Review: The Matrix Resurrections

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

A series that has gone from "whoa" to "wha?," the fourth "Matrix" film is both a welcome return for a Hollywood blockbuster and a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's good to see a thinking person's tentpole film after reboots every few years of every comic book series imaginable, and every franchise of years past being dredged up to provide nostalgia porn. 

In fact, the first third of "The Matrix Resurrections" engages in an extended meta joke about the nature of milking nostalgia for financial gain and how boring the concept of rebooting actually is. More on that in a bit.

On the other, the elements of the "Matrix" sequels that didn't quite work remain. In fact, as the plot involving the different realities in which Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and their cohorts navigate goes further and further down the rabbit hole - Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" even plays on the soundtrack in what might count as a nod and a wink - the harder it is to actually follow what the hell is going on. This is useful for the filmmakers in that no one will be able to figure out whether the damn thing actually makes sense or not.

The film is at its best in the first third when it focuses on Neo, once again going by the name Thomas Anderson as a successful video game creator, working on his latest update to a popular video game he created called, you guessed it, "The Matrix." The game includes segments from all of the "Matrix" movies, which gives the filmmakers license to utilize shots from previous films, so we see a younger Reeves, Moss and Laurence Fishburne, who has been replaced by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus.

During meetings, Neo and his fellow video game collaborators discuss the "reboot" of the video game, and whether such a thing is advised. The concept of "Matrix 4" is discussed and whether that's an advisable thing. All in good fun, but also a little creepy when you consider how Warner Bros., which produced the film, released "Space Jam: A New Legacy" earlier this year. 

In that film, a variety of characters from Warner Bros. properties - "The Matrix" included - popped up. While director Lana Wachowski may be parodying the concept, the company producing the film might just be taking stock and thinking how to combine "Matrix" storylines with, say, DC Comics characters or some other "property."

Anyway, the second best thing about the new "Matrix" film is the romance between Neo and Trinity, who is living as a woman named Tiffany in some simulation, and has a husband and two children. She occasionally runs into Neo in a coffee shop, and the two could swear they've met before. As the film's plot becomes more and more labyrinthine and involves Neo breaking free from a simulated prison designed by a nefarious shrink played by Neil Patrick Harris to save Trinity, who's in a similar prison, it becomes more confusing.

There are some impressive action sequences, although they're fairly similar to the ones you've already seen in the previous "Matrix" films. Agent Smith is back, but is this time played by "Mindhunter" star Jonathan Groff, and some other minor characters from the original series make cameos. From a visual standpoint, the film is impressive, and despite its jokes about nostalgia, that is a factor that makes returning to this world pleasant.

So, no, "The Matrix Resurrections" isn't going to change the genre of which it is a part as the first in the series did. It's often fun, and audiences will get a fair amount of mileage from the reunion of Reeves and Moss, both of whom are quite good here. It's an occasionally successful sequel that pokes fun at its reason for existing, but also caves in and gives the goods that audiences are likely expecting. It has its cake and eats it too. Often enough, that's amusing, even if you have no idea what's going on from one scene to the next.