First thought: Kind of feel like this actually is what the haters thought THE LAST JEDI was, kind of a disgust for the franchise and the machine that birthed it in the first place. Maybe that has to do with how the Hollywood machinery creates movies that artists make out of love, maybe that has to do with how “red-pill” has been co-opted by misogynists, maybe it has to do with how audiences responded to the sequels (and honestly most Wachowski movies, though I love most of their filmography ). The problem is, I can’t shake the feeling that at its core the movie is… kind of dumb. It would be one thing if it was a satire of modern reboots, but the core dumbness beyond that, well I’m not sure that’s on purpose .
The main thrust beneath this entire movie is the love between Neo and Trinity, with the new matrix kind of being a social media remix. Neo may be enslaved by the Matrix, but he feels enslaved by modern dull life itself. Trinity may be enslaved by the matrix, but she is also enslaved in the ways of marriage and motherhood (the essence of traditional perfect womanhood) thrust upon her as a woman. Basically Lana W. wants to say “cut away all the crap and only the power of love between two people can get us through ‘this’” . That even the machine (or insert whatever thing makes you feel super-human here) that you’ve built, that’s reflected back at you to make you feel, act, or think in a way of somebodies pleasing, that thing is still yours. It’s your mind, your heart, your soul which means the power to destroy and control it belongs to nobody but you.
“ I remember this , I remember us”
I only wish that the movie took this to heart , before becoming too much a Russian doll of meta, of a thing that says ‘ art and stories are becoming too much about the art and stories themselves , and that’s dangerous’, while becoming that very same thing. I can’t tell if this is directorial error , or her trying to smother her creation to sleep at night.
THE MATRIX is not only a thrilling cinematic experience, the movie is smart and clever. Sure, it’s a touch “ smoked weed for the first time”, but its ideas still feel rather fresh in mainstream cinema twenty plus years later. It was the perfect blend of action, philosophy, cinematography, and aesthetic. IMO before THE MATRIX no movie really brought computers into the world of fairy tail (the mixing of Alice and Wonderland and computers). You had big cultural icons like The Terminator being a machine but it was really no different than if you had a time traveling monster with a titanium coating. Really thinking of what will the future of computers and a connected humanity could bring in a fantastical fashion was something that other ‘computer movies’ constantly failed at, until THE MATRIX .
I don’t expect for the blend to ever be that perfect again, but at least the first two sequels they cared about trying to make ambitious good movies (they tried really innovative things like shared cross platform media with video game stories tying into the actual movies). Though I think in retrospect we can clearly see RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS failed to achieve their many ambitions , you can still watch those movies like a very dense piece of text and find interesting and bold unique ideas (you can’t try to make that kind of art without failing sometimes) . In MATRIX RESURRECTIONS beyond kind of focusing on social media, this movie really has nothing to say beyond being Meta-mad at how blockbusters are made , and how much of our cultural content is just mined IP or “looped memories”. If you are going to say that , at least TRY to give us something great within that movie (especially if you’re gonna have THAT ending).
Honestly, I’m not sure Lana Wachowski could give an answer of why people should see this movie. The action scenes are horrendous , hopefully on purpose, there is never any oomph to the drama in a movie where people literally fly. The ending seems to say, ya everything sucks here, but we are gonna stay and remake it beyond what you (society, audiences, movie studios) are conditioned to think they should look like. It would be pretty nice if they gave us a glimpse like in 1999 what kind of future they are fighting for, because it’s certainly not here. Maybe she thinks freedom is an illusion like choice, but freedom is still a state of mind above all else.
NOTE: I kind of liked it in a weird ‘this is my opinion on modern movies and art’ kind of way , but I can’t help but think of it either has Lana has given up on art/movies, or has become addicted to just making the audience mad as opposed to maybe upsetting the audience for trying something bold.
