Review of The Matrix Resurrections (2021) by Greenisgood — 28 Dec 2021

TL;DR - Throughout the movie, my most common thought was, how is 90's wirework and dated CGI better looking than a production in 2021. There were some interesting story choices that would have been a fresh outlook. But for whatever reason, the movie itself spends more time making fun of itself rather than building on these interesting story beats, I am still confused whether the parody elements were intentional or unintentional.

The Good.

There were some very interesting concepts in writing, an AI war, sections of AI choosing a side, Neo not being the only one. All of these would have made better setups for a new trilogy. Even though the story had interesting beats there were only a couple of standout performances, Reeves and Moss's chemistry was good akin to old lovers, NPH, Yahya, and Hemwick really felt like they were there and having fun and putting an effort if only the dialogue writing kept up. THE BAD.

The worst and the biggest mistake a Matrix movie can make is to have bad action, unfortunately, this sticks out like a sore thumb. It did not feel like this was going to be a low budget, so the ultra-low-budget editing, the pathetic wire work really damages the film.

The film feels like it simultaneously hates its previous legacy and wants to do everything that the previous trilogy did, it was so jarring. If you add to it the absolutely terrible dialogue writing it would even kill parts of the film where there were interesting story beats going on.

NPH was putting on a good performance as the new architect, but sadly the dialogue given to his character was so bad that he kept coming off as petty and bitc#y rather than a sentient AI.

For all the bad dialogue and confusing story of the first trilogy, the action on screen is some of the best put to screen accompanies with some of the most imaginative usages of CGI, even if it is dated today what they are trying to do is really cool.

The action, the camera work, the editing, the imagination is all so very lazy and almost an afterthought, where did the budget go, this was 150 million on-screen it does not feel like it. If nothing memorable action with good fights were expected, and we know reeves at a minimum can pull it off as he is still currently doing the wick series and moss is in shape and could have pulled it off I think, but sadly this part is the biggest disappointment.

Conclusion.

This movie felt empty, boring and an afterthought in the areas where the original were the strongest, even though there were some good concepts that I would love to see expanded on considering the quality of this film it remains to be seen if it will get a sequel.

However, as it is now, I will not be looking forward to any more matrix, another franchise Ressurection just to be paraded around in its original package and ends up looking like an emaciated dead body in familiar clothing being held up by strings.