The Matrix Resurrections (with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski)

24-12-2021 11:42am

I'm with @johnny_ultimate on this, I really went in with the assumption I'd hate it. The first thirty to forty minutes was an oddly fun and meta approach to it all. But as it progressed, while it did have elements of the original films, it felt different. The love angle was never particularly well handled in the sequels but it was the focal point in this one and it worked beautifully.

Also glad that it didn't do some easy things like bringing back older actors etc. It would have been too easy.

B.A._Baracus · 24-12-2021 9:40pm

Just watched it there... and yeah its not great. I've seen worse films. It at least holds you for the running time so it succeeds as a movie. But it's not great. Very meh actually. Currently has a 6.0 imdb rating which is probably fair.

You just know they are world building too. Hbo Max is gonna do what Disney did with star wars. So you'll have a matrix tv show.

youcancallmeal · 24-12-2021 10:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118371004#Comment_118371004

That makes a lot of sense actually when you consider no characters good or bad were killed off

lawred2 · 24-12-2021 10:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118364215#Comment_118364215

Excellent film.

speedboatchase · 24-12-2021 11:03pm

Looks like it will gross around half what the original's opening weekend was in 1999, without inflation. Yikes.

MisterAnarchy · 25-12-2021 12:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118371252#Comment_118371252

Well simultaneously releasing it on HBO Max is financial suicide.

B.A._Baracus · 25-12-2021 1:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118371480#Comment_118371480

Accordingly , after doing some reading just there, releasing this and all the other movies this year has pushed the streaming service to the moon. They currently have 70 million subscribers worldwide. It costs 14.99 dollars per month (if you are not subscribed to hbo channel in America) To give perspective Disney plus has 118 million so not to far behind and 70 million subscribers equals 1 billion hbo max makes each month. The mind boggles at that figure.

Not bad for a service thats not even available in the UK and won't be anytime either as Sky has a deal with HBO till 2024.

Even if the movie cost 200 million to make it would have pulled in even more subscribers. 1/5 of its monthly revenue. Again, the mind boggles lol.

Fred Astaire · 26-12-2021 1:39am

My unorganised thoughts after watching -

The people in this movie are more incompetent with firearms than the people in Halloween Kills. The gun and fight choreography in general was really bad - the opening scene with Henwick set the tone in this regard as she sluggishly ambled along while evading repeated gunshots from literally 2 metres away. The choreography in both the scene with the exiles and in the confrontation with all the cops was really bad and choppily edited to boot. And the train scene - don't even get me started. A total mess.

Wachowski really treats the viewer like a complete idiot by bombarding you with constant flashbacks to the original - as if to say - LOOK AT THIS REFERENCE! LOOK AT THIS PARALLEL! REMEMBER THIS!?

The stakes are very low - Neo is freed just because by people who don't know him. Then Trinity needs to be freed when we aren't even sure if she wants to be. If Trinity didn't want to be freed Neo was willing to reenter the Matrix forever, he really wasn't too bothered about being free. It really leans on the love story as a driving force and for me it's not enough to carry the whole plot.

There is no tension. Nobody dies unlike the original. Literally every single person survives. Only once does somebody look like they are in any real danger when the car is being swarmed and she is saved so easily that I was literally sat there thinking, 'fcuk me'.

Neil Patrick Harris' endless monologues were painful and kept completely stalling any momentum the movie was attempting to build when approaching a set piece. I actually hated his performance and character in general. Stop monologing all the effing time. Christ.

I was surprised to see the cinematography praised above because this movie has a significant problem with blocking.

Morpheus is supposed to be an amalgamation of old Morpheus and Smith and displays no characteristics of either. It doesn't help that the actor is a complete charisma vacuum.

Keanu Reeves just kept doing this force push thing so often that at one point I turned to my brother and said - can he please do fcuking anything else!?!

I barely had any time to digest what was happening with Trinity at the end - which seems remarkable that a movie this long can seem like it didn't have enough time to flesh out key moments such as this.

