Cyberpunk Review: The Matrix Resurrections

Well folks, the day I waited for with infinite zeal finally arrived: December 22nd, 2021, I finally saw The Matrix Resurrections in theaters! In a giant IMAX theater in the heart of London, no less!

I have a lot of thoughts about the movie and I want to do it justice, so let’s dive right in: Here is my (mostly) spoiler-free review of The Matrix Resurrections, and why you should definitely go see it as soon as you can–although I strongly recommend rewatching the initial trilogy before you do so. Even though it makes enough callbacks and flashbacks in case you forgot, it’s still better to have the trilogy fresh in your mind before losing yourself down the rabbit hole once again.

Familiar Scenes and Repeating Loops

The Matrix Resurrections is about a lot of things, and I’m sure countless articles will be written about its symbolism and intent, just like the trilogy did. What’s different with Resurrections is how meta it is–it’s incredibly self-referential.

It begins with the same Trinity scene in what looks like the same hotel. It has many of the same lines from the first Matrix film. Then as the film progresses, we see new characters offering the same choices to the same titular character.

But something’s changed.

We’ve seen this all before, and yet the story is different. It’s looping, referring to itself in different ways.

Thomas Anderson doesn’t know what’s real or not, but not because he thinks he’s dreaming. This time it’s because he has memories that can’t be real, and hallucinations during his waking hours that makes him question reality and his own mental state.

As with the first film, right off the bat we have a fast-paced action scene where we’re not quite sure what we’re looking at. Suddenly a chase ensues without us understanding the stakes, which makes me wonder whether the audience felt the same way watching Trinity escape from these mysterious men in suits for the first film.

A Quick Start that Briefly Slows Down

Despite a quick start, the pace then slows down a little as Neo, or Thomas Anderson, tries to make sense of who he is and what has happened since we last saw him. This leads into part one of the film, which is the audience following the newcomers (Bugs, Lexy, Seq, and a new Morpheus) trying to reach Neo and free him from the Matrix.

Social Commentary we’ve come to expect

In the process we are privy to a host of meta messages about the original Matrix trilogy, and the world’s apparent response to it. In it Lana none-too-subtly pokes fun at those who aggrandize her own work, from mega-fans to the production company Warner Brothers itself, and even seemingly making a statement of our current society and its addiction to social media.

In this Matrix society, everyone goes to the gym, sips lattes, and is appropriately woke while working at a mostly cubicle-free environment where it’s casual Friday and staff want to be supportive and encouraging, while in reality being maddeningly annoying.

After a bit of fast-paced action to end the first half, the movie enters the second half, which begins with explaining what happened to the world since we last saw it, and then leading very quickly into unplugging someone else from the Matrix–heist part two, basically.

And this is where the pace speeds up, and doesn’t stop until the end of the film. This movie is, in general, incredibly fast paced. A bit like the original trilogy, the moments where it takes a breath is few and far between, and because of that, we don’t have enough time to process what is happening, and yet it’s exhilarating as a result.

What’s the focus?

While there’s a lot of action in this film, the action doesn’t seem like the main focus. It also feels a bit like two heist movies in one, as a team tries to free and disconnect two different people from the Matrix. This film, however, is really a love story at its core between Neo and Trinity. It asks a lot of questions of what it means when they’re apart, when they’re together, and when they’re seeking each other. This is a perfectly understandable focus when we revisit the motivations for Lana Wachowski to revisit the Matrix world after saying she never would for over 20 years. Neo and Trinity returning helped her process her grief when her parents passed away. She explained:

“My brain has always reached into my imagination and one night, I was crying and I couldn’t sleep, and my brain exploded this whole story,” Wachowski said. “And I couldn’t have my mom and dad, yet suddenly I had Neo and Trinity, arguably the two most important characters in my life.”

Other changes compared to the original trilogy

Gone are the green and blue hues, as now Lana Wachowski likes shooting with natural daylight, something she learned when filming Cloud Atlas and then Sense 8. Similar to the beautiful sunrise Sati created at the end of Matrix Revolutions, everything is bright and modern in this film, except for the real world which still remains relatively blue and dark, although even the real world has some new changes. Also gone are the phonebooths to leave the Matrix, as a modern era rarely uses phonebooths anymore, with everyone having smartphones. Instead, headsets and mirrors are used. A final important change is that big bad agents are no longer used–the machines have other ways of keeping humans in line in the matrix. Oh and despite being serious, this film is actually quite funny at times–a lot more than the original trilogy ever allowed.

A Musical Soundtrack to make Don Davis Proud

Another one of my favorite aspects of the original trilogy was the incredible soundtrack Don Davis produced, in particular with his use of a Pile Driver and a full orchestra to create the iconic original soundtrack to the films.

