THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS : Tuesday 28th December 2021.

'THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS' which I saw earlier this week is an M Rated American Sci-Fi actioner Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced by Lana Wachowski and based on characters created by both Lana and Lilly Wachowski, who between them both Wrote and Directed the three previous instalments in this hugely popular film franchise back in 1999 with 'The Matrix', then its first two sequels 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'The Matrix Revolutions' both released in 2003. Those first three films grossed at the global Box Office US$1.63B off the back of a combined production budget of US$363M, but at the time the Wachowski's were adamant that the franchise ended with 'Revolutions' with the Writers/Directors going on to helm other film and TV projects together. However, in late 2019 a fourth film in the franchise was announced with Lana Wachowski returning to Direct but this time without her sister. This film saw its World Premier showcasing in Toronto, Canada on 16th of this month and was released in Russia on the same day, before its worldwide release this week. Early indications are that the film has garnered generally positive Reviews and has so far grossed US$69M from its production budget of US$190M. 

Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a successful video game developer and the creator of The Matrix video game trilogy based on faint albeit recurring memories of Neo. At a local coffee shop, Anderson comes into contact with Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), married to Chad (Chad Stahelski) and with two young boys but with no recollection of her past, on which Anderson based Trinity, a character in his game. Anderson struggles at times to differentiate between what he perceives as his reality from his dreams. His therapist (Neil Patrick Harris) prescribes him blue pills to suppress such occurrences, which one day he just stops taking.

Anderson operates a programme simulation called a modal, a testing environment, created to develop game characters. A girl named Bugs (Jessica Henwick) learns that the modal is running old code in a loop, that shows when Trinity first found Neo within the original Matrix. Bugs discovers a programme manifesting Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and helps free him before Anderson's business partner, Smith (Jonathan Groff), can erase the modal. After discovering his location, Bugs and Morpheus extract Anderson from the Matrix and learn that Smith is actually Agent Smith (as portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the first three films).

Neo wakes up in a pod covered in a gel like substance and with wires and probes protruding from his arms, chest, back, neck and mouth. He observes Trinity confined in another one nearby, as machines dispatched by Bugs to retrieve and transport him to Bugs' ship, and into the human stronghold, Io. There, he meets Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), who tells him that sixty years have passed in the real world since the Machine War, and that human survivors have joined forces with machines that defected to join human society. Though Neo is adamant he wants to rescue Trinity, Niobe opposes and orders Neo to stay out of the Matrix and imprisons him. Bugs and her crew disobey the order and bust Neo out of his cell in order that he can free Trinity.

Neo, Bugs and the crew enter the Matrix, where they are confronted by Smith and other exile programs including The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) who want the Matrix restored to its earlier format. A fight breaks out in an abandoned warehouse, and Neo battles Smith, ultimately gaining the upper hand as he steadily regains his hand to hand combat capabilities. They leave and locate Tiffany working in her motorcycle workshop, but just as Neo begins talking to her, his therapist appears and immobilises Neo by manipulating time to slow motion. He reveals his identity as the Analyst, a programme designed to study the human mind. He explains that after Neo and Trinity died, he was able to resurrect the pair to study them, by rebuilding their bodies, which explains why they have only aged twenty years in the last sixty. In doing so, he found that suppressing their memories but keeping them close produced an efficient, power-producing Matrix, resistant to the anomalies that resulted in the previous versions failing. Neo's release has destabilised the system and threatened a reboot of the Matrix, according to the Analyst, who has bought time from his superiors, whom he convinced that Neo would voluntarily return to his pod to avoid putting Trinity's life at risk.

Neo and Bugs forcibly exit the Matrix when another ship sent by Niobe brings their ship back to Io. Niobe takes Neo to Sati (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), an exile programme he previously met, whose parents were killed by the machines. Looking to avenge their death, Sati helps concoct a plan to free Trinity. Back in the Matrix at the cafe where Neo and Tiffany first met, Neo offers a deal with the Analyst that if he fails to convince Trinity to remember her past and voluntarily leave the Matrix, he would agree to return to his pod. The Analyst accepts. As Neo tries to convince Tiffany she's part of the Matrix, her family appears tempting her to stay. She initially gives in but before she has exited the cafe she rejects their pleas recalling her true identity as Trinity. As the Analyst attempts to kill her, Smith appears seeking revenge for his own imprisonment, which gives Neo, Trinity, and the others the chance to escape. What follows is a high octane chase through the streets with a swarm of sentient computer beings hot on the tail of Trinity and Neo riding on the back of a motorcycle as sentient bodies are shot, crushed, run over, mowed down and obliterated and cars explode all around them. 

Being the last waiting to be extracted, Neo and Trinity become stranded on the roof top of a skyscraper as heavily armed helicopters shoot off countless rounds of machine gun fire at them. Holding hands, they leap off the roof top hoping Neo is able to harness his ability to fly, but instead Trinity gains the ability, and flies them to safety. With their recently discovered control over the Matrix, both return to meet the Analyst, who now has taken on a submissive stance. They jokingly thank him for the opportunity of a fresh start, which they intend to use to remodel the Matrix as they deem most appropriate. The Analyst looks down but not out, as Neo and Trinity fly off into the sunset.  

'The Matrix Resurrections' is essentially a love story wrapped up in computer code with fast paced action, stunning visuals, and plenty of nods to the original trilogy using actual footage lifted straight from those first three films to remind or educate the viewer of what came before and how we got to this point. The film will no doubt please fans of those first three instalments, and it is easily the best since 1999's 'The Matrix' first hit cinema's screens with its bullet-time, red pill/blue pill, wire-fu fight sequences that defined an era of action Sci-Fi movies. The strong cast here also are a return to form for Reeves and Moss who especially have chemistry that is clearly evident in every scene they share together. At a running time of two and a half hours the film moves a long at a swift pace and never leaves you wanting, and the ending certainly leaves room for a follow-on movie, so whether this is defined as a sequel and the end of the franchise, or a reboot and the start of something new, remains to be seen. See it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed.

'The Matrix Resurrections' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-