Introduction: Matrix Resurrections

Before I introduce this website in general terms, I must say some specific words about Matrix Resurrections. Warner Bros. notified the Wachowskis that they were going to produce a fourth Matrix movie with or without their help since their contract gave them the authority to do so. Despite the Wachowskis' clear stance over the past two decades that they didn't want a sequel to be made, Lana Wachowski agreed to do it, and, with the help of a couple other writers, they produced Matrix Resurrections (M4). Unfortunately, while the movie isn't bad judged by standards of other random movies released in 2021, the quality of M4 is beneath the other three Matrix movies.

Genre

The first third of the movie wasn't even in the same movie genre as the first three movies; it felt like The Office with some romantic comedy thrown in. Generally in film, comedy and suspense must be carefully balanced since they are fundamentally incompatible with each other. Marvel movies balance comedy and suspense effectively, putting comedy in here and there. The comedy in the first third of the movie is everywhere, incorporating plenty of cringy jokes such as Neo's boss using "O-M-G" verbally in a sentence.

Here's the Answer to Your Question. In Case You Missed It, Here Are 7 Flashbacks

There were some questions / puzzles provided for audience members to solve, but nothing on the scale of M2 and M3. There were 43 flashbacks during its 137-minute runtime (not including ending credits but including the scene after the credits), meaning there was, on average, one flashback every three minutes and 12 seconds. The flashbacks were pointless for those who haven't seen M1-M3 (one has no business watching M4 without having seen M1-M3), and entirely unnecessary for those who have seen M1-M3... unless the M4 writers believe that the IQ, curiosity and passion of its fans dropped significantly over the past two decades.

A Sentient... Movie?

M4 was one of the most self-referential movies of all time. There is a New Yorker article that conveys the hyper-meta quality of M4 better than I could ever say it: "...this 'Matrix' movie about how they probably shouldn't have made another 'Matrix' movie becomes just another 'Matrix' movie, albeit one that wears its self-awareness like an 'ask me about my self-awareness' T-shirt."

That said, there is something to be said about the effectiveness of the Analyst's design for Neo's life in the Matrix. Evidently, erasing and changing memories is an imperfect science, so rather than trying to suppress Neo's memory, the Analyst embraces it by gaslighting Neo. This emotional abuse a far easier, more effective, and unfortunately for Neo, more evil way to go about neutralizing Neo's memories of the past. It beats Neo down so much that he still can't get himself to fly after leaping off the building, even after escaping the Matrix, being told the truth, and remembering that he was the One.

I just wish the scriptwriters would have found a way to make this work effectively. For me, and I think most others, this "meta" quality creates an obstacle to my goal of losing myself in the fiction. I find myself thinking about how I'm experiencing the movie rather than actually experiencing it. The only piece of film I've ever watched that is more "meta" than this is not a movie, but a documentary: The Amazing Johnathan Documentary, a documentary that is literally about a comedian who wants to make a documentary. (Not my cup of tea; I enjoyed M4 a hundred times more than I enjoyed this documentary.) I've also been told by a trusty fan that Wes Craven's New Nightmare and 1941's Hellzapoppin' are actually even more "meta" than M4.

Nuclear Despair

The world of Matrix fandom already gave the Wachowskis a free pass on the laws of thermodynamics, namely that it just isn't possible to harvest a power from the human body without a net loss of energy. But that was totally okay with me! There is hardly a movie in existence, especially in science fiction, that doesn't require any suspension of disbelief.

But M4 takes this to an entirely different level, as Neo and Trinity are, by themselves, able to generate enough power to warrant their own power plant building as long as the Analyst keeps them close enough to create hope but far enough apart to create despair. It's almost as if Lana Wachowski watched Monsters, Inc. and interpreted it as a documentary. Neo and Trinity produce so much power on their own, in fact, that when Neo is removed from the Anomaleum, the entire synthient world experiences a huge drop in power and must consider reverting back to the old Matrix model. This movie takes the love of Neo and Trinity to "powerful" new heights. (See how I did that? I turned metaphor into actual plot.) In M1-M3, metaphorical ideas are layered on top of plot line. In M4, the primary plot device serves only to create poetic meaning in a love story.

The Verdict

I understand that Warner Bros. is a for-profit business, and they're therefore guided heavily by money. But this still has to be balanced against the wishes of its artists, and make no mistake, the Wachowskis are at the very top of filmmaking artistry. While I was initially excited that Warner Bros. was moving the story forward, I wasn't happy when I learned they were doing it with or without the Wachowskis. Still, Lana Wachowski doesn't get a free pass here, as this movie definitely would not have gone in this hyper-meta direction if it had just been random scriptwriters taking over. While the "convince Neo the Matrix was his own designed video game" direction is clever, at the same time, I wonder if perhaps it is just not possible to tell this story in a way that is equally effective as the first three movies.

With all of those caveats out of the way, the good news is that this movie does add a few interesting things to the Matrix universe, and not all of these things are obvious, even for someone who has seen it three or four times. I did put forth my best good-faith effort to incorporate M4 into the rest of this website. Unfortunately, some elements left to mystery are elements that just can't be understood without additional movies to fill in the gaps. That is very unlikely to happen anytime soon after the abysmal box office performance of M4:

...but more story very well could be told as an anime series, or at the very least, in a possible future Animatrix 2.0.

Introduction

Introduction: Personal Motivations