And?
Well, if you’re one of that very-small-group-of-GenX-Matrix-nerds-like-me, then it’s not like you have a "choice", right? Your destiny is written. You have to watch it, no matter how it is. And that’s exactly the audience that the film is made for.
The rest of the world can give it a pass, and stay plugged into the matrix. It’s not like you’re going to miss anything :)
Ok, now for the review, seriously.
The Matrix, created by the hitherto unknown Wachowski brothers, released in 1999, was instantly an iconic film, bringing together a wholly new idea with never-seen-before special effects and killer martial art action, creating a transcendental experience, that literally moved us from our own realities into a fictional world that felt infinitely more real. The moment we took the red pill, we were on one of the most thrilling adventures of our lives, down the rabbit hole, with heightened senses and re-invigorated brain cells. And, remember, this was before Nolan’s Memento (2000), so we hadn’t yet discovered these mind-bending films that rewire our brains.
Simply put The Matrix was literally and figuratively mind-blowing. Hell, my handle on the blog is Neo, for it!
The sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, took the original idea further, and though (pun intended) less revolutionary (like all sequels), they were still powerful stories that messed with your mind, pushed the boundaries more, added new dimensions to our alternate reality, took us deeper into the maze, and finally led us to the inevitable almost-happy ending.
But apart from the special effects and the action, the reason why Matrix really blew us away was because of the central idea. That we are all living in a make-believe world created by centers of power (machines) to control us, so that they can use us, humans, to serve their interest of generating enough electric power resources to keep the world and the machines running, preserving current structures of the world order and power.
Sound familiar? Let me write the last sentence again, but this time omitting a few words linked to machines and humans:
We are all living in a world created by centers of power to control us, so that they can serve their interest of generating enough resources to keep the world running, preserving current structures of the world order and power.
Does that sound any different from our own realities today, or in 1999?
That is the brilliance of the Matrix.
We are trapped in our minds, reacting to the programs running around us, living our everyday lives blissfully unaware of the truth, even though many of us feel it in our bones every day. Not being able to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not, then becomes the central plot of the Matrix.
Then there are the two crucial sub-ideas that the series weaves the story-telling around, which keeps us thinking and breathlessly hooked.
The first idea is the “choice vs. control” paradigm. On one side is the argument that we all have a choice. And it is these choices which we make in our lives that deliver the consequences that we live with (The Merovingian school of thought). The counter-idea, of course, is: are we really in control of the choices we make, or are we just playing our role in a narrative that is already written for us (The Architect school of thought).
The second idea is around “purpose vs love”. We are all here to discover and fulfill our purpose, our destiny, no matter how noble or evil that might be (Neo vs Agent Smith, Ram vs. Ravan paradigm). And this requires grit, strife, and sacrifice. While on the other hand, is our human selves, consumed by our desires and emotions that push us in a direction that is not always in sync with our purpose (The Neo-Trinity paradigm)
Thus, with the central idea of the truth vs. the matrix, enmeshed with two sub-ideas of choice vs control, and purpose vs. love, the Matrix series transcends from being just a kick-ass movie to an entire philosophy for our modern lives.
#TheMatrixResurrections starts off well, with the makings of what a 2021 version could look like. It picks up 60 years after Matrix Revolutions (the aging visibly seen in all our loved actors), where we find Neo and Trinity plugged back into the matrix, their entire history coded as part of a really popular video game named (guess) ‘The Matrix’, created by the famous programmer (guess again) Thomas Andersen. This part, actually, is really cool. In 2021, using the now-massive gaming world as the ultimate metaphor for the blurred lines between what’s real and what’s not, is a stroke of genius.
But after this, the film only does a nostalgic replay of once again rescuing Neo (and Trinity, now a happily-married-with-kids Tiffany in the matrix), to find their true selves, their true love (each other), and their true nemesis (The Analyst, reminiscent of the earlier Architect, played by the loved Neil Patrick Harris). With a lot of help from a cast of humans and machines inside and outside the matrix (Io, the new Zion) - the old captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Bugs (Jessica Henwick), the new Morpheus (he is a program this time, Yahya Abdul Mateen) and a grown-up Sati (Priyanka Chopra, rolled-eyes).
At best, the movie is a big-time nostalgic hit for us Matrix fans, with all the right words, dialogues, and characters thrown in. In fact, there literally are scenes from the original films that are played for us again and again, making sure our own memories of the matrix are part of this 2021 experience. Even an old Merovingian makes a cameo mumbling in his French accent, something about the evil of social media (in a desperate attempt to build some relevance for today). And while all of this brings a smile to us fans, it also makes it very clear that apart from this blast-from-the-past good feeling, there is very little else that the film has to offer.
And this itself becomes the most disappointing thing about the movie. The nostalgia.
The very essence of the Matrix philosophy is anti-nostalgia. It is about the future and visioning a world that we want to live in.
This is where The Matrix Resurrections misses a huge golden opportunity. Coming at the end of 2021, after almost two years of a world-in-crisis, the film had a unique platform to tell THE story of our generation. To re-interpret the original philosophy for our current times, while simultaneously showing a glimpse into the future. But alas, the film misses this completely and becomes a mere fading memory of its original self, much like the characters in the film themselves.
In many ways, it is perhaps exactly how The Matrix would be if it were made in 2021 - a few Google searches and a few short social media posts, that shows the cleverness of the words and the visuals, but scratch a little deeper and there is complete emptiness and lack of any knowledge or understanding or meaning. Sigh!
So, for the very-small-group-of-GenX-Matrix-nerds-like-me, you know you’re going to watch it and get disappointed. So might as well get the pain over with quickly.
And for the rest of the world, you have a choice, you can either go watch the original Matrix Trilogy, which still feels extremely relevant 22 years later. Or, “you take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe”
The choice is yours.
Or is it?
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