‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Review: Lana Wachowski’s Meta-Sequel is Spectacular
‘The Matrix Resurrections’ almost puts every tentpole blockbuster to shame with dazzling cinematography and meticulously-crafted action that represent side of The Matrix audiences have never seen before.
Here’s a hot take: ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ is better than the original ‘Matrix’, the movie that allegedly changed everything when it came to creating CGI-driven action sequences and was copiously imitated by every other studio and filmmaker who wanted to capitalize on the success the Wachowski sisters brought with their 1999 film. But you can’t replicate the technical achievements of ‘The Matrix”’ which is what the Wachowskis demonstrated with their sequels and part of the reason why people hated them. I’m sorry, but how on earth can you hate a movie where Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) takes a goddamn sword to stop a car and then blows it the hell up with a machine gun? WHAT?!? Amazing. No one makes movies like these anymore. Most blockbusters are littered with expensive-costing, but cheap-looking CGI that renders them lifeless. And so it’s a thrill to see that the latest instalment in the franchise, ‘The Matrix Resurrections’, is as wild as Reloaded when it comes to action sequences and performances, even if it gets lost in a sea of meta-references through a quasi-ridiculous script.
But how could there be a sequel when both Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) died in the last movie? Good question! It doesn’t really matter. This is a whole new remake/reboot/meta-sequel that dares to poke fun at the trappings of never-ending franchises and intellectual properties in a way that the biggest IP-driven blockbusters can’t ever achieve. Some of the commentaries don’t necessarily work as much as others, but Wachowski consistently keeps the pace moving between the film’s highly colorful action sequences and character beats, which makes for a terrifically entertaining time at the movies.
For those that are disappointed in the lack of a green tint, know that this new Matrix was created by The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) and differentiates itself from the previous version conceived by The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis). In this Matrix, Neo is trapped in a simulation as Thomas Anderson, the most daring game developer who created a game aptly titled “The Matrix”, a video game based on his “previous” life as The One. This Matrix pops with exaggerated pastel colors that immediately recalls Wachowski’s assortment of Chupa Chups colors in ‘Speed Racer’, with a different Agent Smith (Jonathan Groff) and Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to guide Neo from his sort-of existential dread. In the simulation, Neo meets Trinity (or Tiffany) at a cafe, and he immediately gets flashbacks from his past life. After Morpheus and Bugs (Jessica Henwick) reawaken Neo from his quasi-slumber with the red pill, our protagonist wants to save Trinity from The Analyst’s simulation and reunite with her again, after believing that she died.
The first forty minutes of the film are quite messy. After an incredible opening action sequence with Jessica Henwick’s Bugs, reminding moviegoers that this is how action scenes should be shot and edited, the movie takes a step back and reintroduces us to Neo, where most of the film’s meta-references will happen, and they’re not perfect. It feels a little bit too on the nose, when the characters jokingly talk about bullet-time as being a dated trend, and that “a new bullet time” needs to happen for the fourth Matrix, but this new Matrix isn’t about bullet-time or sleek Kung-Fu anymore, so the rules the developers keep mentioning don’t apply here. It wants to be smart on mocking the trends the Wachowskis created, but it doesn’t feel like this meta-commentary goes anywhere, at least not until Neo meets Morpheus again. This is where the movie truly kicks into gear and becomes a spectacular action blockbuster that rivals the aesthetic most tentpole films conform with today.
Most of them cost huge amounts of money to make, so why do they all look terrible? Resurrections never kowtows to drab-looking action sequences and CGI slop, and instead brings a color palette that’s unbelievably eye-widening and action sequences so unbelievable they are primed to make your jaw drop. The action scenes don’t retain the same sleekness as the first three Matrix movies, but they’re justifiably explained that the mechanics of the Matrix has changed. Ergo, the fight moves, and Neo’s new powers change also.
Every action sequence, as rough as it can be, is so unabashedly creative it feels like action cinema has finally reawakened from its slumber of corporate-driven platitudes to filmmaker-driven art. There’s no shortage of jaw-dropping fight moves here, but Wachowski saves the best for last with an almost twenty-minute-long motorcycle chase that defies all sense of logic but is so insane you almost have to pinch yourself to confirm if what’s unfolding before your eyes is indeed real. Bots drop as bombs, cars crash in unbelievable fashion, while Neo and Trinity need to avoid them ALL on a high-speed motorcycle. Unbelievable. There are no other words to describe it. Or perhaps unreal. Both of them are accurate.
The new additions to the cast of The Matrix Resurrections are also fantastic. Reeves & Moss have never lost their chemistry together, with Keanu channeling his inner Ted Logan to convey the sheer bamboozlement permeating Neo’s face during the film’s opening act. But the real stars of the picture are its supporting cast, particularly Henwick and Mateen II. Henwick passed on a role in ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ to work on a Matrix sequel. This choice was the right one, as she gives the best performance of her career. It’s incredible how much she can lift up the emotion and the sheer excitement of a scene in every single one she’s in, and completely embraces the role of another badass-looking character doing badass-looking things. Even if you get lost in the film’s subtext sand allegories, the way the characters embody pure coolness as they do the coolest things imaginable just makes your brain melt in absolute awe, as if, for the past eighteen years, cinema was sleeping in a cooler, waiting for a Wachowski sister to “wake it up” again.
While Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is no Laurence Fishburne (just like Jonathan Groff isn’t Hugo Weaving), he’s so effortlessly badass that it’s not hard for us to accept him as the new Morpheus, just like Groff’s expressive performance as Smith gives a great spin on the character. All of them are excellent, but when Lambert Wilson shows up as The Merovingian and gives the most unhinged monologue of the year (a great counterpart to his portrayal as the Cardinal Nuncio in Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Benedetta’), you can clearly tell that every actor is having the time of their lives doing something completely off-kilter and unlike anything this new decade of IP-driven content doesn’t want us to have.
In short, The Matrix Resurrections is spectacular. Sure, it has a severely unfocused opening act, with a commentary on the original trilogy that feels too meta for it to work, but once Morpheus shows up and gives Neo the red pill, buckle up. Due to the Omicron variant forcing theaters in my area to close, I couldn’t see this movie on the biggest screen imaginable, but it must be experienced that way (if you feel safe, of course) for the movie to have the most out-of-body effect you can possibly get. It’s a daring feat of blockbuster cinema that will never be made again, as it will likely bomb in theatres (which is a shame), so we must appreciate just how gorgeous-looking, superbly acted, and meticulously operated The Matrix Resurrections is because there’s never going to be another movie quite like this again, just like there hasn’t been another movie like The Matrix Reloaded ever again.