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I haven't been able to find a topic for Matrix Resurrections, so I'm posting this here. Resurrections just popped up on Netflix in the last few days, so I watched it right away. Originally, the news of a new Matrix movie was very exciting, with lots of speculation about the plot and characters, but bad reviews put me off seeing it in the cinema. Having seen it online now, I have mixed feelings about it.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

What really strikes me is how unnecessary it was. The original trilogy seemed to to leave the door open for sequels, but otherwise it would have stood alone just fine without any further stories. So much of the movie seemed to pay homage to, or echo, scenes from the originals, particularly the first Matrix movie.

The plot continues some decades after the third movie, with Neo back in the Matrix as a software programmer and game developer. The Matrix itself is talked about as a game that Neo (as Thomas Anderson) created to much acclaim. There is a lot of meta-commentary in the script, lots of talk about how the original Matrix series was mindblowing, but fraught with the public latching on to one aspect like 'bullet time'.

Trinity turns up as a married mother in a coffee shop and has no memory of her previous life; Neo is plagued with the notion that something is not right, and goes to a psychiatrist and takes medication to handle his mental problems. Over the course of the movie, Neo awakens thanks to new characters, and Trinity does, too.

There are obvious stylistic changes to the movie from the originals: the fight scenes are far less cleanly shot and edited, much more choppy and shaky. This is disappointing as even the Wachowski's Ninja Assassin had much better fight scenes. The movie changed the green hued world of the Matrix for shades of blue (in reference to the blue pill, perhaps) but with swatches of green throughout.

There are also a lot of plot parallels between Resurrections and the original Matrix, making this feel like the Matrix take on Star Wars - The Force Awakens.

I feel that with so much meta commentary about the original movies and public reaction, this movie was like Lana Wachowski's way of answering critics and poking fun at the public's obsession with the movie. It's a well made movie, but it doesn't really take the series in new directions. Neo and Trinity are back, the war against the machines is still on, and it ends with them flying into the sky like in the first movie. Even the end credit song is a cover/remix of the original.

It's a fun watch, but don't expect your mind to be blown like with the first movie. I'm glad I waited for it to arrive on streaming platforms.

This is one of those movies that seemed like it was supposed to be a High Profile Blackbuster but just kind of came and went without anybody caring.

I never really understood the fascination about MATRIX. I remember watching the first one and being bored out of my mind. When it started to actually get entertaining, the movie ended. The whole concept of "life is a virtual world" never really seemed that mindblowing to me, to be honest. I watched the second one on the cinema and I recall being a absolute disaster, which made me skip the third one.

One of those movies that someday down the line, I'll sit down and watch it on some steaming service.

Lana Wachowski was told by Warner Bros that they were going to make this movie with or without her. I give her credit for taking the movie and making it on her own terms. 

I've never seen any of the MATRIX movies. I got close, but they were pulled off Netflix just before I got around to them.

Saw it when it was launched on streaming. The meta comments struck me as sort of fun, but the rest not. The Wachowskis seem to have lost their mojo a long time ago. I liked both "Speed Racer" and "Cloud Atlas", but "Jupiter Ascending" was awful.

Do yourself a favor,  just watch 'Dark city' whever you have an urge to watch a matrix movie. Or read a sonya blue novel, they're both better than a matrix movie.