The Matrix Resurrections: In A Word, Ridiculous. But Yeah, the Effects are Kinda Cool

By Kim Hughes

Rating: C

It’s probably an unfair consideration. But it’s hard to watch an overblown cinematic trainwreck like The Matrix Resurrections without thinking of all the much better ways the money on screen could have been spent, especially in these perilous times.

Similarly, it’s frustrating to see a committed and likable star like Keanu Reeves ping-ponging all over the place promoting the wretched thing, offering persuasive arguments about the importance of artistic vision to esteemed news outlets like The Guardian, likely knowing his movie is going to be critically slammed by same.

Reeves was present in Toronto last week at Scotiabank Theatre where The Matrix Resurrections premiered, introducing the film to giddy, phone-wielding moviegoers absorbed in the splendour of a cinema transformed to simulate the twinkly, green-coated world of the Matrix.

In the end, though, neither vigorous promotion nor the arrival of a long-hoped-for but seemingly unlikely fourth installment in the sci-fi franchise can change the fact that The Matrix Resurrections is an incoherent, narratively sloppy mess.

How incoherent? For the first 40 minutes of its nearly two-and-a-half hour running time, I literally wasn’t sure what I was seeing. There was some kind of story happening, but it kept skittering sideways, then looping back, then making a hard left, all in the inevitable lead-up to wildly choreographed fights while a yappy character named Bugs (Jessica Henwick) kept snapping at Neo’s heels.

Of course, one problem with creating a paradigm shift as the Wachowskis so famously did with the original Matrix in 1999 — changing forevermore how battle scenes are executed — is that sooner or later the law of diminishing returns kicks in, no matter how damn cool walking on walls and dodging bullets in slo-mo looks. (The new film is directed by Lana Wachowski, working without sister Lilly).

Which leaves us with The Matrix Resurrections story. And while I can parrot some stuff about plot, I’m not completely sure about what I saw. I can say that Matrix 4 is where lead characters Neo and Trinity (Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss) fall in love for real, a detail already widely disseminated.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

I can say unequivocally that Neil Patrick Harris is unbeatable playing smarmy, here as Neo’s shrink before Neo morphs back into Neo from the dreary, befuddled, amnesiac workaday Thomas Anderson we first meet on screen.

Speaking of morph, as in Morpheus — the crucial gateway character between this world and that immortalized in the original series by Laurence Fishburne — he is back in an alternate form and played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Because… I dunno. Fishburne’s agent is prescient, maybe?

Also revamped is Neo’s nemesis Smith, originally played by Hugo Weaving and now played by Jonathan Groff. Both Fishburne and Weaving appear briefly via archival footage, further confusing and undercutting the presence of these less-than-riveting new players.

Still, the award for worst-est in The Matrix Resurrections goes to Jada Pinkett Smith, who seems to have essayed John Travolta’s Terl from Battlefield Earth for her role as former fighter, now wizened sage Niobe, who hobbles about spewing platitudes about war and honour and some such with all the appeal of an embittered history teacher in final period.

Oh, it’s all just so very bad when you stop to think about it. Maybe that’s the key to enjoying The Matrix Resurrections: don’t think about it. Just go along for the ride, enjoying its chilly, otherworldly effects, its endless punch-ups and super-silly but irresistibly repeatable dialog. Story is overrated. This is strictly for feeding the head.

The Matrix Resurrections. Directed by Lana Wachowski. Starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Neil Patrick Harris and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. In theatres December 22.