It’s time to go back into the Matrix, but should we? That’s the one question I kept asking myself after seeing Matrix Resurrections and did this movie need to be made! Probably not, but as we did learn in the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix had been rebuilt before and to answer an even bigger question, what really happened to Neo after Matrix Revolutions. Well, we have our answer with the latest movie and while this might be a bit of a spoiler, I’m sure you have already figured out because we have a new Matrix movie that yes, there is a new version of The Matrix and therefore a new version of “the one.” Now, I’m not saying this movie is bad. If you’re a fan of the Matrix movies, then you will like at least some aspects of this film. It’s nostalgic and fun, but don’t think in any way it compares to the original Matrix movie that borderlines on perfection as a Sci-Fi movie. There’s lots of familiar faces in this film and there’s a lot of throwbacks to The Matrix trilogy, enough to keep you entertained and perhaps even enjoy going back into the Matrix, but we could have easily done without the film. Honestly, we only needed the first three movies to tell the story of the Matrix. However, sometimes nostalgia gets the better of filmmakers and they want to revisit their greatest achievements…that’s what Lana Wachowski did.
In this film we find a new version of The Matrix set many, many years after the events of Revolutions. Trinity and Neo are pretty much Legends and we find the characters again back in a new Matrix questioning reality… new matrix, same old story. Now, the new Matrix is a bit different and how they make the current reality is actually a pretty cool concept involving video games, which leads us to asking the question of whether Neo and Trinity were ever really free to begin with or did their reality just change from system to system. It’s a great way to introduce these characters again, the same way that DC comics can constantly reboot their characters because there’s Infinite Earths with different versions of the same characters. I admit that it was great to jump right back in with Neo and Trinity. It’s like Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss didn’t really lose a step. But I don’t know if they really gave us anything new that we hadn’t seen before except by giving us a different version of what we had seen before. You know, it feels new, but really, it’s the same. The new Matrix is simply praying on our nostalgia for the first three movies, you know kind of like Disney did with Star Wars, but does it really deliver. To an extent, yes, this movie delivers by giving us a new Matrix story that makes sense for the most part because it’s a new version of the Matrix, but on the other hand, the best action scenes were in the first three movies and this one, feels kind of a letdown in that regard. I’m not saying it’s a bad film, it just feels familiar and doesn’t give us anything new to a matrix story than what’s been explored before especially knowing that there will be a new version of The Matrix and a new version of “the one.” The best part of this film are the performances of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss and with newcomers like Neil Patrick Harris who plays the creator or the architect of the new Matrix. Jonathan Groff plays a new version of Agent Smith and as good as his performance is, he’s not as compelling as Hugo Weaving. The performances make this movie work, everybody is pretty good and will keep you entertained especially if you’re a Matrix fan.
The bad news for this latest incarnation of the Matrix series is it tries to recapture the same magic from the other films. Sometimes it does, but mostly it falls flat especially with the action scenes. The action always seemed smooth no matter how over the top it might have been in the first three movies. The pacing was good which also made the story smoother as well. I can’t really the same thing about this Matrix film. The action was good and felt familiar, but it was also kind of choppy and as if the filmmakers were trying to cram too much into the story and make it feel familiar. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but it can’t always tell a good story. It takes a little while to get to the heart of this Matrix story when Neo is free again. At least in the first film it didn’t take us long before we were off to the “races” and it kept us on the edge of our seat. Part of the problem with Matrix Resurrections is it takes too long to catch the audience up about what happened before and to introduce us to the new version of Neo trapped in this latest version of The Matrix. The pacing isn’t quite there in this film and things don’t really ramp up until about the second act. But I suppose this movie is made for those who may not have seen the first three films and need a crash course on the Matrix’s origins. However, this film shouldn’t be made for a new audience who has never seen the Matrix movies, it should be a film for those who have been a fan since the beginning. The biggest problem of this film is it just doesn’t live up to the trilogy especially the first Matrix film when it comes to the action and the mystique of the original story. There just isn’t anything new that would make us come back again. And although it was great to see Jada Pinkett Smith reprise her role as Niobi from The Matrix movies as the older patriarch of the resistance, all her character did was connect us to the previous films. However, we already have that connection through Neo and Trinity.
At the end of the day, it’s a film that probably shouldn’t have been made. It relies too much on nostalgia and doesn’t have the same philosophical depth is the original films. It’s nice to see Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss back again, but that’s not enough to make a great Matrix film, that’s on par with the trilogy. It’s the equivalent of visiting an old family friend and reminiscing about old times without giving you anything new. It was nice for this film to answer the question about what happened to Neo after Revolutions. It was nice to see a new version of The Matrix with new technology. The concept of the new Matrix is good even if the delivery is not what it could have been. If you are a fan of the Matrix movies, this new movie is entertaining and fun. It’s a good movie to see on the big screen, but it won’t give you anything new that you hadn’t seen before. Essentially, it’s a 2-hour movie that seeks to answer some lingering questions from the trilogy, but we didn’t need a 2-hour movie to answer those questions. I am by no means disappointed with the movie, but it’s not great or something that I would run out and go see. You can easily stay home and watch it on HBO Max, and still get the same enjoyment from the movie. Matrix Resurrections is fun and nostalgic, but doesn’t want to keep me coming back for more. Maybe this film just serves as a long-awaited epilogue to The Matrix trilogy and that’s fine, but that shouldn’t justify making a new Matrix movie. That’s what nostalgia is for and that’s why we have a new Matrix movie. That’s good enough to make it entertaining movie, but not necessarily a great movie as in the case of the first Matrix film. That’s the one that will stand the test of time and Matrix Resurrections will just be that fun movie you watch every once in a while. It’s okay, but nothing more!