For Matrix Resurrections, the new musical composers are the duo Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, who composed a very brief song for the club scene in Matrix Resurrections called In My Head (the duo were members of the band called Pale 3). I am happy to report that although the duo are no Don Davis by far, the soundtrack is actually quite excellent. Apparently, after the script was written, a storyboard was drawn up and the duo composed the musical soundtrack for the film before the film was actually shot and edited, in order to make the movie match the soundtrack and not vice versa.

It’s fast, epic, bombastic, and filled with plenty of strings and trumpets, with many throwbacks to the original Matrix score. You can listen to the entire Original Soundtrack now on Spotify.

One Critical Note

So far you might think that I thought the film to be perfect, but that is sadly not the case. There is one thing that stands out as different compared to the original trilogy, and that is the quality of the action sequences. While the chases were fun enough, especially in the finale, the fighting sequences were cut fast, a bit shakily, and it is difficult to see them clearly. Especially the dojo scene, the choreography just isn’t as beautiful as what it once was, and it’s very noticeable. One possible reason is that due to the pandemic, they weren’t able to bring in talent from Hong Kong that paralleled the artistic talent of Yuen Woo Ping. Another possible reason is that Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss are a lot older than they once were, and as a result their fluidity of movement is simply hampered by age. Whatever the reason, don’t except the same classic fights like against Neo vs. Seraph in the tea room, or Neo vs. Morpheus in the Dojo. It won’t compare, but it’s good enough, I suppose. Another interesting note is that throughout the entire movie, Neo never picks up a gun. This was surely done intentionally, but if you’re looking forward to a massive shootout with Neo like he did in the first Matrix film, it’s best you rid yourself of that expectation now.

Final Verdict: 10/10

Despite its action sequences, I still loved this film from beginning to end. Maybe it’s because the Matrix has such a special place in my heart, but there was enough new technology, enough social commentary, and enough action for me to like this movie. But the acting, dialogue, and music were all excellent, and along with the quick pacing of this film made it a fun, thrilling, and thought-provoking movie for me to give it a top score. So don’t raise your expectations too high–it’s nothing industry-breaking–but don’t listen to the haters either. This was a divisive, yet wonderful, fun film with a lot of heart, and you’ve gotta go see it.

In case you were looking forward to more in-depth analysis, I will probably be posting a spoiler-filled deeper dive into The Matrix Resurrections sometime soon.

What were your thoughts on this movie? If they’re spoiler-free, let me know in the comments below. 🙂

The Matrix Resurrections: Official Full Trailer

The Matrix Resurrections finally released its official trailer this month, and I’ve finally found some time between moving and getting stable internet back to sit down and unpack everything it revealed. So buckle your seatbelts, folks, because there’s a lot of exciting things that we’ve learned about Matrix 4.

The opening shot

The trailer begins with an opening shot of the top of a hill in downtown San Francisco, with a lot more vibrant hues and colors than we’re used to, considering the green tint to everything we saw in the previous Matrix trilogy. While this may seem confusing to some, it’s important to remember that at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, we see a young Sati next to the Oracle overlooking a brightly-colored sunrise, which apparently Sati created. The hues and color tone of that final scene in the matrix matches this color scheme, so it’s not exactly without precedent, despite it being definitely something new.

In the therapist’s home

We then pop into the office of a psychologist, played by Neil Patrick Harris, who is asking Neo (Thomas) about himself. We immediately see a black cat like the black cat Neo saw in The Matrix that was a deja vu, which was a glitch in the matrix and an indication that something was changed in the code of the matrix. This cat is walking across a desk with a porcelain bust of a head with different markings of the brain, and behind it are two butterflies (symbols of rebirth) in both red and blue, mirroring the red and blue pills from The Matrix as well.

The Therapist is wearing blue glasses and a blue vest, and we see yet another blue butterfly behind him.

Thomas Anderson tells the psychologist that he’s having “dreams that aren’t just dreams” and asks if he’s crazy. So clearly Neo has no memory of what he was in his past life, or who he was before he was reborn. We then see him meet Trinity, and with a handshake they seem to recognize each other, despite Trinity not recognizing him either, clearly a sign that she lost her memory as well.

Memory: A Theme for Matrix Resurrections

Earlier this year, Lana sold a prop piece from the movie set for charity, a plaque for a hovercraft with the name “Mnemosyne”, which was the greek god for memory. So clearly memory and memory loss will be a major theme in this film. This also matches similar themes of lives connected across time and generations that we saw in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas (which was directed by the Wachoskis and written by David Mitchell, the writer for the book the movie was based off of, and Tom Tykwer, who composed the musical score for Matrix Resurrections).

