Review of The Matrix Resurrections (2021) by Myrilla — 23 Dec 2021

What could have been a promising start with fresh characters turns quickly into a frustrating meta-critique on the frustration of the creation of the film before our very eyes.

The next two hours of runtime is tired nostalgia bait, beating a dead horse to the point of necrophilia, and showing off all the weaknesses of the original trilogy.

Any new and interesting ideas are presented to the audience in a single line and then discarded. New characters are introduced as replacement for old characters, and returning characters get swept into the ongoing action porn with no chance for depth or exploration. If you find anything to like about the film, trust it to be discarded almost immediately so that we can spend more time getting lazily **** by questionable reality that has been portrayed and explored better in dozens of films since the release of the original trilogy.

The quality of the film varies from scene to scene, and not just the laughable intercuts to older material. The whole thing ends up feeling like a season of a TV show recut to a feature film. The fight choreography starts great. It was easy to follow the action and the visual language of the characters is distinct. I honestly can't tell if the fights stay interesting visually, because the lack of stakes and consequence make the fights a tiring waste of time in an already overlong film. The wardrobe seeming to lose momentum in terms of vibrancy and distinctness over time doesn't help this.

The Matrix Resurrections wants to keep telling Neo's story. It doesn't want to explore any of the consequences of the original trilogy. It doesn't want to move on and explore the world it has created. It all feels so sad and shallow. I left this film with no new questions, just emptiness.