Rated: M
Directed by: Lana Wachowski
Produced by: Grant Hill, James McTeigue, Lana Wachowski
Executive Producers: Bruce Berman, Garrett Grant, Terry Needham, Michael Salven, Karin Wachowski
Based on the Characters Created by: The Wachowskis
Screenplay Written by: Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell, Aleksandar Hemon
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Henwick, Yahya Adbul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Daniel Bernhardt, Neil Patrick Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Christina Ricci, Lambert Wilson, Daniela Harpaz, Eréndira Ibarra, Max Riemelt, Ellen Hollman, Brian J. Smith.
The Matrix Resurrection introduces this sequel (forth in the series) with a 90s monitor: a square cursor flashing. The code begins scrawling across the screen. In green, of course.
Welcome to The Matrix 2.0.
There’re new characters resurrecting old ones: Mr. Smith (Jonathan Groff) is now Neo’s partner in a gaming company; Morpheus (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II) is back in a new form.
But Neo remains the same (Keanu Reeves). Trinity, now Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), remains. They’re just a little older.
But non-the-wiser.
Ha, ha.
It’s that kind of movie.
There are many puns thrown through-out the film – sometimes heavy-handed like the cat with a tinkling collar named: déjà vu.
Mostly, there’s references to the original Matrix (1999) as the film layers the past into the present, so Resurrections becomes self-referential not only to the original film but also to itself. To the extent that if a moment felt twee, the twee would then be made into a joke like a self-parody.
I noticed the silence at one point only for the silence to be commented on as an indicator of real living outside the Matrix.
It’s a cerebral film asking questions about the concept of choice: the blue or red pill?
Or is it free will versus destiny?
Or is life about fear and desire?
It becomes binary, one or the other – ones and zeros, like the program, The Matrix. Like reality is made up of ones and zeros. Like… The Matrix. Ah!
All mind bending moments aside, it took me a while to invest in Resurrections. Neo was somewhat lacklustre, with the repeated response, ‘yeah.’
But with the rest of the film being so clever, I guess that’s the nature of Neo. Not Neo. Mr. Andrews, still stuck in The Matrix. Even so, the re-layered moments I wasn’t convinced about, like the annoying self-professed ‘geek’ colleague of Mr Anderson remained, annoying.
The film does ramp up and yes there’s a ‘fresh’ take here that will get you thinking. I just wasn’t as convinced as the original because the characters spent so much time making fun of themselves to cover the forced sentiment that would have otherwise been too cheesy.