Jessica Henwick was probably the best thing about this. Reeves delivered what was for him a decent performance too but really wasted.

My biggest gripe, and it's a damning one is the movie spends a good 45 minutes on this meta commentary around reboot/remake/sequel culture - and then literally spends the remainder of the movie committing the sins they are admonishing. It's quite unbelievable how Wachowski can lack the basic self awareness to see it, or maybe it's just coming from a place of total ignorance and almost delusional levels of narcissism. So pretentious. You literally are what you hate - and you actually think you are superior. There is no reason for this to exist apart from an incredibly ironic desire to cash in on the nostalgia train of modern cinema.

~Rebel~ · 26-12-2021 2:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118367837#Comment_118367837

Didn't love it as much as you, but my opinion is much closer to yours than those who hated it anyway. Was really happy they jumped down the self-referential meta route, and looked at the role of sequel from a different perspective.

It's interesting that on the one hand some people are saying how crap Morpheus and the Merovingian were, and on the other hand complaining about 'memberberries' - they were clearly very conscious of using their callbacks as storytelling/emotional motifs, rather than just 'heres stuff you know'. So many iconic shots or details done just a little differently, or deconstructed altogether in interesting ways. I would've liked better fight sequences alright though, but all in all, I definitely enjoyed it.

Ultimately, the point of it to me feels like making something that at a glance from a distance looks like a typical rehash, but once you dig into it, it's all a bit topsy turvy, like an alt reality matrix.

manofwisdom · 26-12-2021 7:24am

The first Matrix film was a classic ahead of its time and like any good movie can be re watched many times. The latest version, well to honest I expected it to be rubbish and it turned out to be average at best.

slade_x · 26-12-2021 7:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118367433#Comment_118367433

Oh my, from 17/ 18 seconds in that video. was that terrible acting done on purpose so he wouldn't be hounded to do yet another matrix movie?

B.A._Baracus · 26-12-2021 8:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118368007#Comment_118368007

Only my opinion, but while as you say mgs2s story gained a new appreciation as years went by, it was still a good game when it was released. Gameplay was amazing as was the graphics and over all presentation.

Even if people appreciate the movie more in the future. It still suffers from the meta stuff too much and takes a good hour before it gets going.

Trinity being the macguffin was a little thin too. But then again, the last movie ended with peace after an all out war. If you are going to reboot the franchise you don't want to shoot your bolt in the first reboot. Gotta make more money from sequels, tv shows, games etc. So I guess the trinity thing could get a pass?

Hyperbollix · 26-12-2021 6:28pm

A poorly written, poorly shot mess with bad acting, bad dialogue and almost nothing connecting it to the trilogy. Everything now revolves around the Neo/Trinity love story, because it's 2021 and of course it does. Trinity is basically the new One, because of course she is.

The iconic martial arts fights of the trilogy are gone and replaced with lazy, Jason Bournesque scuffles....but worse.... and with far too much CGI. Zero character development. You won't remember anyone from this cast and you will care about them even less. Zero tension or payoffs throughout. At no point, will you feel any of these characters are in any danger. Agents are now just window dressing.

Felt like a bunch of 1st year film students with an axe to grind about the Hollywood industry/patriarchy, were given the green light to do a Matrix sequel. It's easier to view it as a spoof than anything belonging to the canon. It is exactly what I expected it to be a few months back. Just another generic, cobbled together, lazy superhero blockbuster wrapped in a Matrix costume, which will be given a pass if not an ovation by plenty of people simply because it's "subversive" and the director is "brave for taking on the man"......... When in reality it's just a chance to give two fingers to the studio and the fans and pocket a shed load of cash in the process. This film is a microcosm of the continuing breakdown of American society. An absolute shítshow.

26-12-2021 6:43pm

In relation to the matrix being subversive. The original was subversive from the get go so Wachowski progressing along that line makes absolute sense.

