There’s a scene in Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” her romantic, metatextual return to the franchise that made her and her sister Lilly stars, that encapsulates what sets this franchise apart from any other. Neo sits in reality contemplating whether he should re-enter the matrix to save Trinity: “I never believed I was the one. But she believed. It’s my turn to believe in her.”
The unbreakable bond between Neo and Trinity, a romance that transcends dimensions and time, is the human engine that propels this steampunk vehicle. Because for Wachowski, great epic filmmaking isn’t solely derived from spectacle. It begins, evolves, and transcends through humanist aims. In this entry, contrary to what the Oracle told Neo during “The Matrix Revolutions,” every beginning does not have an end. Love never dies. Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” a fun, albeit messy metatextual sequel that struggles to find its narrative footing, soars whenever Wachowski focuses on sci-fi’s best power couple.
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Just about every component of ‘Resurrections’ suffices as a spoiler. With that in mind, the basic beats of the plot, sans any reveals, find Neo (Keanu Reeves) as Thomas Anderson, a famous game designer partnered with a tech bro named Smith (Jonathan Groff). Anderson sometimes frequents a coffee shop where he catches glimpses of a woman named Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss). He can’t place it. But Smith and Tiffany seem familiar to him. Their every word brings flashbacks, self-referential scenes to the prior Matrix films, to his mind. To quell these visions, he regularly seeks therapy from his prim, calm analyst (Neil Patrick Harris).
Much like the previous “Matrix” entries, “Resurrections” explores identity through Neo. His mental health struggles at the outset of the film more than hints at the gender dysphoria that’s always been key to “The Matrix” as an allegorical trans text. It’s somewhat disappointing, however, that in 2021, Wachowski didn’t make the subtext straight up text by casting a trans actor. It was reasonable amid the stringent cultural politics of the 1990s to use metaphor as a veil. Doing so today makes less sense.
Instead, the director hinges the early narrative on whether Anderson’s memories are real. While Wachowski doesn’t immediately provide the answer (the reveal is a sharp and inventive reintroduction to these characters), she does play with the metatextual opportunities the premise provides. She not only makes visual references to her past films. She cynically critiques the very reason for her returning: The movie would have been made with or without her. In any other filmmaker’s hands, these sequences would feel grating, ham-fisted winks to the fandom. But when viewers consider that Wachowski and her sister went from producing one of cinema’s most financially successful franchises to fighting for budgets within two projects, you sense the ire from a filmmaker returning in the hopes of conjuring up a box office hit that’ll finally lead to the movies she wants to make.
In any case, Wachowski dutifully, yet playfully, rebuilds the world she left: She introduces a blue-haired, gunslinging character named Bugs (a kinetic Jessica Henwick) who’s been searching for Neo for years. The “why” is a spoiler. The “how” of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II playing Morpheus is too. But no matter the secrecy, both actors are teeming with intoxicating energy and are having the time of their lives. They represent the positive, passionate fandom that resulted from the movies: Their characters know every memory from Neo’s life, every fashion choice. Their chic assortment of suits, sunglasses, and hair color, designed by Lindsay Pugh and Tom Davies, recalls the 1990s but is distinctly modern.
While the first hour of “Resurrections” provides plenty of laughs from Wachowski poking fun at the franchise, the middle portion of the narrative sags under the metatextual elements. You begin to wonder if this movie is about anything or if it’ll just be two-plus hours of Wachowski trolling. The unspectacular fight scenes certainly don’t help matters.
Cinematographers Daniele Massaccesi and John Toll understand the full-shot compositions, the slick Western, Neo-noir fusion needed to give action set pieces their energy. But the fight choreography isn’t remotely as inventive. It misses the open palette that combined varying forms of martial arts to enthralling ends that’s present in the previous ‘Matrix’ films. The worst fight scene, a lifeless volley of punches and barely felt kicks, occurs in a dusty warehouse and brings a classic character to deliver a painfully unimaginative diatribe on the modern world.
It’s not until the final third of “Resurrections”, when Wachowski refocuses the movie solely on Neo trying to save Trinity, that she discovers not a way to reinvent the franchise, but the soul of it too. Because when Reeves and Moss are on screen together their unmistakable chemistry rekindles hot enough to warm a city. A comfortability, one that comes with age, where life has taught you some loves can’t be found elsewhere, fills the air between them. All the years and hardships these characters have endured are present in both actors’ eyes.
The conclusion, in which Neo and Trinity are on her Ducati twisting and gliding through streets, evading villainous programs dive-bombing from skyscrapers, is the film’s strongest action set piece. But it’s a scene atop an office building’s roof, recalling the first ‘Matrix,’ where Wachowski alters the messiah mythology the previous trilogy depended so heavily upon. The decision is brilliant and reimagines the focus beyond a lone savior. It also opens the door for more sequels.
Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections” isn’t without rough patches. The director carries the metatextual jokes too far. For a large swath of time, the narrative feels aimless. New characters aren’t wholly fleshed out. Returning figures become superfluous after their initial use wanes. The soundtrack lacks memorable needle drops and the score verges on repetitive. But the bones of what makes a great ‘Matrix’ movie: Neo and Trinity — are as strong as ever. It’s that timeless romance that makes “The Matrix Resurrections” a vivid and boundless new beginning. [B]
“The Matrix Resurrections” arrives on HBO Max and in theaters on December 22.