The Matrix Resurrections

This film was riding on the coat-tails of its nostalgia factor but unfortunately it came on after Spider-Man: No Way Home, which did a better job of fan-servicing and executing its moments. Other than the thrill of seeing Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprised their iconic roles,  the choice to recast Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) stood out and was a misstep, in particular given Spidey's successful inclusion of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. No fault of Jonathan Groff who exuded a cold, mercurial glean but lacked the wickedness and glee of Weaving, or Yahya Abdul Mateen II who appeared more like a playful, impish sidekick rather than the wise, matured mentor-turned-follower Fishburne.

It especially did not help that there were no spectacular set pieces,  no groundbreaking special effects or adrenaline-pumping action sequences. What it had instead was lots of self-referential meta commentary, call backs to the first trilogy and Keanu doing Keanu. 

However, the most egregious fault was that despite The Matrix Resurrections ostensibly being a love story between Neo and Trinity, their shared screen time was limited. The moments that they were on together, the chemistry between Reeves and Moss was undeniable and Lana Wachoskwi should really have leaned into that. Keeping them mostly apart diluted the emotional core of the film.

Although, thankfully, Wachowski had drastically cut down on the pseudo/pop philosophy. That mythology really bogged down the last two films. Although she spent way too much time hand-holding the audience with exposition-heavy scenes and tedious world-building that added nothing to the eventual storyline. 

It felt as if she had an idea for another trilogy but the powers-that-be were hedging their bets and she ended up needing to cram as much into one movie as possible without being able to tell a proper story.

The Wachowskis have big ideas and the television dramatised format really suits them a lot more. Speaking of which, it was refreshing to see their Sense8 actors - Max Riemelt, Brian J. Smith and Erendira Ibarra, back in action.

Although of the supporting cast playing humans, other than Jessica Henwick, the rest of them were unmemorable. Henwick served as the audience surrogate but her role was sometimes too on the nose. 

Then of the other actors playing machines/programs, Harris was a delightful new entrant and seemed to be having fun hamming it out. Although at times it was hard to tell if he was hamming it up a la Eddie Redmayne in the Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending, or if he was really taking his role too seriously. Then we have Priyanka Chopra Jonas who, though charismatic, was utterly unconvincing in her role. 

Cinematography were by Daniele Massaccesi and John Toll, and music were by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, and unfortunately both were unmemorable. There were some great shots of the machine-world and the climatic final battle had a cool score accompanying the action, but otherwise nothing else really stood out.

Ultimately, The Matrix Resurrections was a decent popcorn movie - entertaining, quite funny, quite exciting, but, again, just fell below the expectations of what one would expect from a Wachowski.