Blue Pills

In the next scene, we see Neo taking prescribed blue pills (which in Matrix Symbolism, a red pill was the pill to leave the matrix and wake up in the real world, whereas the blue pill was to forget and stay asleep in the matrix, symbolism present in the original Matrix film). The label on the pill bottle is Ontolofloxin, a made up drug whose name suggests an antibiotic for Ontology, or the study of existence.

Screen Zombies

We then see Neo in an elevator looking at a variety of people all staring at their screens like zombies, a subtle reflection of our current media-obsessed society.

The Oracle and Alice in Wonderland

Next we see Neo throw out his blue pills and go see who looks like a new Oracle, quite possibly a grown-up Sati played by Priyanka Chopra wearing red glasses (possibly a subtle parallel to the psychologist’s blue glasses) as she puts down the novel Alice in Wonderland. The symbolism of Alice in Wonderland was also present in the original Matrix film, with a mirror leading to a new world and references to the novel from Morpheus and Cypher. In this trailer, the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane plays throughout, with the words “go ask Alice” when Neo meets the Oracle in the trailer.

We next see Neo standing in front of a one such a mirror, and for a split second we see a balding Neo with a face that looks eerily similar to Agent Smith from the original trilogy. We know that Hugo Weaving will not be in the film, since he confirmed he was not able to join the cast due to a scheduling conflict, but there may be references to his character using digital animation similar to what we’ve seen with recent Star Wars movies bringing back actors digitally.

A New, Younger Morpheus

We then see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character looking like a young Morpheus, including bare head and round small sunglasses, offering Neo a blue and red pill once again. I personally think Yahya could do a great job as a new, younger Morpheus, but like everyone else I don’t know yet why Morpheus is young while Trinity and Neo are old(er). That must have been a very intentional decision not to invite Laurence Fishburne back, since he was such a central character in the original trilogy and he probably would have said yes if he had been asked. It’s probably due to the script instead of any bad relationships between the two, so far as I know the Wachowskis had worked very well with Fishburne during the filming of the original trilogy.

Follow the White Rabbit

Next we see Jessica Henwick’s character, with a rabbit tattoo on her shoulder similar to the girl who also had a rabbit tattoo that led Neo to meet Trinity, following the orders on his computer to “Follow the White Rabbit.” What I found interesting from Henwick’s character is that she feels similar to a new kind of “Trinity” character, but with a British accent, which makes me wonder why Lana wanted Henwick’s character to at least sound British. She then leads Neo through a door of white light, similar to the white light doors we saw from Matrix Reloaded, and the two emerge from yet another liquid mirror.

Trinity Crying Code?

A few scenes later we see Neo holding Trinity’s hand, and we suddenly see green code start streaming down the side of her face, which I am very curious to see what it was. Perhaps it’s an indication that Trinity, like Neo perhaps, only exist in the Matrix at that point in time, and don’t have physical bodies yet.

After this we see Neo and a young Morpheus fighting in a dojo, just like we saw Neo learning Kung Fu fighting Morpheus in the original Matrix film.

Next we finally see some scenes of the real world, with the red pods of humans still plugged into the matrix, and a hovercraft floating through the ruins of a church.

Matrix 1 Projection in Matrix 4??!!

Then we see something particularly meta. We see a stage with a mirror, and a surveillance booth with military soldiers, but on the wall is projected Neo entering the Matrix from the first film! So a scene from Matrix 1 will be in Matrix 4. What could this possibly mean??

And So Much More

We also see more kung fu, a train fight scene, gun shootouts, corporate offices exploding in a building that may be called Deus Ex Machina, and Neo with a shaved head and a more modern neck plug connected into the Matrix, Trinity doing a special powered shout, gravity flipping (which we saw the Merovingian’s henchmen doing in Matrix Revolutions), wall running, agents entering human bodies in the matrix and dodging bullets, Henwick and someone else breaking through glass and falling toward the street (which Trinity did also in Matrix Reloaded, yet another parallel between Trinity and Henwick), Neo fighting someone in a train station (he fought Smith in what looks like the same underground train station in Matrix 1), Neo stopping bullets like he did in Matrix Reloaded at the Chateau, and finally…Neo and Trinity holding hands jumping off a skyscraper into the air, much like we saw in March of last year when they were filming in Alameda and San Francisco. This could very well be Keanu and Carrie-Anne actually doing their own stunts here between these 2 skyscrapers in San Francisco!

Also in the end scene with the credits we see some yellow code, which we saw in Matrix Revolutions as the way Neo sees the matrix, instead of the usual green code.

Want to Join the Conversation?

