What is The Matrix?
In 1999, There was a marketing campaign around a mystery about a movie called The Matrix. The tagline was “What is the Matrix? ” The movie was supposedly the next Star Wars. It was if by the next Star Wars, it means a franchise that divides the fan base so decisively. The first movie was so loved but went off the rails with the sequels in the minds of many devoted fans.
The first movie was an exciting, thrilling, and has special effects that had people talking for years. The bullet time sequence was considered revolutionary for its time. Keanu Reeves played Neo, a computer hacker who follows the White Rabbit into the rabbit hole. That rabbit being that everyone is living in an artificial world called the Matrix, the real world being a desolate future and that Neo is the One, a Jesus allegory that ends the war between the machines and Man. The sequels are where the story goes wrong. While the Matrix Reloaded was a good sequel, some of its special effects are outdated and quite juvenile. Then the third film Revolutions doesn’t work so well for many people especially the Matrix fanatics who have their own interpretations and outcomes they wished to see happen. That includes me. I wanted to see a happier conclusion. I am quite a sucker for a happy ending.
*Possible Spoilers*
Matrix Resurrections came out on December 22nd, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max. I happen to see it on the latter. The movie was very slow to start with Neo being back as Thomas Anderson a computer designer who creates a video game called The Matrix. Everything that happened in the original trilogy and the characters that habitat that world was just Anderson’s creations and possible delusions. This goes on for over a half hour which frustrated me to no end. It’s very meta. Then actions of the characters mirror the original movie start happening. This is where the movie becomes a movie. The movie is essentially like going to a High School Reunion. It’s nice to see the people and the places you spend a lot of time with and grew to love but you wouldn’t want to spend more time with then necessary. While it’s good to see what happened to Neo and Trinity and give them their happy ending, the antagonist felt a little underwhelming and the ending is very closed ended and has no further story to continue into any possible sequels.
Later
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