WHY? WHY! WHY!
I realize this movie is a 2021 release, but since it was so close to 2022, I’m going to also file it under 2022.
I am so glad I didn’t see Matrix Ressurections in the movie theater, because this movie was flat out – horrible. Matrix Ressurections is what The Last Jedi was to the Star Wars, a movie that single handedly, ruined the entire franchise. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a few people out there who loved this movie, but even a broken clock is right at least twice a day.
The real question, is why did Matrix Resurrections suck?
LET’S START WITH THE SCRIPT
Ressurections is written by Lana Wachowski (formally Larry Wachowski), David Mitchell, and Aleksander Hemon. I truly don’t know much about Lana’s writing style, because she co-wrote screenplays with her sibling, including the original Matrix trilogy. Was Lana better at writing action characters? Who knows? But what we do know is that the Wachowski’s were pretty darn good at producing quality fiction, when working together.
But in this movie, instead of getting a product of the Wachowski’s, we got Lana and two other writers.
Well, David Mitchell is known for his novel and movie, Cloud Atlas. The movie, by the way, was co-written by Lana, and directed by the Wachowskis. Here’s an interesting note. Other than Wachowski’s, no other producers has entrusted him to pen their movies. Aleksander Hemon falls into the same boat as David, as all of his employment as a writer comes from the Wachowski’s. Not that it’s a bad thing, because the Wachowski’s are great producers. It’s just that screenwriting is like any other job. If you just have one client who believes in your work, usually that’s not a good sign.
It looked as though David and Aleksander were brought on to replace Lilly.
“[Lana] had come up with this idea for another ‘Matrix’ movie, and we had this talk, and it was actually — we started talking about it in between [our] dad dying and [our] mom dying, which was like five weeks apart…There was something about the idea of going backward and being a part of something that I had done before that was expressly unappealing. And, like, I didn’t want to have gone through my transition and gone through this massive upheaval in my life, the sense of loss from my mom and dad, to want to go back to something that I had done before, and sort of [walk] over old paths that I had walked in, felt emotionally unfulfilling, and really the opposite — like I was going to go back and live in these old shoes, in a way. And I didn’t want to do that.”
– Lilly Wachowski
The Matrix, apparently, is not the same without Lilly.
So, where exactly does it fail in the script?
I can almost sense a story – not!
THE STORY IDEA WAS STUPID (SPOILERS AHEAD!)
When we left the Matrix trilogy, Neo had become a Jesus and a Superman figure. He had super strength, he could fly, and in the end, he sacfriced his life to free his flock. But when we caught up with him in Resurrections, Neo had lost his mojo. He was weak, powerless, sitting on the chair of a psychiatrist, confused and not sure of who he was. And now, apparently, the Matrix was a video game Neo created.
A video game – really? That’s the best excuse they could think of here to continue this trilogy?
Ugh.
What happened to flying Neo? Super-powerful Neo? Jesus-like Neo?
I can’t blame Lilly Wachowski for not wanting to be part of this. It doesn’t sound like an appealing argument.
NO CLEAR ANTAGONIST UNTIL THE 3RD ACT
A script with no clear antagonist wanders. Now, it’s quite alright for a protagonist not to know who will make his life ultimately difficult, and it’s also okay to keep the audience guessing as well. But an audience must have somehwat of an idea, to whom they should point the finger to, even if in the end, there’s a sudden misidirect. In Matrix Ressurections, we weren’t really sure who was out to get Neo because every character’s agenda was a bit complicated. At one point, Agent Smith seemed to emerge as the antagonist. Then it was Niobe. And then it was Trinity, who didn’t want to exit the Matrix. And finally it was his psychiatrist, who was revealed to the be “The Analysist” and was rather weak antagonist.
THE CHARACTERS WERE RATHER BORING
Neo was boring. Trinity was blah. The new Morpheus was uninspiring. The new characters were a buzzkill and very predictable. Almost every charcter spent their entire time on screen overexplaining why they were there, or why the sequel to the trilogy happened. How about letting the audience figure out this puzzle? How about a little less telling and a little more showing? Oh, and can we stop building the new world through exposition and flashbacks?
If Matrix Ressurections were the first Matrix movie, and there were no sequels, maybe – just maybe, this could probably be a pretty intresting movie. But, because we already knew about the characters, knew about the Matrix and so forth, this movie didn’t present us with anything new. There weren’t any cool effects to look forward to, no surprise plot twist, nothing that would keep us on our toes. This literally felt as though this sequel was not well thought out – even though, it was.
ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER WAS A TYPE FOUR “INDIVIDUALISTS”
There’s a lot of Type Fours in movies because writers, who are often Type Fours, project themselves into their characters, even though they say they don’t. In a nutshell, a Type Four is often extremely introspective, and will regularly question their existance. They usually are at odds with cultural norms, and can wander the world trying to find their identity, their purpose, or their authentic self. I like to call them metaphoric thinkers, because they tend to view reality through a difference lens. For example, you may see a blue sky, but they may see meaning, or inspiration. Quite often, when a Four embraces their Five wing, or Intellect persona, they can justify their metaphoric thinking.
Can you see the parallels of the Matrix and the Type Four personality? This is how many Type Four’s think, especiallly when their not well. That they purely just exist, with no purpose.
The problem in Matrix Ressurections was that almost every character was wandering the landscape, looking for a purpose. Everyone from Neo, to Agent Smith, to Trinity, to “The Analyst” was searching for their meaning.
In the real world, there are at least nine base personalities to create characters around, and thousands of different versions of them. Not everyone is a Type Four. That’s unrealistic.
If you want to find out more about Type Fours, click here
THE WHOLE DAMN SCRIPT WAS BORING
I could preach story structure all day and night, but if a script/movie is boring, then it really doesn’t matter. You can have a perfect script, but if it’s boring – IT SUCKS. I had a hard time staying up during this movie, a film that I really looking forward to.
LAMEST ACTING BY KEANU REEVES
I’m a fan of Keanu Reeves, but his acting in Matrix Ressurections was horrible. I’m not sure why he paced through each line as though he was constipated. Was he directed to do that?
ACTION SCENES WERE NOT ANYTHING NEW
The Matrix was known for pushing the envelop of fight choreography when it first came out. New camera angles were invented that were never seen before. Chinese wire fight choreography was implemented. It was great. But in Matrix Ressurections, we saw nothing new. The audience, who has been spoiled by modern CGI, was not treated to anything revolutionary. Dune found a way to wow the audience, even though that was a boring movie. Matrix Ressurections was just – blah.
FINAL GRADE
A bad script, bad acting, hey who’s responsible for that? The director and the producers. I’m sorry, this was bad. I think it’s worth seeing on HBO MAX, but not in the theaters.
GRADE: SUPER F
Steve Young
