Why "Matrix Resurrections" is so terrible...

This new Matrix film is less a resurrection, more intellectual property necrophilia. It doesn't just break the fourth wall, it bursts through the screen and slaps you around the face with franchise merchandise! While a boardroom montage gibbers about how mind blowing a 4th instalment would need to be...

I'm gonna stop you right there; don't watch this!

My expectations were very low; movie sequels selling out is par for course, and Revolutions was already a disappointment. But this new piece had failed to recapture any of the magic.

A major reason the first film seemed so creative is the Wachowski's cobbled it together from a lot of pieces of other great sci-fi works, which most views won't have known: anime, e.g. Ghost in the Shell (1995) lent much cyberpunk look and feel, with small sequences recreated shot-for-shot.

A shocking amount of concepts, plot arc and specific terms (e.g. "Matrix" and "Squidies") came from Dan Simmon's 1989 novel "Hyperion" and its sequel "Fall of Hyperion". Which I read recently and think still stands up OK today. Recommended, for historical genre significance.

But in Resurrections, they seem to be feeding, ouroboros-like, exclusively on their *own* works. Thematically, the result is mediocre fan fiction, vomiting up clips of the original's more memorable (and more inspired) bits.

The cinematography is uninspired and generally not up to as high standard (budget constraints?): some wobbly close up shots and general lack of mood. 

Sound track is bland orchestral, plus a very clichéd use of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.

The action choreography seems lazy, jumbled and generic. Carrie-Anne Moss retains some gravitas, while dodging the latex (and much screen time). But Keanu's acting is laid bare, at times, bless him.

The overall effect is of a theatrical stage adaptation, playing up to the most well known bits that the director thinks everyone will recognise. Red and blue pills get wiped out every 5 minutes, through the mid-section. And there's literally a scene on a theatre stage:

"There is no forth wall!"

To be fair, this project only finally went ahead, after decades of pressure from Warner Brother's, because Lana Wachowski lost several close family members [Wikipedia]. She wanted to retain her movie character creations, at least. Which may also explain the 5 (five!) actors from her Sense 8 series [I reviewed S1 here] being crowbarred into major roles, feeling out of place. At least 3 more were in cameo roles [ThisIsBarry].

But we don't know why Lawrence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving were omitted from the line-up. Instead, we get some random tech-bro kid, as (supposedly) Agent Smith. Whose purpose, motivation and capabilities seem entirely at a loose end. A younger Morpheus makes for a gender reversed twist on female characters being replaced by younger models, I guess.

The new big bad is [spoilers] Barney "It's going to be LEGEN….. wait for it…. DARY!" from How I Met your Mother. Also Dr Dougie Houser and Dr Horrible, to be fair to Neil Patrick Harris. His character is a, not exactly intimidating shrink. 

His superpower is, inexplicably… wait for it… "bullet time". Which, as the term used to refer to a cinematic production feature (in the original), doesn't make any sense to include explicitly within the dialogue here. Where the excuse for all the blatant nostalgia clips is that they're part of a game Mr Anderson's created. So the last act somehow manages to break the forth wall more than the first!

The Merovingian's reappearance is the most shambolic, though. Seemingly thrown in to make up numbers for a random tussle, with entirely uncharacterised minions. He stands there in over-done homeless man rags yelling incoherently like some Monty Python bit, without the humour.

Bug, played by Jessica Yu-Li Henwick, was arguably the central protagonist. For me, also the only original feeling aspect, played with at least some poise. Sequoia (in the background) was a walking glasshole-looking operator hologram, who's main role seemed to be ridiculing, with his existence, the risk (of brain death) taken by crew diving into the Matrix to do recognisance.

What I, as a viewer after the original trilogy, might have been interested in seeing explored, is some more depth into the machine civilization. But, of course, there never really was any. 

Here, we only get passing mention of a physical war between two internal factions. Friendly machine-world characters only turn up to help progress the plot, with absent or shakily convenient motives.

Zion's just been magically replaced with a similar looking new city, which they've been better at hiding this time, honest. We don't see anything of its people, either, beyond the top brass. There's no time to dwell there, plot bouncing us straight back out, like it's trying to cover an entire trilogy arc.

After some unnecessary, out of character violence from an inexplicably powered up Trinity, the ending concludes basically the same as the first movie: promising that everything will change within the matrix. Whatever.

The franchise never really moved past the nonsense of its axiom: human bodies as batteries. And this instalment made even less sense of Neo as "the anomaly". Instead of being part of some abstruse psychological control mechanism, it conflates his kung-fu-super-hacker skills with power generation. When he's housed within some silly, new, "anomaleum". With his love interest, who is… wait for it… now just as powerful as him within the Matrix!

Why is that? Feminism, I guess? Because Trinity had no plot arc, beyond owning a motorcycle making workshop (like Keano in real life, tehe lol!) and never liking the name Trish. The scene of her flying, to save Neo's ass, is painfully transparent wire-work. That would have really brought the cringe, if I'd had any left.

So, in conclusion: only sit sown with this movie for a hate watch. Or if you enjoy comically bad flicks.