26-12-2021 11:54pm

I feel like I need the red pill to fully understand wtf I just watched. It was good, great, perhaps ingenius, yet I couldn’t tell you at all what it was about other then ‘love conquers all’ which ultimately was a really nice way to end it.

kerplun k · 27-12-2021 12:18am

It was grand.

The Matrix is a classic, so I’d be interested in any new Matrix content.

Unfortunately it’s nowhere near as good as the first film. Lana Wachowski has lost the ability to direct and is stuck in TV mode here. The editing is laughable, with some slow motion scenes are done to comedic effect. It’s like an amateur filmmaker slowing down random bits to highlight a scenes importance. It really takes you out of the experience. The script was a good effort, Lana said what she wanted to say and weaved it into a credible Matrix story, but the execution was very poor. Especially in the first 30 minutes where it almost felt like a bad SNL sketch.

Having just watched the new Chucky TV show, this bizarrely reminded me of Don Mancinis Seed of Chucky in where you had a very definitive genre franchise get turned on its head into a campy self-referential parody film that takes aim at the entertainment industry.

While disappointing. there is enough here for Matrix fans to enjoy a revisit to the franchise, but Its one those films that’s better enjoyed if your expectations are dialled right down and you focus on what the film gets right and embrace the campiness of it all.

MisterAnarchy · 27-12-2021 2:42am

I must say that overall I enjoyed it.

The score was good, the story was ambitious if slightly confusing, and there were alot of good ideas, but it has quite alot of flaws.

The new Morpheus and Smith are no match for the old ones, Hugo Weaving, Laurence Fishburne and even Joe Pantoliano are 3 excellent actors and whilst the new cast are ok they are a major downgrade.

The action scenes were a big downgrade from the Trilogy. Badly choreographed and edited. They looked like a cheap TV show.

Jada Pinkett as Niobe was awful.

The bots are a serious downgrade on the Agents in both tension and menace. Did anyone actually die in the film, the bots were literally like zombies and easily defeated.

I'm not sure how Smith was still around, wasn't he destroyed at the end of the last film. Why was he kept so near Neo ?

pixelburp · 27-12-2021 9:00am

The absence of that iconic "Matrix" distinctiveness and visual flair is what did the most damage here, watched purely as a spectacle; in fact sometimes the movie looked kinda generic, rote even. While that feeling of redundancy, trying to make a sequel to blockbuster cinema's most transformative modern film was never far away ... but even so, this was still nowhere near the disaster being painted in some quarters.

A adjunct to a trilogy was only going to underwhelm at best so by the metrics of extra chapters nobody asked for, I couldn't overly fault the attempt to weave a famously convoluted myth into a proper coda, however superfluous. Maybe the "meta" aspects chaffed others more than it did me, but I had to applaud the nerve of Lana Wachowski to write a script about how hard it is to write a studio mandated sequel. With its characters aware of the internal mythology, but not fawning towards it (unlike The Force Awakens, for example).

The action was OK, nothing more - and in any other series that might have been forgiveable. I found myself wondering about the budget or resources, as the end result lacked any of the grandiosity or aggressive swagger of that original set of films. It kept hurting the pulse of the thing - though the finale having a more personal, intimate focus rang better than the overblown excess of the third film.

It is weird having Warners of all people produce a movie effectively decrying our increasingly arrested development and dependence on nostalgia - but anything vocalising my increasing hatred of our collective infantilised, recycled pop culture gets a thumbs up from me. Can't say this will be a rediscovered gem in 10 years, but the criticisms feel unearned for now.

Supercell · 27-12-2021 11:40am

Tried to watch this last night, was so very excited, what an utter letdown :(

Watched about 50 minutes of it before switching to some Goldbergs to cheer me up. Why did they obsess on the damn red and blue pills over and over?, once was enough, but over and over again just took away from the idea, somehow it seemed like a parody (a boring one at that) of the originals.

/end rant.

