#Matrix trailer movie

The Matrix movies are well known for being a smarter, more ambitious viewing experience ('A thinking man's action story'), blending philosophy and mysticism into anime-style action and kung-fu fights. However, if we had our own little focus group and asked what made the original Matrix so enjoyable, I doubt anyone would list, 'entertainment industry satire and meta humor.'

#Matrix trailer movie

If this was all the movie was then it would have been a fascinating example of an artist burning the bridge to their most successful franchise out of willful spite. The entertainment industry satire about reboots and cash-grab sequels is funny but misplaced and coming from a perspective of defiance. There is one part where a character just starts screaming the word 'reboot' with profane intention, promising to get their own spinoff as a threat. They forced my hand, and I want you to know that I'm not happy about it.' There are literal moments from the 1999 film that are presented as if the characters in the matrix are watching The Matrix to recreate scenes like avid cosplayers. 'It was edgy.' 'It blew your mind.' 'It was a thinking man's action story.' This prolonged section of Resurrections feels entirely like Wachowski speaking directly to her audience and saying, 'Look, I had no reason to be back here. There are characters that sit around a table and try and break down what made the original Matrix (the game) so cutting-edge, and every person has a different brand slogan. A character literally says Warner Brothers wants a new Matrix and they will not stop until they get one. It's a movie where characters glibly talk about parent companies going forward with the IP with or without the involvement of the original creators, so better to be the one trying to staunch the bleeding I suppose. The entire first hour of the movie features characters justifying rebooting 'The Matrix,' the game. Fair warning, this movie is far, far more meta than you are anticipating. Part of my struggle with Resurrections is that it too is struggling with its own existence, and not in a meta-textual sort of identity crisis, more like a reason to carry on 18 years later. Everyone seems interested in reactivating Neo, but for what purpose, and what has happened in the ensuing decades since the end of the war with the machines? That's because a new, younger Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is telling him that he's Neo, that he's destined for greater things, and that he's been kept in an unorthodox prison to keep him out of the action. Anderson is having trouble determining what is real and what is only in his head.

Anderson might have even based the role of Trinity on Tiffany (Carrie Anne-Moss), a woman he has grown infatuated with over time at a coffee shop. His company and business partner, Smith (Jonathan Groff), are looking for their next big hit, and they're looking backwards at Anderson's biggest success… the 'Matrix trilogy.' It was a virtual reality program that skewered the difference between reality and fiction. Thomas Anderson/Neo (Reeves) is living out his life as an award-winning game designer. It's a movie that feels resentful for its own inception. The Matrix Resurrections just made me sad. So now it's back to The Matrix with an older Neo, and older Trinity, and more of the same by design. I personally loved 2012's Cloud Atlas but it was an expensive and messy money-loser, the same as 2008's Speed Racer and 2015's Jupiter Ascending, a cosmically bad movie.

Why go back? I think part of this was the declining career of the Wachowskis as directors.

Flash forward to 2021, and Lana Wachowski has resurrected The Matrix, and with the original actors for Neo and Trinity, both of whom died in Revolutions. They were talky, draggy, and just not what fans were hoping for jacking back into this strange world, and years later I think they're worth a critical re-evaluation. The Matrix sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions, became a shorthand joke for bloated artistic miscalculation.

The 2003 sequels were filmed back-to-back and released to great anticipatory fanfare and then, later, derision. It was exciting, philosophical, challenging, and made an instant brand out of the Wachowskis, the writing/directing siblings who had previously only directed one indie movie. It rewrote the science fiction and action genres for Hollywood and introduced American audiences to many of the filmmaking techniques of Eastern cinema. It is hard to overstate how influential The Matrix was upon its release in 1999.