Liverpool Sound and Vision 5/10
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christina Ricci, Lambert Wilson, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Joshua Grothe, Brian J. Smith, Eréndira Ibarra, Michael X. Sommers.
The Matrix trilogy can be seen truly as a cultural phenomenon; admittedly one that was at its peak in the first of the films delivered to a film loving crowd wowed by its cinematography and effects, but still a series of films that asked questions of our perceived vision of reality, and how we were, and continue, to be enveloped by the idea of being repressed by a superior mind just to appear that we are indeed in control of our own destiny.
Even if the finale of the trilogy didn’t live up to expectation, the series delved deep into the subconscious, the simulated reality, and what it has been argued of since as a metaphor for transgender awareness, with great enthusiasm and with a large amount of cinematic muscle.
Lana Wachowski cannot be blamed for wanting to resurrect the franchise beyond its original finish; after all it was her and her sister’s direction that made it at the time the most anticipated trilogy since Back To The Future, it was her brainchild, her motivation to tell a story that would come to define modern story-telling and filming techniques, and yet like all good trilogies, it needed to end there, at that moment, sitting almost resplendent in its long term view and with nostalgia always at its heart.
The Matrix: Resurrections, like the fourth Alien film, ironically also sharing part of its title of Lana Wachowski’s latest movie, is a film that didn’t have to be made, that stutters in comparison to the previous three, and one that few will ever place in their top 1000 films they have to revisit.
The film, written by Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell, and Aleksander Hemon, is arguably as dominating visually as its previous incarnations, but there the comparisons widely begin to differ, and in a film that has Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as its beating heart, that should utilise the enormous talent of Neil Patrick Harris and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II with greater persuasion than it does, and in which only Jessica Henwick seems to come out of the experience with any grace and charm attached, The Matrix: Resurrections is at best a poor relation to all that came before.
Too concerned with deflecting an overpowering statement of cinematic intent and producing a tale where there was no need to represent yet another beginning,The Matrix: Resurrections is a pale shadow, an imitation without a true soul and one that is saved only by nostalgia and the hubris of continuality.
Like Jaws, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Aliens, to go beyond the trusted formula of a trilogy is to appear to only care about the money that can be plucked from the cinema crowd, and not about the history and celebration of what the original films stood for. Unfortunately, The Matrix: Resurrections is an undeserved sequel, disclosing little that could be considered new, and one that at best is a footnote of expression and value.
Ian D. Hall