Like many, I was excited to hear that there was going to be a new Matrix film. One of the first films my family brought on DVD was “The Matrix” and I remember being so blown away by it. The first ‘Matrix’ film was revolutionary in terms of its themes, concept and visuals. Although I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of the sequels, I did find that they were thematically the same and built upon the wider world of the ‘matrix’ in terms of it’s narrative and character development. The original trilogy’s conclusion felt very satisfying for fans of the saga, as it neatly tied up the film’s main storyline but also left it somewhat open-ended if the filmmakers wished to return to the world of the ‘matrix’ in order to explore other aspects of the film’s universe.
It has been 22 years since the end of the official ‘Matrix’ trilogy, and since then the Wachoswki sisters have worked on several different projects including the likes of “V for Vendetta”, “Speed Racer”, “Cloud Atlas”, “Jupiter Ascending” and the Netflix show “Sense 8”. (It is perhaps worth adding that “Speed Racer”, “Cloud Atlas” and “Jupiter Ascending” all flopped at the Box Office, and “Sense8” was canceled by Netflix despite being critically acclaimed and being a cult-favorite among fans of the Wachoswkis).
Although Lily Wachoswki didn’t return for the fourth film, Lana did. However, even she has stated that she wasn’t exactly thrilled to return back to the ‘Matrix’ saga. As she stated in an interview with NME, “I didn’t ever wanna make another Matrix movie. I told everyone for 18 years I didn’t wanna make another Matrix movie. Lilly [Wachowski, sister and co-writer/director of the original trilogy] told everyone that she didn’t wanna make another Matrix movie.” However, her attitude changed when the Wachowski’s lost their parents, and Lana decided to write and direct the picture in order to process her grief. As someone who has lost a parent under tragic circumstances, I must admit that I really admire Lana for going ahead with this project in order to help her find some closure and comfort regarding the passing of her parents. And, I do hope that by making the film she managed to process her loss.
The events of “The Matrix Resurrections” take place 60 years after the previous picture “The Matrix Revolutions”. In this latest instalment, Keanu Reeves plays a successful video game developer Thomas Anderson who had success with his games which were apparently based on the events of the original Matrix trilogy. Unfortunately, Thomas seems to be stuck in a creative rut and has been commissioned by his employer Mr. Smith (Jonathan Groff) to make a sequel to his Matrix games (something he is quite reluctant to do…very meta, Lana, very meta!). When he’s not moping about in his office or at home, Thomas is moping about at his local coffee shop where he pines after a married woman (Carrie-Anne Moss) who happens to look like the character of Trinity that he created for his ‘game’.
Thomas becomes ‘awakened’ by the characters of Bugs (Jessica Henwick- who randomly has blue hair in this film for no apparent reason) and Morpheus (who is now played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II- Interestingly when asked why he hadn’t been asked to return to the role, Laurence Fishburne reportedly told Collider Movie Review that “someone would have to ask Lana Wachowski because he didn't have an answer for that.”). Soon, Thomas/Neo finds himself on a mission to rescue Trinity from the Matrix whilst also battling the new villain known as The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris).
Despite the initial excitement for the film, “The Matrix Resurrections” has unfortunately gone the same way as the Wachowskis’ other projects over the last decade. According to Screenrant, “As of January 2, 2022, The Matrix Resurrections has grossed $30.9 million in the United States and Canada and $75.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $106 million.” The film had a budget of $190 Million and was projected to have made between $40-$70 million at the Box Office it it’s first opening week.
Reviews for “The Matrix Resurrections” have been quite scathing with the film having a rating 63% critical score over at Rotten Tomatoes. “Twenty-two years and many knockoff movies later, the novelty of the first film's gravity-defying fights is long gone.” wrote Steve Murray for ArtsATL. Critic James Kendrick from Q Network Film Desk, had this to say “As good as it is at times, you can't quite shake the feeling that it is all profoundly unnecessary.” Perhaps, critic Filipe Freitas from Always Good Movies best summed up the response to the film, with this quote “Press the button and... erased forever!”.
However, we can’t assume that negative reviews are the real cause for the film flopping. It’s worth mentioning that according to Deadline, “The Matrix Resurrections” was “the most pirated feature according to MUSO for the week of Dec. 20-26 with a 32.6% share of the top ten torrents.” It would seem that viewers were happy to pirate the film rather than depart with their money to see the film in theatres. Whist in the past torrents of a recently released films would have consisted of some dodgy handheld camcorder footage taken at a local theatre (accompanied by dodgy sound and the tops of people’s heads in the rows below), new releases are now being streamed simultaneously on the likes of HBO Max, Disney+ and Apple TV. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, our approach to viewing movies has dramatically changed with many more of us opting to rent the movie and watch it in the comfort of our homes rather than forking out a small fortune to watch it in the theatre.
HBO Max may have seen the error of their ways, as according to Deadline “Matrix Resurrections is the last movie which is part of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max day-and-date pandemic model for its event movies”. It’s also worth adding that “The Matrix Resurrections” was going up against “Spider-Man: No Way Home” which according to Tweaktown, is “the first movie to break $1 billion at the box office post-pandemic, so that's a big deal -- making The Matrix Resurrections (a multi-billion-dollar franchise) and its $22.8M five-day haul look like Neo took the blue pill in comparison.”
The film had also been plagued by major setbacks thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic as filming had to be stopped for several months back in February 2020, only resuming in August 2020. During this period, Lana even considered scrapping the picture, but decided to continue once the cast had talked her into carrying on making the film. Maybe Lana had lost enthusiasm for the project during the hiatus and perhaps this explains the overall quality of the final film. It’s also worth adding that the film’s marketing campaign wasn’t exactly great, as discussed by Screenrant, “The Matrix Resurrections deployed a secretive series of trailers and teasers that did little to build interest for the movie outside its core audience demographic”. So, unless you were a pre-existing fan of the series, then you might have been left confused by the film’s enigmatic trailers.
Of course, if anything the fact that “The Matrix Resurrections” has flopped so badly may be down to the fact that Hollywood seems fresh out of ‘original’ concepts for films. As stated by Dailywire, “There hasn’t been anything truly original in Hollywood in years. The film industry is rife with sequels, prequels, and reboots, with very little emphasis on original ideas.” And, in lots of ways, “The Matrix Resurrections” just feels like a re-tread of the original “Matrix” film. Unfortunately, it was always hard to live up to the expectations of the original film which had been so revolutionary upon its release, as stated by New York Post, “No “Matrix” movie has ever matched the forceful simplicity of the first one”.
So, what’s my overall opinion of “The Matrix Resurrections”? Well, the first act is quite interesting and enjoyable but it quickly goes downhill…So much so that I ended up falling asleep because I was just not being entertained by the story or the visuals. I have no real interest in revisiting the film because I just feel completely unsatisfied and disinterested in the story and the characters. Sorry, but I’m not going to follow the white rabbit this time.
Sources used:
https://www.nme.com/news/film/lana-wachowski-writing-the-matrix-4-helped-grieve-parents-3126616
https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-resurrections-box-office-failure-reasons-explained/
https://www.dailywire.com/news/another-sequel-flops-critics-slam-matrix-resurrections-as-laughably-bad
https://nypost.com/2021/12/21/miserable-matrix-resurrections-is-the-worst-sequel-so-far/
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/83604/matrix-resurrections-dies-at-box-office-only-22-8-million-in-5-days/index.html
https://deadline.com/2021/12/the-matrix-resurrections-box-office-bomb-hbo-max-viewership-piracy-1234902062/
All photos from IMDB