The Matrix Resurrections – Take the Blue Pill!

The original Matrix was released in 1999 and was a creative and innovative work of art. He challenged our notion of freedom and reality, but did so in an entertaining and adventurous way. The special effects were amazing and the fight scenes like we’ve never seen before. I remember almost every detail from the original movie. This was followed by two much lower quality suites (in my opinion). None of the follow-up stories ever tracked down the magic created in the original film. We now have a third sequel, and again I’m less than impressed.

The plot is familiar because it is similar to the original film. Neo (Keanu Reeves) has a choice of leaving the comfort of the world he thinks is real (the Blue Pill) or the real world, which is a post-apocalyptic dystopian desert run by sentient computers (the Red Pill). Neo is believed to be “The One”, a type of savior who leads the rest of the human race to freedom. Which he does a bit in the franchise’s third film 19 years ago. This story is 60 years later and is about Neo trying to save his one true love, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). Aided by Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Captain Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and his crew. They must fight the Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris), a new program that runs an updated version of The Matrix.

The story is interesting, and I will say that I think Keanu Reeves has come a long way with his acting. His dialogue was delivered with a smooth natural cadence. He and Carrie-Anne always have a great chemistry and their story was the climax of the plot. There were a lot of fight scenes and bullets flying and falling just like in every other Matrix movie. That was part of the problem, there was nothing new about this movie. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, there just wasn’t anything special. Maybe that’s because the original Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) didn’t return. Morpheus is now played by Yahya, and there was nothing wrong with his performance, but Laurence’s cool sweetness was missing. Jonathan Groff replaces Hugo, and once again, does a good job as a new version of Agent Smith, but Hugo Weaving has such an “alien” quality to him. His vocal rhythms and tones were the perfect nod to Neo, but sadly lacking in Jonathan’s performance. Neil Patrick Harris also feels a bit out of place in the film. Again, there’s nothing wrong with any of the performances, but together they just didn’t give this movie anything special that made people go “Wow!”.

Likewise, the special effects are all top notch, but there was nothing new, nothing added. The plot is interesting and some aspects of the plot are intriguing and thought-provoking, but the script felt convoluted and pretentious. Like a film that wants to be “deep” but in reality is shallow, with a lot of glitter on the surface. Hollywood needs to wake up and stop trying to go back to blockbuster movies and hit on them with substandard movies just to get them the last dollar.