The Matrix Resuscitated

I remember exactly where I was when I first encountered The Matrix. I was in Old Town Pasadena trying to decide whether to watch a movie at the AMC Cineplex or at United Artists across the street. It was twilight. I know this because I’m cheap, and the twilight showing (the movie that’s just before 6pm, even lower priced than a matinee) has the cheapest seats. UA, at $4.50 per twilight ticket, was slightly more expensive than AMC, but there wasn’t anything that sounded interesting at the AMC. That left The Matrix which I didn’t know much about except it was sci-fi-ish. I had not seen any previews nor read any reviews. Friends hadn’t told me about it.

 

After the movie, I walked out in a daze. It was day when I entered the cinema but night when I stepped out. Normally, I would take the free Old Town bus back to a stop close to my apartment, but instead I decided to take a half-hour walk back just to clear my head. I had never seen anything like it. Mind-bending. Stylish. It was awesome. Well, except for the final minute telephone booth scene before Neo flies away. But then, the Wachowski’s likely didn’t know they would have a sleeper hit and that tons of money would be thrown at them to make their sequels, so I can see how they stuck that scene in for “closure”.

 

By the time the next two sequels were released, there was plenty of pre-buzz. I had seen previews. (You couldn’t avoid them.) Hype was plentiful. The Wachowski’s were already famous. In my opinion, the sequels are progressively less satisfying than the original. For one, the novelty is lost – that cannot be avoided. But Reloaded made up for it with some very clever bits. We saw Zion for the first time. The short fight scene between Neo and the Merovingian’s exiles is superb. The freeway vehicle chase scene is among the very best. The story-telling arc of the final mission to get Neo to the core is artful and clever. There are some neat surprises throughout the movie. I still greatly enjoyed it.

 

Despite being poorer overall story-wise, Revolutions was still a fitting end to the trilogy. The last stand at Zion with the battle mechs. The tense ride to machine city. And while the final fight was weak in the narrative arc, there was still good drama and tension interspersed throughout the movie. Redeemable. I still enjoyed it even though (or perhaps because) I had correctly anticipated that it would be weaker than its predecessors. Still, it had some skill, as the Merovingian might aptly say.

 

I just watched Resurrections. It was a mess. My expectations were not high, but it still came in below par in my book. I was cheap, watching it through HBOMax which came gratis with my home internet package. Instead of coming up with something original and clever, it felt like themes from the first two movies were repackaged, then compressed into a single movie. The narrative was rushed. Perhaps it should have been The Matrix Retreaded. It still could have been pulled off by a new generation of young faces. But the story bogged down by hanging on to the old. The fresh-faced actors might be talented but they suffer from the weight of their forebears: Laurence Fishburne is Morpheus and Hugo Weaving is Smith. And Carrie-Anne Moss is severely under-utilized. Even the poor Merovingian is reduced to a gibbering vengeful nutcase. An empty shell.

 

They tried to bring back the dead. But resurrection wasn’t achieved. Resurrection is what you get when the perishable old is raised imperishable into new glory. Or so says a wise old glorious book. What we got was resuscitation. A temporary reprieve from lying in the grave in a death state to briefly experiencing a living state. But it’s an old living in an old body with one foot in the grave. What we got was The Matrix Resuscitated.

 

There were some clever parts to the latest movie. I liked how programs could instantiate themselves in the “real” world. Thinking about how machines and humans cooperate from more explicit examples to seeing imagined hybrid visual tech was interesting. But otherwise there wasn’t much meat. The video game idea was not mind-blowing or even spoon-bending. All you’re left with is action sequences. But they feel empty without a sufficiently supporting story arc. “Am I living in a simulation?” is no longer an interesting question after the first movie. “What does Resurrection entail?” could have been an interesting question to tackle. But all we get is Resuscitation. And we should be profoundly dissatisfied.

 

P.S. Cham & Whiteson tackle the question “Do We Live in a Computer Simulation?” in their latest book. They quote Neo in The Matrix. Their analysis is also less than satisfying.

 

P.P.S. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the so-called Resurrection Stone doesn't do any better.