The Matrix Resurrections

By Joanna Langfield

Lana Wachowski goes for broke here. And, oh yeah, there are a lot of effects, too.

Please don’t ask me to explain the plot of this re-re-re visit to the Matrix. The story, and yes, there is one, has something to do with Mr. Anderson, aka Neo, dealing with his reality again, wrought as he struggles with his physical or designed truth. And while the message for some may be in the details of all that, I had much more fun with the smaller moments, the times when Wachowski pauses all the techy stuff to look at the reality she and the rest of us are actually living in, every day. She’s got something to say and I appreciate that she insisted on saying it, even if it may fly right over the uninterested heads of the bulk of her audience, people just out for a “ooh, that’s cool” good time.

And, for sure, there’s plenty of that cool stuff. Maybe too much, as the film feels an exhaustive 149 minutes. I like watching actors fly though time and space just as much as, well maybe almost as much as the fanboys do, but a little can go a long way in this can-you-top-this kind of filmmaking. I would have rather the action slowed for an occasional few minutes, to explain just what we were supposed to know, and in a way that didn’t have the actors race through dialogue that may have been informative, but came across as garbled.

Still, there’s a fun cast to ride along with, including Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Jonathan Groff and Neil Patrick Harris. Jessica Henwick is a super addition, but mostly we’re happy to be in the company of the reunited (or are they?) Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves, both allowed to show the occasional wrinkle and gray hair while still kicking plenty of butt.