I'll probably give it another go anyhow.

dubstepper · 27-12-2021 3:20pm

Kind of a nothing movie. It didn't really make much sense in so far as to try and explain how the characters ended up where they were at the start. Didn't really explain what had happened to neo/trinity/smith that they were all still in the matrix. Kind of felt like a lazy cash in tbh.

Having said the above, it wasn't awful. It just wasn't good either. Meh.

pixelburp · 27-12-2021 3:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118377964#Comment_118377964

Smith no, but we got a whole monologue explaining when and how Neo and Trinity came back. The why was a bit vague, but best I interpreted it, seemed to come down to their combined power

fuelling this iteration of the Matrix's power output to the machines; "the suits" being pleased with the Analyst's methods. I got the impression Smith was seen as the antagonist who would counter Neos own power. So all three were kept dumb but providing the Machine City with that energy.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 3:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118377964#Comment_118377964

Neo and Trinity died 60 years ago during the events of Revolutions. The new versions are clones built by the machines to act as a power generator for a new version of the Matrix. This is why new Neo had both eyes intact. He's not real. Smith in a human body burnt his eye of out his socket in the last film.

As for how and why Smith is in the film, don't know. All I know is the actor who played him isn't fit to carry Hugo Weavings Jock strap.

Penn · 27-12-2021 4:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378027#Comment_118378027

I thought Neo and Trinity were kept alive, healed and their aging slowed. Wasn't there a flash of Neo's eyes being healed?

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 5:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378275#Comment_118378275

Don't think so. They constructed him using lasers. At one point his chest cavity was hollowed out.

Agent Coulson · 27-12-2021 5:35pm

It fits right in with the £200m blockbusters for streaming platforms instead of cinema that are the most meh 5 out of 10 movies ever that are now becoming so commonplace on HBO, Netflix, Prime, Disney etc that all hope will catch the imagination of the viewer so they can universe build and pump out content.

MisterAnarchy · 27-12-2021 6:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378321#Comment_118378321

They arent clones, they are the original bodies healed and with bio implants.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 7:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378626#Comment_118378626

There's a sequence that literally shows neo being cloned. They are clones, replicants or regenerated duplicates. . There were no bodies until after the machine civil war 60 years later. Thats when the analyst made them out of organic matter for the purpose of generating energy.

pixelburp · 27-12-2021 7:35pm

I'm confident they're not clones. In the flashbacks, we clearly saw moments of Nero's previously burned-out eyes being repaired, so that reads like they were the dead bodies being slowly, painfully revived; hence the various open wounds etc. IIRC the narration also said it wasn't easy and took ages to achieve resurrection.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 7:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378818#Comment_118378818

It's literally impossible for them to be anything other than clones. The fact the analyst created them both around the same time proves it.

Because when Trinity died the analyst didn't even exist. So how could he have her body? Trinity died in zion with the humans. Her body is still buried in zion somewhere

astrofool · 27-12-2021 8:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378855#Comment_118378855

Trinity was in the Hammer that crash landed (and impaled her) in the machine city with Neo.

The plot makes no sense, but it does imply they were revived originals rather than clones.

MisterAnarchy · 27-12-2021 8:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378818#Comment_118378818

Yes, thats exactly what happened.

It shows the damaged dead bodies being repaired. Both of Neos eyes are burnt out then one is burnt out then that is repaired. The back of his skull is removed too, you can see his brain being worked on. Later there is a hole in his chest where I presume his heart is being worked on or they are trying to extract the source code.

They are called resurrection pods, not cloning pods.

It would be relatively straight forward and cheap to clone Neo and Trinity but as the Analyst said it took years to achieve resurrection.

pixelburp · 27-12-2021 8:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378855#Comment_118378855

Trinity died in the machine city when she and Neo crashed their ship, getting impaled by a spike for her trouble. In either case ... 🤷 Like I said, we see Neo's burns being healed; were Neo a clone he'd have been factory fresh, as it were. The Machines presumably took both dead bodies for storage (he was carted away at the end of Revolutions) and at some point the Analyst decided a catalyst for productivity was Neo, then Trinity too when it was realised she (and Smith) were required to keep Neo in check.

