The green cursor flashes. SWAT team. Dark and moist gloss composition. A woman in leather. Not much has changed – SWAT guys still shoot women walking along walls. He’s Bugs (Jessica Hanwick), he’s bonded with another version of Morpheus (Yaya Abdul-Matin II) and his action-packed gameplay is confirmed. People are still trapped in the Matrix of evil computer robots, and warriors constantly jump between simulations. That and the real dirty world.
So it’s only a matter of time before Neo (Reeves) gets back there.
But didn’t he die at the end of the original trilogy? Yes, but did you pay attention to the title of this film? Think again of mortal Thomas Anderson, a loner who seems haunted by memories of things that never happened – OR ARE. The adventures of the new machines we saw between 1999 and 2003?
They are the core of Anderson’s acclaimed creative industry trilogy of video games. His boss, Smith (Jonathan Groff), please note his name, call him and tell them his parent company, WARNER BROS. Please note italics and all capital letters, needs another sequel.
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We learn that Thomas is troubled and lonely. He attempted suicide while standing on the edge of the building, believing that he could fly. He is in therapy led by a man, oddly known only as an analyst (Neil Patrick Harris). Who gives him medication to protect his psychotic disorder from reality.
And hey, guess what’s in the prescription bottle? Blue pill. Hey, Bro [packing bowl], drop the needle on the Jefferson Airplane record, right? Thomas often visits a cafe called Simulate (ha!), where he sees a woman who makes him feel emotions.
A mysterious feeling as if she might love him. And fight and die with him in a revolution in the past. Feelings in a spider web of being trapped in someone else’s memory or something. One day she greets and finds out her name is Tiffany and played by Kari-Ann Moss. So we know what happened. And by the way, she loves motorcycles. But it stops here because he has a son and a husband named Chad. And everything we’ve seen about Mr Anderson tells us he’s not a homewrecker.
Remembering the gloom of the pseudo-life and the joys of the unconscious life:
When he appeared, Thomas reluctantly took the opportunity to be Neo, a superhero. He was reborn in a bath of clear phlegm; he fought in the dojo against the “new” Morpheus; he informed him about the state of the human-machine relationship.
But life is meaningless without Tiffany Slash Trinity, who she knows can rise like her by seeing the lubricant. But rescuing them from The Matrix is a dangerous endeavour. As it will provoke a malicious computer and possibly restart the war. But the heart wants what it wants.
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Go through all the flashing clues for the know-it-all film. And you’ll find that Thomas/Neo and thus Lana Wachowski struggle with great ideas: old age, wisdom, longing, regret, pain, loss. And it’s interesting to see how the evil forces of the Matrix enlighten humanity’s legendary heroes by using madness as a weapon. Which at least has nothing to do with what Morpheus has to say about fear and nostalgia.
But once we got to the middle – wow, boy. Wachowski includes enough flashbacks from the first three films to bring Resurrection very close to the clip’s show. Both he and co-screenwriters David Mitchell and Alexander Hemon bury their great ideas. And dramatic torpedo moments with a series of gruelling speeches: one by Jada Pinkett Smith as an adult general.
One by Harris so we can get a long-term view of the opposition. One of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, one of the few neo allies, wears a beautiful costume. But doesn’t show a drop of charisma other than a genuine desire to help her character reunite with the heroine. It’s as if all this talk is meant to counterbalance Reeves’ signature monosyllabic. Which becomes increasingly minimalist with age.
In the first three matrices:
Wacows’ verbosity is offset by the thrill of violence (especially in Reloaded, with its chase on OTT Highway). Not so with Resurrections, which is very disappointing when staging its action series. I realize you can’t reinvent the wheel again and again.
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Bullet Time reinvents the action of the digital age, mind you – but this film lacks the big money shots that are the main product of the franchise and chopping big chunks into one soft Salad ball, hit back, and half-hearted kung fu. All because a guy misses his old girlfriend?
Because without love, would this world, or a parallel world or another floating world, be meaningless? Please. Say something I don’t know, show me something I haven’t seen. The Matrix Resurrections is a disappointment. Just because they dig, it doesn’t mean you have to consume them.