The Matrix Resurrections Review

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Matrix Resurrections doesn’t want to exist. It arrogantly and smugly reminds viewers of this for some 90-minutes until the final half hour turns into a romantic fantasy. At least then Matrix Resurrections features a plot. The rest is tiresome angst.

There’s never been a movie that quite literally bitches that it was made. Some may find that abrasive attitude attractive, even daring. It’s not. Warner Bros. still signed off on this script – it’s a game to the corporate suits. Anyone lured into thinking this is somehow rebellious plays along, donating to the company’s quarterly reports.

The Matrix led to decades of critical interpretations over allegories and meaning. Matrix Resurrections just dumps it out directly like depressive vomit, ensuring the insufferably whiny, childish deliberateness isn’t given room to be anything other than anti-corporate venom.

This is a terrible movie – might as well be blunt since Matrix Resurrections is

At times, it’s comically dorky about fan culture. Were the whole thing not so forced into a nostalgia bubble that spends more time remembering the first three movies, maybe Matrix Resurrections has a point. Instead, the story concerns reconnecting with the past, less about love between Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) than it is bringing those characters back to remind us of those originals. Wonder how anti-capitalist Matrix Resurrections is? Consider how many action figures will sell based on their return.

This is a terrible movie – might as well be blunt since Matrix Resurrections is. Christ-like metaphors (from the title alone) make a return, staring in awe over the nostalgia of seeing Keanu Reeves back, putting him in the midst of true believers. Decades on, this world now employs Neo experts who studied the man and his history, forming a religion around things already seen by the audience.

The original Matrix, because of its success and influence, turned into a “had to be there” moment in cinema. That was an outrageous, daring, and new idea. Matrix Resurrections, in a montage scene, throws its hands up at the idea of doing this again. Videogame designers debate how to make this fresh, falling back on “guns and shootouts.” Cute? No. Desperate? Yes. In the most grandiose action during the two hour plus runtime, Matrix Resurrections becomes a clunky zombie movie, only with digital undertones the script spent an hour trying to explain. When not recalling the first three movies, the dialog then spills dreadful exposition to lay out how this sequel came to be.

A decade from now, maybe Matrix Resurrections becomes one of those movies critics got wrong. Probably not though. Much as it supposedly goes against “the system” and “the man,” it’s overtly playing those games in such a pitifully desperate way, it’s merely shameful. The final words make a progressive statement against control in a mock libertarian way, and even that fails to connect.