So those are all the major things I found! There was so much exciting content in this trailer that could all be unpacked and discussed and analyzed, but which unfortunately there isn’t enough time or space here on this blog post. If you’d like to add any additional comments on things you saw for this trailer, feel free to add them in the comments below. You can also check out the active Matrix subreddit for more discussions, or the Cyberpunk Matrix YouTube channel and comment on my reaction to this trailer in the comments there.

The Matrix 4: Resurrections Official Teaser Trailer

Breaking news for Matrix fans: Not only has Matrix 4 been confirmed to be titled The Matrix: Resurrections, but Warner Brothers have also suddenly released an interactive teaser trailer that can be found online at whatisthematrix.com, which will redirect to thechoiceisyours.whatisthematrix.com.

Also confirmed is that the official trailer will be released on September 9th, 2021 at 3pm CEST.

Whatisthematrix.com returns

Upon going to both web pages, the viewer is greeted with the same problem of choice that Thomas Anderson was given by Morpheus in The Matrix. CHOOSE YOUR REALITY proclaims the tab title, with only one phrase upon a white background: THE CHOICE IS YOURS presented with a red pill and a blue pill, once again.

“You take the blue pill, you wake up and believe, whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, and I show you how far the rabbit hole goes.”–Morpheus.

If you click the red pill, you will be shown a teaser trailer that corresponds to the exact time that you chose to take the red pill along with a voiceover by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. If you click the blue pill, you will be shown a slightly different, yet similar, teaser trailer that also corresponds to the exact time you chose to take the blue pill along with a voiceover by Neil Patrick Harris.

Amongst green and yellow code cascading both up and down the screen this time, the teaser trailer shows a variety of different scenes from the upcoming Matrix Resurrections film that promises not to disappoint, but that also have many similar themes to the original trilogy.

Twitter user @matrixresource noticed the many similarities already in a tweet:

https://twitter.com/TheMatrixResou1/status/1435373212095844358?s=20

We also finally had a chance to see what the color scheme and cinematography would look like, and many people are very excited with what they saw, myself included.

The scenes revealed showed us Jessica Henwick sporting blue hair firing a gun, Jonathan Groff losing the ability to speak, a new hovercraft that is surely the Mnemosyne (whose name was revealed when Lana Wachowski was donating the ship’s plaque prop earlier this year), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II looking at himself in a mirror, and many more. We also had a chance to see a variety of scenes with Neo: on a motorcycle seemingly controlling his surroundings with his hand, speaking with Trinity, and walking off the rooftop of a skyscraper.

BREAKING: A first look teaser for THE MATRIX 4: RESURRECTIONS has been released, with the full trailer dropping this Thursday. The highly anticipated film will arrive in theaters & on HBO Max on December 22nd. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/McD8kczna8

— Diego Andaluz (@thediegoandaluz) September 7, 2021

Online Matrix fan and MxO Youtube Content Creator Vesuveus had nothing but praise for the trailer and its iterative variations & intelligent design.

A masterpiece, and it’s only the teaser experience!#matrix #matrix4 #neo #mxo #thematrix4 #matrixonline #gaming #mmo #Matrixresurrections #thematrixmovie #whatisthematrix #releasethematrixtrailer pic.twitter.com/y56bOoaAxV

— Vesuveus of the Matrix (@vesuveusmxo) September 7, 2021

There was actually another Cyberpunk Matrix content creator, yours truly, who could hardly contain his excitement. Enough so that he made a reaction video that you can now see on the Cyberpunk Matrix YouTube channel.

Although I am a little concerned about the use of too much CGI, which is all too easy to see nowadays, I am generally super excited and hopeful for The Matrix: Resurrections. The story seems very intriguing, the costumes and characters look great, but we will have to wait until Thursday’s actual trailer to get more information and a better impression. It will be great to see the old cast, and to see how the new cast do as well. As for the trailer delivery, I did truly love its interactive nature, it was very unique and refreshing–I certainly don’t know of any other film that has kept its production under wraps so well and then revealed a teaser trailer so mysteriously, with such a (to me) complex code.

The Matrix Campaign for Matrix Resurrections is Here

Finally, the marketing campaign for The Matrix Resurrections has  arrived. One user saw ads for the actual trailer coming in 2 days, and I can only imagine what additional marketing materials we will see coming our way in the next few months.

Look what I saw on the London Underground today! 👀#MatrixResurrections pic.twitter.com/ncaywB3b26

— Rizzie (@Rizzie47) September 7, 2021

For more detailed thoughts and analysis, make sure to check out the live reaction video on the NeoMatrixology YouTube channel, as they did an excellent hour-long breakdown of their thoughts and impressions.

But what did you think? Did you like this new website, and the teaser trailer? Are you excited for the actual trailer to drop tomorrow? Will you be watching? Let me know in the comments below.