FiLM REViEW

from City Pages | News in Review | 12.30.21

HiGHLiGHTS

Maybe not The Matrix sequel you were hoping for, but entertaining at least for, but entertaining at least

e Matrix: Resurrections | eaters, HBO Max | R | 148 min.

It had actually slipped my notice that

a new Matrix movie was in the works, so I was pleasantly surprised when I learned a new fi lm was available, right in time for the holidays. Merry Christmas from the Wachowski sisters.

Many of us wondered what exactly had happened to Neo and Trinity after the end of Matrix: Revolutions. It seemed to sort of wrap things up, and sort of leave us hanging as to exactly what happened at the same time.

With Matrix: Resurrections, it turns out both Neo and Trinity are plugged back into Th e Matrix. Neo is a very successful game designer (his award-winning games is a trilogy about Th e Matrix, poetically) who is depressed. Trinity is a housewife who works on motorcycles and seems vaguely unhappy.

When the two meet in a coff ee shop (also, one of the plotholes of the fi lm: He’s introduced by someone who later is revealed to be one of his handlers - but then why would he introduce them?), they feel a connection somehow. Both are relatively miserable in their lives and can’t fi gure out why, and they both vaguely recognize each other but have no idea why.

It’s an event that’s important to the story, as a crew of renegades from the real world are attempting to bring Neo back. Yep, it’s almost the same as the plot of the fi rst one; or rather, it’s Neo going through the same process again, although now he’s a little more familiar with the process. And no “Whoa, I know Kung Fu!” moment this time.

Much has changed, of course, and he no longer has the sway he once did. In fact, he thinks at fi rst his actions had no impact whatsoever; but I won’t spoil that little plot point other than to say he fi nds out otherwise.

Everything in this new iteration of Th e Matrix is just a little diff erent from the previous fi lms — just enough to keep you off -balance. Mr. Smith is still a bad guy — or is he? Th e new crew seems to be a substitute for the old one, except not only are they on the outs with the main human government but this isn’t explored much. Th ere are some characters in the new crew who I’m not sure are ever even named, and they seem mostly inconsequential. Th ey seem to exist merely as a vehicle for Neo’s purposes more than actual characters.

Th e group’s leader, Bugs, delivers her lines so fast and low that I couldn’t make out half of what she said. It’s almost as if the director moved quickly through any lines that weren’t uttered by Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss.

Without revealing too much, the fi lm seems to set up an area of discord between this ragtag crew and others like them who

still believe that Neo is the one, and the leaders of the human population outside the Matrix, including leader Niobe, who think that’s old superstition and didn’t care for the idea of bringing Neo back. Th at’s good confl ict for the fi lm to play with, but it’s mostly ignored after it’s introduced, mainly to focus on Neo’s mission to pull Trinity back out of the Matrix. It’s not a bad plot, to be sure, and made for an interesting movie. But the broader political climate seems far more interesting to me, and is left unexplored. Th e main takeaway is I left Resurrecus hanging as to exactly what happened at tions with ambivalent feelings on the fi lm. I enjoyed watching it, but couldn’t help but feel like something was off about it. out both Neo and Trinity are plugged back Some said the best part of the fi lm was the beginning, in which Neo is a disaffected game designer being forced to put out a new sequel to his Matrix games (very meta), along with his meet-cute with Trinity in the coff ee shop called “Simulatte” (ha!). Sitting through the focus group meetings where they tell him keywords to (also, one of the plotholes of the fi lm: He’s focus on makes you wonder if the Wachowskis had to do the same for the new vealed to be one of his handlers - but then fi lm. My conclusion is still ambivalent. It’s entertaining enough, and if you were really jonesing to see Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss reprise their roles again, well, you’ll get what you were hoping for. And you’ll learn what happened to Neo and Trinity. But if you were hoping for the philosophical depth of the original trilogy, well, it’s only hinted at here. So see it, be entertained, but don’t expect much of the original. (Bonus: Go read William Gibson’s Neuromancer if you want to see the roots of Th e Matrix series. I’m probably due to re-read the book myself.)