The Matrix: Resurrections
I decided to take a break from Destiny 2 tonight since I finished the last of the seasonal content today and wanted to watch a movie.
I had decided that this was going to be the first movie I wanted to watch on my OLED tv.
Watching this, you can tell that it was made during the beginning of the pandemic, some of it just feels somewhat less than in the opening scenes. I guess I was just expecting them to re-create the mystique of the first movie, and it’s not that they didn’t, I just knew (to a point) what to expect.
I was pleased to see that the trailer didn’t spoil a lot of the movie. I often hate watching a trailer for a film only for it to ruin crucial plot points and the trailer for this didn’t do that at all for me. This movie hits me in a similar way that the latest Star Wars trilogy does: it’s nice to see a new and younger cast reprise the roles of characters from previous movies, but unlike the Star Wars cast and movies, this doesn’t feel like coming home after being away for a long time, it definitely feels like a sequel. I realize that sounds bad but it’s not, it’s just that this film evokes a different feeling from me.
There doesn’t seem to be as many layers as the other films where there were references to religion and philosophy in many scenes; I did see a couple here and there but I hope there are more and maybe I just missed them? And some of them were just a bit heavy handed (like the company Neo works for being called Deus Machina. Really?) I was also disappointed that scenes in the matrix weren’t tinted green like the old films. The way bullet time was used in this film pales in comparison to the other three films, it feels evolved in a sense but underutilized just the same.
The over arching plot of what is real and Neo’s imprisonment in the matrix after the third film’s climax is told in a stunning and slightly confusing way (unless you really, really know the plots of the old films). I liked that Neo’s abilities seem evolved even if they were muted in several scenes; being able to stop bullets was nice to see again, but his force field just seemed like a throw away just to get from one scene to the next with minimal fuss. The shockwave was also a nice touch.
Kinda bummed that the leaked footage from a wile ago of the motorcycle chase was near the movie’s climax. Such is the world we live in where something that won’t be out for years can, and does, get spoiled.
I hope that the film did well enough to warrant another movie, but even if it did I feel like this was wrapped up with a nice little bow with no real way to continue the story with Neo and Trinity. It almost felt like the Wachowski that wrote this more or less did it for a quick cash grab and that ruins the experience for me somewhat.
Overall I’d give this movie a 7 out of 10.