We don't know how long the resurrection process took; it was 60 years after the events of the 3rd film, so seems like reviving a human probably took a lot of poking and prodding.

McDermotX · 27-12-2021 8:48pm

Holy **** !

What the fcuk was that ?

Think the last couple minutes are probably the worst thing ever witnessed by human eyeballs.

Preceeding two hours only marginally less so. What a horrible, albeit predictable, mistake.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 8:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378961#Comment_118378961

Where she died is besides the point really. The main point is that she is dead, as is Neo. The machines can't bring humans back from the dead, they can only produce artificial recreations of them. I.e clones.

If Trinity was real she would have been a geriatric like Niobe.

pixelburp · 27-12-2021 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379114#Comment_118379114

Who says they can't? Human beings have clearly been reduced to the role of mechanisms by the machines; it's not that inconceivable they managed to Frankenstein some result from dead tissue. They already have complete understanding and control of the human brain. The whole premise is itself a huge philosophical swing in the first place. And as said, the movie made pains to show this was "our" Neo, painfully restored after his sacrifice; the narrative tells us this.

And re. timing: the Analyst said it took years; the dead flesh wouldn't have aged (and was presumably preserved as the machines worked using sci-fi magic) but IIRC, Neo said he was aware of 20 years passing, conveniently to accommodate the actors' ageing? Bugs said it was 60 since the siege of Zion ergo we can infer it took 30 years to finally get Neo and Trinity restored to life.

You're free to say they're clones but TBH the movie made it pretty clear they were the original dead bodies, painfully restored to life over years of work. Then allowed to age within the matrix over 20 years.

Sad Professor · 27-12-2021 9:43pm

Underwhelming. The meta stuff has been done before and doesn't really amount to anything. The heart of the film is a story about Neo trying to find Trinity and the Matrix weaponising Neo's story to keep the Matrix running which is a solid premise but the movie doesn’t know what to do with it and quickly reverts into a rehash of the original only worse and with all of the stakes gone.

I liked Jessica Henwick and some of the action sequences are good though not on the level of the previous films. Fishburne, Weaving, Bill Pope, and Don Davis are badly missed. Why Smith and Morpheus are even in the film is a mystery to me.

corcaigh07 · 27-12-2021 9:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379184#Comment_118379184

Agreed on this, they were refurbished in the real world and placed back to their resting spots.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 10:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379184#Comment_118379184

Its a similar situation to when Teddy gave the hair follicle to those aliens and they used it to clone David's mother. She looked , acted and felt like Davids mother , but she was obviously only a recreation. Neo and Trinity in Resurrections were the same as David's mother , only way more advanced.

HalfAndHalf · 27-12-2021 10:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378855#Comment_118378855

Have you even watched the films?

The Analyst was the new Architect, he even says that in the film.

Trinity died in the machine city impaled in the ship crashed into the machine tower not Zion and there would have been absolutely no way of her body getting to Zion!

The machines repaired both bodies, again this was explained in the film by the Analyst (Architect) at length with footage showing the repairs to the body! Or do you genuinely think they cloned them, redid all of the damage and then repaired the clones???

EDIT: I see others have also pointed this out. They must have seen the films too 😀

HalfAndHalf · 27-12-2021 10:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379114#Comment_118379114

What makes you think Neo died? That was one of the outstanding questions for the Trilogy.

Realistically he can’t have been dead, if having Smith convert him to another Smith killed him, that would then mean every single human in the matrix died and the machines would have zero energy.

BruteStock · 27-12-2021 10:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379640#Comment_118379640

You seem to think they are real because the analyst said he brought them back. That doesn't mean they are real , it just means they were brought back artificially. An artificial Resurrection of a person means that person is a clone. He isn't real..I know people don't want to accept that their Neo and Trinity aren't real but thats the reality of the situation. Blame the film for having a beyond stupid plot line if you don't like it

Thargor · 27-12-2021 10:42pm

Did anyone see the after credits scene? Talk about spitting in the fans faces.

