SPOILER Review of The Matrix Resurrections 

SPOILER Review of The Matrix Resurrections 

By Merick N.H.Ulrik

This is a Spoiler Review of the film the Matrix Resurrections. So please do not read any further if you do not want the plot spoiled or events disclosed. Let me say I was excited to see this movie. Because it was a chance to see Keanu Reeves again in his iconic role of Neo.

But after 45 minutes into the movie, I was bored and feeling like I was in for another “Last Jedi-ish” film. And the truth was not far from that.

What I liked about the film.

Neil Patrick Harris’s acting was on point as Neo/Anderson’s therapist, who is secretly the creator of the current Matrix and evil mastermind. This part of the plot was interesting. The reason is that the therapist could reinforce to Neo that his dreams of the Matrix were psychotic delusions.

Everything was just a bad dream.

This part of the plot was refreshing. Firstly, Neo is a famous video game designer and creator of the hit game The Matrix. Secondly, his therapist played by Neil Patrick Harris is helping him through his inability to tell fantasy from reality. Thirdly, Neo sees Trinity at a local coffee shop but her name is Tiffany. She is Wife and Mother in her new identity, and she has no memory of Neo or Her past life. Fourth, Neo or Anderson is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Bored with his life and feeling out of place, he can’t tell if he is in the Matrix or just psychotic. Everything started kind of refreshing, so where did the film lose me?

So apparently, Hollywood is out of ideas!

Let’s make a Matrix movie and basically take everything Neo and Trinity fought for and erase it and bring them back to life and put them in the Matrix again. The reasoning as to why the machines resurrected the two humans who brought the whole Matrix down is thin at best! It’s explained that they wanted to study them, so they resurrected them and put them back in the Matrix. The fact as to how they could resurrect someone who dies in a huge explosion is never explained.

So things got Wacky and Woke.

Neo is back and so is Morpheus. But it’s not the very strong male character played so well by actor  Laurence Fishburne. Instead, we get a new gay Morpheous, who is a sentient computer program character. He is not the original Morpheous but he’s Morpheus for some reason. The new gay sentient program Morpheus is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Yahya’s performance seems contrived, he takes the red pill from Bugs played by Jessica Henwick, and his transformation to Morpheus is portrayed as somewhat comical.

No room for heroic men in the post Patriarchy of Hollywood.

Jessica Henwick as Bugs, the sexy-looking young female captain of a ship, one of our main characters in the story. She disobeys orders at every level to rescue Neo or independently do whatever she pleases (That’s actually pretty cool).The actress is 30 at the filming of this movie but she looks 24, I actually like her. My only criticism is that she doesn’t seem like a captain- type to me, but maybe that’s just because I am blinded by the patriarchy. After all, maybe in the future rank isn’t achieved by merit but randomly given to make everyone feel included. Henwick is a fun actress to watch. I enjoyed her on Netflix’s The Iron Fist.

No Country for Competent Men.

Especially not Neo, He can’t remember how to fight or fly or anything at first. New gay Morpheus tries to bring him back with a quick fight training scene. He doesn’t want to fight again at first and is discouraged when he learns that all He and Trinity fought for didn’t actually stop the Matrix from rebooting. Come on, that is pretty disappointing; those last three movies didn’t accomplish anything permanent after all. Later Neo remembers how to fight and dodge bullets and make force fields for literal “plot armor” but he can’t remember how to fly. Because If he remembered how to fly it would take all tension out of the movie so he has to stay flying-challenged.

They used a younger, sexier Agent Smith.

Not having Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith was a bad choice in my humble opinion. Fans would have given brownie points to see him return and why couldn’t he have? He’s a computer program after all. Hugo Weaving’s original performance shines more so today. No random actor can match Weaving’s voice. That was a big disappointment.

It was like The Force Awakens all over again.

The writers and directors decided to shit on the original cast to make it like nothing they did mattered. Neo couldn’t remember how to fly but Trinity ends up flying to save Neo and herself, saving the flying-challenged Neo. The CGI fighting just didn’t seem impressive anymore after years of now and it was impressive to see like it was in the 90s.

The story ends after Trinity saves Neo by learning to fly first. They go back into the Matrix now as Super Saiyan versions of themselves to remake the Matrix how they want to so they can live in their own Metaverse.

This could have been a good movie.

It could have been a defining film. At a time when people feel manipulated by world governments and large media companies and tech giants. People to date in 2022 do feel like they are being controlled like in the movie The Matrix. The Matrix Resurrection could have been an emotional plea for freedom or at least escapism. But sadly it was just a very contrived movie and not very entertaining. The diversity felt forced. Actually, in a way, it lacked a piece of diversity with no strong heterosexual male characters. Neo was burned out and like Luke Skywalker from the Last Jedi. I have to wonder why Keanue Reeves even agreed to do this movie?

In Summary: The Worst Movie I have seen from 2021-2022! 

But I haven’t seen the Eternals yet. I recommend if you have to see it, wait till it’s on Netflix or Amazon Prime.  The bottom line is, this movie should not have been made. Why can’t Hollywood come up with new ideas and new Franchises instead of ruining Star Wars and The Matrix? I Give it 1 Star out of 5 and would give it 0 if that was an option.