugs are talking and Neo flat out says, "It feels like everything we did, like none of it mattered." Mind you, the movie spends the next several minutes talking about how this isn't the case but that hook has already been set...you can't un-hear it.  And the more the film goes on, the more you realize that it's the truth.

This isn't helped at all by what, precisely, the movie tries to distract you with in terms of story. Apparently, after 'Revolutions' something resulted in scarcity of power for the machines. You're led to assume that this is because lots of people chose to unplug from the Matrix but that's never explicitly said. For some reason, the machines chose to stop behaving like machines and started in-fighting amongst themselves. The plot squirms quite a bit more from here but that's where spoilers live, along with a positively GIGANTIC field of plot holes.

Where does it all end up? Well, right back where the first movie ended, really. Or the third. (We don't talk about how the second film ended and Resurrections wisely chooses to ignore that little bit of mythology as it is, BY FAR, the weakest link in the plots from the various movies.)

When the credits roll, you end up with a film that's plenty entertaining as long as you don't try to focus on it too hard. You're also left with a bowl full of opportunities, some missed and others simply wasted. Revisiting the Matrix wasn't a bad idea and the basis for some of the film's plot was serviceable enough but as is frequently the case...someone overthought it while simultaneously missing the point.

How human.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS:

 We still never get to see Neo cut loose in the Matrix with utter impunity. This was a giant missed opportunity. He's supposed to be Deus Ex Machina -- yes, I know that's the name given to the baby robot at the end of the third film -- but he never gets to Deus in the Machina.  This is right up there with not letting Luke Skywalker go full HAM at the end of The Last Jedi. PEOPLE CLEARLY WANT THAT. Just go ask the people who reviewed 'Rogue One'. Ask anyone who watched the second season finale of the Mandalorian. MISSED. OPPORTUNITY.

- There are callbacks and then there are callbacks. If you're going to dump in some 'Rage Against The Machine' at the end of the movie to call it back -- and you should because that's how you end a Matrix movie -- then dump in some 'Rage'.  Not a cover. Seriously. Go home with that shit.

- NPH makes a great bad guy. Fight me. If EVER someone was going to replace Smith as the focal bad guy, he gets it done.  We won't talking a

- When you've got people with really distinct performances and really distinct voices like Laurence Fishburn and Hugo Weaving, recasting them is a suicide mission. Don't. Do. It. Especially don't do it if you're planning to attach them to plot points that are even murkier than usual for a Matrix movie.

- What an utter, utter waste of the Merv and his cronies. This was the worst kind of easter egg, one that was both pointless and poorly implemented. This was a program that had made a name for himself bouncing from one Matrix to another while maintaining his life. You're telling me he couldn't do it again?

- The bit where Neo gets locked up by Niobe is just goofy and, like so many other plot points, serves no purpose.

- Can someone please explain to me what the point of Morpheus is in this movie?? Talk about FORCED.

- Why does everyone keep taking their sunglasses off?! And why doesn't Neo wear them for pretty much the entire movie?!

- WHAT IS THE POINT OF AGENT SMITH?! And where does that cat fit into all of this? It's clearly not just an indicator for deja vu.

- Listen, I'm as big a fan of equality as anyone but Neo is no longer The One. He is, at best, One Of Two. Turning Trinity into another Neo not only doesn't make sense, it once again flies in the face of the the machines' demonstrated precision up to this point. Yes, Carrie-Ann Moss is still an absolute card-carrying bad-ass but the mythos of the Matrix officially feels like it's been bent just to use this story beat. And on that note...

- The Analyst goes on about how, alone, Neo isn't of any particular value...except the business of Neo being the anomaly clearly worked well because as of 'Reloaded', Neo was the sixth version of himself/the anomaly. He was the sixth version because the previous versions did EXACTLY what they should have.

...There's so much to talk about with this movie but I end up in the same place.  Missed or misused opportunities.