The Matrix Resurrections: Why?

There are a few movies that get announced and there is an obvious reason why they were made. Obviously, the movie was made to make money. In fairness, no movie gets made with the intent not to make money, however when a long dead franchise where two of the three movies are not well received makes a return, it becomes pretty obvious that the sole purpose of the fourth entry is to cash in on nostalgia. The Matrix is one of the most important cinematic works of science fiction and made almost a half a billion dollars in 1999 so naturally it would be milked to death.

The Matrix Resurrections is ultimately an epilogue that did not need to be stated. When The Matrix Revolutions happened, there did not necessarily need to be a continuation of the story. Despite the ambiguous ending, there was still some semblance of finality to the story. The ending was open to continuing the story with new characters. At the same time there was a way to do it without reopening the old story and making it feel like everything that happened was for naught.

This movie functions with all the worst parts of a sequel with all the worst parts of a reboot mixed in. First off, the movie acknowledges out of the gate that they are in the titular Matrix and the rules as defined previously still (somewhat with some minor tweaks) apply. After the opening, the story moves back to Neo and spends a considerable amount of time showing Neo not accepting that he is in the Matrix. There is nothing more narratively unacceptable than a character not accepting something the audience knows to be fact, but at the same time this misunderstanding drives the plot. It is as infuriating as in Iron Fist when multiple episodes are devoted to people not believing that Danny Rand is Danny Rand or in Predator 2 where a considerable amount of time is spent pondering what is killing people in a movie with a “2” in the title. This is not even the most egregious waste of screen time in this movie as there is a seemingly interminable sequence where a group of people just talk about how great The Matrix is. To call it tongue-in-cheek is an insult to subtlety as a concept.

The strongest parts of this film come from Jessica Henwick’s Bugs (like Bugs Bunny as stated by the character in a movie that namedrops Warner Bros so much it could be a point in a drinking game) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the new Morpheus. The rest of the cast is there, but doesn’t really get a chance to try anything new. In fairness, most of the performances in this movie are just vehicles for exposition, but at least it could be done in an interesting way and not just feel like a lecture.

If one wants to see an interesting movie that came out this year set mostly in a virtual world that questions what is real and what is not, Free Guy does this in a much more entertaining way. Ultimately this sequel will probably end up forgotten, which may be the best possible fate for this. To be sure, it will find its audience and become a cult classic, but in the immediate future it will be ignored by most. That said, it is available to watch on HBOMax without having to do anything extra so it’s not the worst option to watch if someone has two and a half hours to kill with literally no other option.

Final Rating: 6.5/10