The Matrix Resurrections

 I'm willing to wager that if polled, 70% of the people about to watch this movie would select 'apprehension' in addition to 'curiosity' and 'excitement' from a list of emotions associated with the impending activity

Reboots and Remakes are nothing new but decade's delayed sequels are something of a novelty, and having been a Matrix superfan (I think it's one of the most relevant cinematic achievements of human-kind) and having been pleasantly surprised by Coming to America II, I was very apprehensive, but I had to do it. For the culture.

Sadly, it disappointed as expected. You know that feeling when you watch a old movie (think Jaws, James Bond etc) 10-20 years after it was released and can't help but laugh at the special effect? I'm sure subsequent generations will do the same with our CGI dragons, and it's not that we believe it's real...we know it's not, but it looks real enough to facilitate and not detract from the story. I was worried that unlike the first three installations, Resurrections would be able to provide sufficient novelty and it didn't. 

Whether this is due to a lack of inspiration on the part of the team (I mean, how many magnum opi does one want) or the fact that we've (as an industry) simply stagnated in our imagination/creative abilities. They say space travel was borne in the minds of Sci-Fi writers not scientists and while every new action flick by default feature even bigger guns, bigger explosions even more improbable stunts. The Matrix Resurrections felt just like another action film. Standard group and one-on-one fight scenes, standard unscathed protagonists and bad guys with terrible aim, standard artillery. Thanks to Fast and Furious we know there's always another level but the Matrix I, II and III were anything but standard.Those movies left us enthralled, spellbound and speechless and set a whole new standard for not just action but the dystopian and sci-fi genres. This isn't to say that the Matrix did nothing new...they didn't, sadly...but no one is doing anything new. Like Nas asked (said)with Hip Hop, is cinema dead?

The Wachowskis inspired a generation and their creation is relevant not just for the superficial premise of the franchise (rise of the machines, alternate realities #whatisreality, population control) but the many, many other concepts presented across the trilogy. Perhaps I missed it, but very little in Resurrections made an impact on me. I won't be discussing the dialogue in faux-intellectual-pseudo-anarcho-socialist gatherings. It didn't even expand my vocabulary, ergo what was even the point. Given the elevator scene in the trailer where everyone was on their phones, I HOPED that there would be a significant 1986-esque critique of how much under the control of machines we are in 2021. Nope. Given what we've been through in real life in the past 15 years- the (re)rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, actual robots, the commercialisation of space travel, a PANDEMIC and the normalisation of conspiracy theories, I HOPED I would be snapping my fingers in the theatre, but No. In today's hypermedicalised, over medicated society, where mental illness, wellness vis a vis distraction and even more meta a whole [misogynistic] subculture that has co-opted the blue vs red pill concept, there was so much to unpack there...but, No.

Resurrections allows us to follow Anderson/Neo as he naturally catches up with what's changed in the real world. No more Zion, now it's Io but the eerily medically accurate pods are still the same, the scrappy patched up spaceship-same, the rustic, almost minimalist Zion couture and aesthetic-same. I sound like a hater, but the only new thing was the genetically engineered strawberries and our current lab grown chicken reality wasn't impressed.

The Matrix introduced novelty not just in special effects but direction and production. Their influence extended into fashion music and dance. 'The Matrix' is a dance move, half of music videos with 'dark' 'sombre' 'urban' treatment drew inspiration from the Matrix. Long black jackets and leather weren't new in 1999 but you can't tell me that the Matrix wasn't serving looks. Equal parts Goth, Vintage and Spacecore. Resurrections tried...they tried and maybe it's our fault for being so out there fashion wise that nothing is surprising, so as cute as the outfits were, again, nothing new.

While I consider Coming to America II more of a pet project and a recorded reunion than a sequel, Matrix Resurrections was actually a movie and they didn't have to 'get the whole band together' but Lawerence Fishbourne's abscence was palpable. Sentimentality could have carried it further and I was happy to have Reeves, Moss and Pinkett-Smith but every new character appeared superfluous and boring. At what point in the first film were you already besties with Neo and Trinity? What's the name of the main coder? The black guy with dreads...you know the guy with the mini laptop. I'll wait. 

Apparently there's no love lost between Fishbourne and the Wachowskis so it's not a case of Victoria Beckham not seeing the bigger significance of a Spice Girls' reunion. The overt use of Fishbourne's likeness and continued references feels odd for an actor who is still with us. His Morpheus hung around like a spectre over Yahya Abdul Mateen II and despite awkward acknowledgement of the awkward, YAMII and his ochre yellow & cerulean suits couldn't shake him off. For a film where death and destruction are central, writing off a character shouldn't have been difficult, and given the proposed time that has elapsed, and obligatory intro/catch-up obituary recap that was included, Morpheus as relevant as he was, could very plausibly died from old age, cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Other options include:

1. Morpheus died, poor some [real] moonshine and move on

2. Morpheus died but had a son- Yahya

3. Morpheus died, may or may not have had a son, but Yahya is not him and is his own new character-similar, yet different

On the plus side, Jonathan Groff brought a familiar but fresh spin on Agent Smith as the perfect tech bro who's actually [gasp] evil. Perhaps Agent Smith didn't have much of a personality and we didn't connect with him they way we did with Morpheus but that's a character that stayed the same in name, partially in role but still different enough that we're not making repetitive comparisons with their predecessor. Neil Patrick Harris of course, slays. Not saying your shrink is out to get you but...I'm not saying your shrink isn't out to get you.

In the end, there are worse ways to spend your time and money and perhaps this is a good reason to organise a Matrix marathon weekend and evaluate how much (or not) you've grown in the past 20 years. From the boardroom brainstorming session, to the post credits Catrix it's a very self aware sequel and reading up on the backstory of it's production, perhaps the Matrix is still ahead of it's time and we'll only get it 20 years from now.