MOVIE REVIEW: The Matrix Resurrections

Tom Morello riffs close out a Matrix picture that should have been titled “The Matrix : For Dummies”. Gone is the majority of themes relying heavily on dogmatic concepts. Present are the characters followers of the franchise all know and love (or some descendant adjacent to those characters) caught up in a story that pays homage to the previous films within the franchise while culminating in an overarching fantastical romance story.

The explosions, the martial arts fights, dodging bullets – all here, though this Warner Bros. picture still has a serious issue with the mic-ing for their actors, as most of their dialogue is covered up by the score in non-action sequences. Whereas, in “The Matrix” expository scenes took up a majority of the runtime, the expose pieces in “Resurrections” rely heavily on snapchat level videos played concurrently in flashbacks and on TV screens like a promo for a WWE pay-per-view; which undoubtedly saves time those initiated and uninitiated, injecting familiar viewers with nostalgia that will bring smiles and filling newer viewers with awe and wonder strong enough to revisit the older films. This was perhaps the shortest Matrix film, and that is far from a bad thing. The new additions to the franchise (my eyes are on you Jessica Henwick) were welcome and did not feel as if they were usurping any roles.

Neil Patrick Harris was built to be billed as a villain as much as Abdul-Mateen II should stay on a Warner Bros. set with his track record carrying over from his portrayal of Black Manta. Leave it to the guy who pulled off that ridiculous submariner helmet to rock the flyest suits on screen this side of modern cinema. Stalwarts Keanu and Moss noticeably have a ton of life added to them, given how Wachowski basically picked two of the dullest actors in the nineties to spearhead this groundbreaking franchise.

Groundbreaking … that may be where “Resurrections” will fail to hit the mark for fanatics. Everything here is essentially a throwback with a twist, as most sequels are after a decade or two away from the source material. The blurry early millennium visual effects are a treat to behold on the big screen, for those of us who were too young to view the Matrix when it first dropped, but fanatics of the franchise who saw the the first three Matrix films can only expect to be taken through a trip down memory lane, with a twist or too.

The philosophy of the Matrix is there, but this is no “Reloaded”. The existentialist ideals explored in “Reloaded” are a lingering ghost here in “Resurrections”. The action sequences are drawn out as “Revolutions” and the expository pieces of the first film are primarily in the first hour. These nods and builds on the previous films makes “Resurrections” play more like a greatest hits to an anthology collection. As viewers to the previous films will either fill rewarded or betrayed, “Resurrections” does guarantee an invite into the world of the Matrix, the only difference between this invite and the one two decade’s ago is a film aware of the times bringing to audiences an experience that could be once defined as water cooler conversation and turning into a series of abridged Tik-Tok clips.

Score : 3/5

Director: Lana Wachowski

Music by: Johnny Klimek; Tom Tykwer

Production companies: Village Roadshow Pictures; Venus Castina Productions

Prequel: The Matrix Revolutions

Cinematography: Daniele Massaccesi; John Toll