The Matrix Resurrections Review: Plugged In and Loving It

Along with bringing Reeves and Moss back in front of the camera, The Matrix Resurrections also brings back franchise co-creator Lana Wachowski behind the camera as director and co-writer. She joins other returning members of the cast and crew from the original trilogy in a film that, as its title suggests, is more revival than reboot, bringing the characters, themes, and mythology forward into a new story built on the foundation of the original trilogy.

If that premise sounds familiar, it’s because Resurrections makes a concerted effort to follow the formula of the first film closely, recycling lines of dialogue and even musical cues (Rage Against The Machine, anyone?) from 1999’s The Matrix at various points. It’s all intentional, though, as the film cleverly turns its reverence for the past into a plot point in Neo’s latest adventure.

In Neo’s new reality, his life is defined by the success of the game franchise he designed. Everywhere he goes, he’s surrounded by images from the past. A bust of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) sits in a corner of the game studio, for example, while advertisements featuring Neo, Trinity, and iconic scenes from their adventures pop up here and there. It all serves as a reminder that even in this reality, Neo can’t escape The Matrix. When Thomas is tasked with creating a fourth installment of his game franchise — a series he thought he was done with — the line between reality and simulation gets exponentially fuzzier, not just for him, but for the film’s audience, too.

This self-aware aspect of Resurrections could have easily slipped into unintentional parody, but Reeves plays it with the perfect balance of cautious skepticism and recognition that something is very, very wrong in his life.

Taking the red pill was a decision that changed Neo’s destiny in the original trilogy, and in Resurrections, we get a glimpse of what his life might have been like if he took a different path. In the absence of that (literally) game-changing choice, Neo is far from a resolute, confident figure always thinking several moves ahead, and instead, we get a paranoid, introverted game designer and a fascinating “what if?” scenario.

The meta elements of Resurrections‘ premise also offer plenty of opportunities for humor, and the film delivers on those moments without getting lost in self-promotion. A scene featuring Thomas’ fellow designers arguing about the real meanings of The Matrix games offers a wonderfully self-aware encapsulation of 20 years of conversations regarding the franchise’s philosophical themes, while the iconic “bullet-time” filming technique the 1999 film introduced is put to creative (and somewhat mocking) use at another point in the film.

And yet, despite all of the dissection and deconstruction of the original trilogy that occurs throughout Resurrections‘ first act, it all ends up feeling like an endearing tribute instead of a roast, thanks to the smart ways all of this self-reflection is handled by the film’s cast and creative team.

It’s not all self-referential moments in Resurrections, though. As fans might expect, there’s no shortage of action and explosions, too.

Wachowski and the franchise’s creative team have always done spectacle well, and Resurrections continues that trend with some truly impressive choreography that channels the physics-defying tone of the original trilogy’s fight sequences. Despite how crazy things can get in the world of The Matrix, there are rules to the virtual world they inhabit, and Resurrections does a nice job of simultaneously abiding by those rules and pushing the boundaries of what characters are capable of within it.

The film also is served well by two decades’ worth of evolution in visual effects techniques. Resurrections looks as cutting-edge now as The Matrix did back in 1999, and the film puts all of that modern, VFX power to good use in both its large set pieces and some smaller elements that would have been impossible to pull off 20 years ago — including the presence of a featured character composed entirely of metal beads who emotes and interacts with the human characters.

Still, packing in all of that action comes at a price, and Resurrections gets a bit lost in the mayhem around the film’s midpoint, drawing out one of its most explosive sequences longer than necessary as it reels off explosion after explosion without any forward movement in the plot. The film’s decision to tread water and bask in its own spectacle a little too long feels like a rare miss in an otherwise well-paced story, but it eventually gets back on track and finds its groove again as it enters the final arc.