Dir: Lana Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves; Carrie-Anne Moss; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Writers: Lana Wachowski; David Mitchell; Aleksander Hemon
David Mitchell has written a total of 4 things. None were original, all were adaptions. Cloud Atlas, The Voorman Problem, one episode of a TV show, and this.
Aleksander Hemon has written a total of 3 things. The same Sense8 episode as David, Love Island and this.
Why Lana chose these two, I have no idea, but it was certainly not for their credentials or their body of work. It is unfortunate because it shows in this movie.
Lana and Lily Wachowski wrote the original all by themselves, and it seems here that Lana is in need of that collaboration once again. David and Aleksander were unable to fill Lily’s void – and there seems to be no reason at all to think they could have filled it in the first place.
I don’t want to get into spoilers because the film is still out in theaters and is still streaming on HBO MAX, and I don’t want to discourage anyone from taking a peek at it. There were a lot of fans of the first one, and it was quite groundbreaking and changed the way we enjoy films today.
Let’s just say Lana found a wonderful way to explain how we can have this movie after the first 3 films. She accomplished that – and the wonderful thing about The Matrix is you never know what’s real and what’s not – so she could have had a lot of fun with this one and this story could go on for hundreds of years.
The Matrix Resurrections was made pretty quickly – and Lana seemed to have a great idea for this film, up to a point. It seems like everything runs smooth for a short while, and then she runs into trouble about really explaining what happened and what has to happen next.
The VFX in this film are great, the acting is the same, without Laurence Fishburne however, you do lose some credibility. There are some new things that Lana introduces, which are pretty cool. Some new Matrix toys, gadgets, and ways to getting around. Also a new function that the Architect uses within the Matrix is pretty cool too. The new crew is great, the new captain is amazing, and fresh, and cool.
The big problem I have with this new cast is part of the old cast.
Jada Pinkett Smith reprises her role as Niobe. This is a problem for me, because Jada is not the best of actors and her portrayal of a very old Niobe just doesn’t ring true and seems forced, and therefore is just annoying. I mean out of everybody to pick to grow old from the first 3 films, they chose Niobe?
So that kind of rubbed me wrong – and also why Neo and Trinity still have powers kind of makes me scratch my head. I mean, didn’t the machines take care of all that? The original architect said an “anomaly” such as Thomas Anderson pops up every so often, so why is it Keanu Reeves again?
Lots of holes and scratching of the head on this installment, and I am a huge fan of the franchise, but this one seems like it really wasn’t thought out or flushed out properly or as well as the others. It seems like Lana got so excited about her initial premise and a really cool explanation about what happened – she just forgot that she had to write the rest of the movie.
I think Lana hit some walls here that she could just not climb over. Which is unfortunate because like I said, I love this franchise. When it comes to The Matrix, it’s just tough to crack the code.
