The New Matrix is Awesome, You Guys are Just Mean
A review of Matrix Resurrections. Title Inspired by Cosmonaut Variety Hour on YouTube.
It’s pretty much universally agreed that The Matrix was a moment in cinema history. The release of that movie and its popularity changed the modern perception of what sci-fi films can be in a similar way that Star Wars did before it.
It also provided a lot of impressive technological innovations in film.
The movie struck a chord with people. Even though the first two sequels weren’t well-received, the nostalgia and success of the first film pretty much guaranteed that a reboot or sequel was going to happen at some point or another.
The most surprising thing about this movie coming back isn’t any of the nostalgia, impressive CGI, or action scenes either. The most surprising thing about this movie is that it shares the same plot almost beat-for-beat with Space Jam 2: A New Legacy.
Count that as two Warner Brothers movies this year that told a story where the main character in the film calls out the real company of Warner Bros that the movie you’re watching is just a cash grab.
Luckily this movie is only a cash-grab in theory. It calls out that if this movie had gone the wrong way, it would be pointless callbacks like a lot of other reboots, especially from the past 5 years.
Instead, director Lana Wachowski comes back to the franchise that made her a household name in the first place. She smartly uses this as an opportunity to have a sequel to a beloved movie from the 1990s to tell a story about being defined but your most popular achievements.
The first part of this movie deals a lot with other people telling the creator of The Matrix what makes The Matrix cool, memorable, and nostalgic. People telling the creator what The Matrix means, including various different popular interpretations of the first film from the past decade, is a major part of the story. In Resurrections and real life, some people look at the old Matrix movies and view them as being a metaphor for coming out of the closet. Some people watch it and get a message about the destruction that capitalism causes to the world. And some people will just watch The Matrix and think the action sequences are awesome and that Kung-Fu is cool.
The thing about it is that none of these readings are necessarily wrong or bad. It’s just weird when other people are telling the creator of something that they should think about their own creation.
That’s why I think this movie works, even though a lot of it is revisiting moments from the first movie. This movie provides a commentary on what Modern Blockbusters are doing to us as an audience. The film brings up that getting excited about characters you love from your childhood coming back into your life shouldn’t overshadow the life that’s right in front of you.
But if I have to boil down The Matrix franchise into its core and very essence of what it’s trying to say, it has nothing to do with any different lenses or interpretations of the symbolism.
The core that I think The Matrix movies are all about is joy and self-expression. More specifically, it’s about the joy and internal happiness that you achieve when you finally accept yourself for who you are.
So, while being meta, this movie isn’t necessarily cynical in the same way the aforementioned Space Jam 2 was. The Matrix movies were always earnest and sincere. I think that’s why the films are so close to so many people. The movies aren’t trying to be quippy or make you laugh at the nonsense of what’s happening in the story.
Everything in these movies is presented at face value, and because it’s so straightforward, that’s why people get so many different meanings out of these movies.
All of these films are works of art in their own way. The first movie will always be the most popular one in the franchise, but personally, I will always appreciate the second movie in the quadrilogy, and this movie to be the bigger standouts in the franchise. Because those two movies were the weirdest and the most experimental. You can tell the Wachowskis were trying to send a message and trying to get people to think during these movies that are mostly about action sequences. But they’re also trying to engage with it on the only level that it’s just cool to watch and pleasing to the eye.
The lore in The Matrix movies is complicated. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what a lot of stuff in this movie was happening towards the end. But I don’t mean that in a bad way because it’s not like I was lost out of disinterest or confusion. I was lost because I was in the moment in the film. I was still engaged because of the films’ beautiful aesthetic and production design, the likable characters, and the films’ themes rather than what was literally happening in the plot.
While I could easily describe the 8 different meta meanings on why Jessica Henwick’s character is named Bugs, I can also tell you that the movie is rad and the action sequences are pretty sweet. Not only that but the CGI and special effects were very technologically impressive, it’s overall just a fun and joyous movie.
That’s where the joy comes in Resurrections. While at first it questions and warns of the dangers of being safe and secure watching a story you’ve already seen, it’s also a celebration of those past stories and how they affected us in the first place.
I’m so happy this movie was made, it was one of the most visually impressive and engaging Blockbusters I watched in a long time. And this is coming from someone who just saw Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I adored with all my heart because I’m a massive Spider-Man fan.
This movie is just more interesting and enthralling than most other modern blockbusters. It’s the type of action movie where you don’t have to turn your brain off to enjoy it, and you can engage with it on whatever level personally brings you Joy.
I can’t wait to see what Lana Wachowski does next.
Final Score: 9 out of 10 green numbers falling down a black screen.
