The Matrix Resurrections
“The Matrix” universe has been one I’ve been relatively “meh” about since the first one came out in 1999. I respect it now, but that’s largely come from a larger reconsideration of Lana and Lilly Wachowski as filmmakers since I finally connected with them on “Speed Racer,” and especially, “Cloud Atlas.” I still think the world of “The Matrix” in the first three films is good, and the films are more notable for what they did in terms of action filmmaking than philosophical storytelling, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t curious what Lana would have in mind with her fourth film in the franchise, “The Matrix Resurrections.”
It’s only been in the past few years, as I’ve grown more curious (and concerned) about far right politics, and especially the QAnon conspiracy theory, that I realized how the original film’s concept of “taking the red pill” had been co-opted by grifters looking to indoctrinate people into their conspiratorial worldview. So last year, an immortal exchange on Twitter stood out. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted out “Take the red pill!,” to which Ivanka Trump quote tweeted, “Taken.” Commenting on her tweet was none other than Lilly Wachowski, who simply said, “Fuck both of you.” I think it’s fair to say that she didn’t appreciate their co-opting of the ideas in hers and Lana’s trilogy. With “Resurrections,” I feel like we got Lana’s response, and it is fascinating every step of the way.
“Legacy sequels,” wherein a franchise reboots, but brings back original characters and story elements, are almost as tricky a narrative minefield as prequels are. With prequels, you run the risk of spoiling a beloved narrative with over explanation; with legacy sequels, you could stray too far from what made the original story special, or play it too safe, and just dive into nostalgia and fan service. With the screenplay she wrote with Aleksandar Hemon and Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell, Lana is both heading head-long into nostalgia and fan service, but also re-contextualizing the ideas of the initial trilogy in a way that could alienate fans. My favorite “Matrix” was always “The Animatrix,” which fleshed out concepts of the world of
“The Matrix” while also expanding on the ideas the movies presented in ways that could be personal as well as entertaining. “The Matrix Resurrections” is in that vein.
A lot of the sequences early in “Resurrections” are almost beat-for-beat copies of the first “Matrix,” but that is by design. The opening has a character named Bugs (Jessica Henwick) looking on as someone goes through almost the exact same scenario that introduced us to Trinity in the first film. It’s not the same, though, and why would the machines program in such a scenario? That’s one of the fundamental questions at the heart of the film, but we never ask why the filmmakers are opting for this approach; as the film pulls us in further with Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who’s now a video game programmer who made a game of the events of the “Matrix” trilogy in the “real world” the machines have made for humanity, we begin to put the pieces together. But wait, didn’t the world get reset, and Neo die at the end of “The Matrix Revolutions?” Did logic ever stop any franchise like this in the past from retconning people’s deaths? Besides, Lana has a purpose for her retcons, and I’m game for it. Especially when it comes to Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss). Oh sorry, Tiffany.
I will not divulge the hows and whys Neo and Trinity, and their Matrix counterparts, still live and breath, because it’s honestly worth discovering for yourself. What I will say is that I’ve never cared more for the characters than I do in this film. That isn’t intended as a knock on the actors, who played them well in the original trilogy, but Neo and Trinity in the trilogy are thin archetypes whom weren’t given much in the way of lives and backstories beyond how they escaped the Matrix. In this film, I feel as though both of them have struggles and tough choices to make outside of the standard Joseph Campbell hero’s journey tropes they had in the first three. And the performances by Reeves and Moss earn our compassion for each. Yes, part of it is the film playing off of the history we had with them in the earlier films, but making us feel the weight of the choices here is where the actors excel. Both have only gotten better over the years.
Bugs is the main supporting character, and Henwick makes her a rich character to follow (although she is kind of sidelined by the end). Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a fascinating presence as a hybrid character of Agent Smith- he’s first chasing Bugs- before becoming the new Morpheus. If that sounds confusing, it fits in nicely with the ideas of switching identities, and how few people are defined as one thing, that the Wachoskis have long explored in their work, especially in their adaptation of “Cloud Atlas.” But if there’s an established Agent Smith at the start of this film, how does Jonathan Groff seem to be playing the character, as we knew him, later on? The Matrix knows to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Groff’s character is a partner of Anderson’s- what does that make him later on? Neil Patrick Harris has the most intriguing character of the new additions as The Analyst. He is first seen as Anderson’s therapist, but he’s revealed as something more as probably one of the best scenes Lana has ever had a hand in crafting.
Recontextualization is the order of the day. The spectacular wire work and groundbreaking visual effects are not completely gone, but there’s a more visceral impact to the action that the earlier films didn’t have. The main set piece of the film is a great mix of the franchise’s action ideas with what we’ve seen Reeves work in in the “John Wick” movies, and it might be one of my favorite action scenes of the film. Old faces from earlier films do pop up for key roles, and the musical landscape by Don Davis and Juno Reactor is deepened here by Tom Tykwer and Johnny Klimek, two of the composers for “Cloud Atlas’s” breathtaking soundtrack. Lana Wachowski, I feel, is finally delivering the blend of the philosophical and the kinetic people thought they were getting in “The Matrix.” The blend always seemed to lean too much towards the action for me then. It’s exactly right now. What’s next? I can only hope we find out. I never expected to be able to say that in 1999.
“Lana Wachowski, I feel, is finally delivering the blend of the philosophical and the kinetic people thought they were getting in “The Matrix.” The blend always seemed to lean too much towards the action for me then. It’s exactly right now.”
This is exactly why I love Resurrections. For me, it was always the philosophical questions the Matrix raised that hooked me more than anything else. Resurrections delivers on that front.