The Matrix Resurrections 
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss
My Rating: [rating=4]
It’s been 18 years since Neo saved the world. Suddenly he’s back in the Matrix as Thomas Anderson, lead designer for a video game series based on his experience. It was real, wasn’t it? He has vivid dreams about it. Is he just a brilliant game designer suffering from severe psychosis?
Rumors have been stirring for years about a possible fourth movie. I think many didn’t think it was ever going to happen; and then that teaser trailer dropped and the Internet lost their mind. But did it live up to the hype?
Bigg’s Review and Analysis
This movie has a much bigger cast then I was expecting. Obviously we know Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are reprising their roles, but there are a couple more familiar faces and cameos which I will leave that for you to find.
The addition of Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus (more on that in a bit) really rounds out the cast.
This movie is getting some harsh criticism. I’m not going to lie, don’t enter into this movie lightly, and you need to have seen the first three. It’s a little confusing in a few spots, but puzzling in a good way; at least in my opinion. It’s the kind of movie where I feel like the more I watch it the less confounded I’ll be. And I will watch it again, but I do feel like it’s the weaker of the four movies.
There are a couple of details I’d like to discuss but I feel I should do this first …
The following content contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.
Morpheus, Paying Homage and Questions
I’m going to start with Morpheus. We were all surprised to learn Laurence Fishburne did not return as Morpheus. I suspect that is when the negative opinions began. I chose to remain open-minded about it to see how it was explained.
This movie is full of nostalgia using clips from the original trilogy as part of the story, and it works really well. Laurence Fishburne is not absent from those clips. In fact his version of Morpheus is worshipped but he is dead. They don’t really explain how. Yahya Abdul-Mateen’s version is essentially a re-skinned AI assistant.
The movie basically pays homage to the original films throughout the whole film. Tech lingo is, once again, thoroughly imbedded in the film, which is something I really enjoyed about the first three. Jonathan Groff is great as the re-skinned Smith and NPH is fantastic in his role as the successor to The Architect. You might even say he’s …
I do have questions. Bugs (Jessica Henwick) tells Neo they don’t need to run to phone booths anymore to leave the Matrix. This makes sense considering phone booths are a relic. Good luck finding one. So I guess I’m confused as to how they can actually leave the Matrix now. Also, at the end, Trinity can fly and Neo can’t but I feel like that’s not really explained. Maybe these things might become clear after subsequent viewings. We’ll see.
“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”
– Stanley Kubrick