Amazing to see people defending this sh1t tbh.

HalfAndHalf · 27-12-2021 10:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379694#Comment_118379694

And you seem to be ignoring everything that was shown in the film.

Answer the question, why would they clone Neo, give him all of his original injuries and open him up, then repair everything if it’s a clone!

That makes as much sense as your post saying Trinity is buried in Zion as that’s where she died! Which is completely wrong too! 🤦‍♂️

corcaigh07 · 27-12-2021 10:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379694#Comment_118379694

Still wrong buddy, they literally showed the machines repairing Neo's burnt out eyes.

MisterAnarchy · 28-12-2021 3:06am

So the modal thing, that was a simulation running on Neos PC in his office ?

A simulation within a simulation and Morpheus was a program in that and somehow Bugs was able to enter the Modal.

How would someone even detect such a thing ?

The film confusingly appears to present it as if Neo was both consciously creating a new Morpheus AI on his work computer for reasons…but also kind of sort of accidentally doing it subconsciously using original Matrix code.

Another thing why couldn’t anyone in the real world find Neo? His name is still Thomas Anderson and he wrote a game called The Matrix.

Wouldn’t that seem rather suspicious? It was kind if glossed over with the DSI but the fact his appearance was different shouldn't have thrown anyone off the trail. It also doesn't make sense that the machines didn't give him a new name.

riclad · 28-12-2021 7:35am

The new film is getting positive reviews, it seems to be more about the matrix being related to gaming and social media the age of disinformation fake news etc it has made 420 million that's a good box office in the midst of a pandemic The animatrix is great its about various characters in the world of the matrix it looks incredible. It seems every film that was a hit in the 90s is getting a remake or a sequel. Every Sci fí action movie has copied the matrix I'm glad to say Carrie ann moss and keanu Reeves look as good as they did in the first film I think the script is much better in this one than matrix reloaded, going by the review I read.

Harryd225 · 28-12-2021 8:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118380717#Comment_118380717

It has a 5.8 star rating on imdb which is usually what I go on and find to be pretty accurate, it's the average score most action movies usually get, basically signals to me a story with no substance.

The first matrix is one of my favourite movies, I heard this one has been turned into some pathetic love story definitely not my kinda thing and neither are action movies so I'm not too pushed on watching this.

pixelburp · 28-12-2021 10:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379694#Comment_118379694

That's not what clones are though, no matter what you insist. A clone, by definition within sci-fi convention, is another physical version of a person. Photocopies, as opposed to restoring the original page of paper; it's all fiction but doesn't mean there aren't accepted "rules". The original person somewhere else: Star Trek's "transporter clone" being the classic example, with 2 versions walking around living the same life. Or, I dunno, Arnie's The 6th Day, Multiplicity, Gemini Man, Logan, to TV shows, like Orphan Black or Living with Yourself to name a few. All clones, and questions of identity, who is the original etc.

I don't have any emotional connection with Neo or Trinity either, only that you keep calling them clones when they're not;. this is just nerd pedantry, not fanboy denial hehe 🙂 The original bodies were kept, slowly resurrected over years, their memories intact. That ain't cloning. It's a stretch of science, but if the corpses were jumpstarted, ignoring what happens a brain when it dies, the original character comes back. Closest recent equivalent would be Agent Coulson in Agents of SHIELD: a dead character restored to life using science pokers on his brain (even the body horror was the same)

MisterAnarchy · 28-12-2021 2:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118380717#Comment_118380717

420m box office ?

Its under 70m at the moment

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2175304193/

Harryd225 · 28-12-2021 2:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118381714#Comment_118381714

I'm also wondering what positive reviews he is referring to, any review I've seen is calling it the biggest disappointment of 2021, I think he's on about a completely different movie to be honest.

The Matrix Resurrections (with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski)

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