Filmmelding:
There is little new to pick up when Neo wakes up from Matrisa once again.
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Title: The Matrix Resurrections
Regi: Lana Wachowski
Playing time: 2h and 28min
Why the Hollywood giants should absolutely make so-called reboots and spin offs of old successes, has become a banal question. Of course, it’s about money. For the iconic Matrixpart of the universe, it was just a question of what time Warner Bros. would brush the dust off Neo, Trinity and Morpheus.
There is little doubt that there is money to be made for the production company. If the product they sell has any other value, something is completely different.
Kicks upwards
The Matrix Resurrections takes up the thread 60 years after Thomas Anderson / Neo (Keanu Reeves)’s awakening from the computer simulation The Matrix and the ensuing freedom struggle against the machines. It turns out that it was all just a computer game, developed by Anderson himself.
But reality is obviously not what she looks like. Soon, Neo realizes that the psychoses he is medicating against are not psychoses, but the world that is cracking.
Resurrections starts fresh in the self-referencing corner. The computer game company that the main character started, has been informed by the highest court, the owners Warner Bros: The Matrix -player will receive a sequel in the name of profit.
The critique of the soulless capitalism from the first Matrix-film gets a nice update here. And of course it’s fun with some well-aimed kicks against the eternal new productions of old big movies and against their own production company.
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Impressive and manageable
The humorous effect nevertheless fizzles out in the face of a sad irony: The Matrix Resurrections represents to the highest degree exactly what he so vaguely tries to criticize.
It soon becomes clear that this is a film that has nothing new to come up with. History, which after a quarter takes shape as one heist-plot at the Ocean’s Eleven, is non-engaging and manageable. Despite the repeated references to the mother trilogy’s brainwashing capacity, the problematization of free will is only a pale copy in the sequel.
Admittedly, neither film number two nor three in the series were particularly good films. Filmmaker Lana Wachowski will have to cut into the well-choreographed, but insanely elongated kung fu and shooting scenes this time.
But the original Matrix-the universe was sexy after all, with all its sweaty techno and testo pump lark. IN Resurrections the aesthetic expression is quite imprinted. Even cute, big-eyed fantasy animals, which now seem obligatory in the sci-fi franchises, have gained a foothold.
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Reunion for better or worse
The big draw, reuniting with the old characters, is also the biggest strength. Skoders Keanu Reeves and Carrie -Anne Moss revive the old love between Neo and Trinity with dressy maturity. Also Jada Pinkett Smith is nice as the now ancient Captain Niobe.
The new characters, on the other hand, will never be more than scenery. Director and co-writer Wachowski does not seem to be interested in the characters, other than that Neo needs someone to talk to and piss.
The new version of the villain Smith (Jonathan Groff) is a particularly forgettable mix of financially ill and Sherlocks Moriarty. And where Laurence Fishburne around the turn of the millennium portrayed Morpheus with stylish charisma, the 2021 version (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) quickly loses all function in the action. In the second half of the film, he has hardly a single line.
Instead, Morpheus fills the role of silly fun man between battles, which is standard in a superhero film, but completely superfluous here. But bringing out old characters has become commonplace in the reboot industry. It’s just a shame when the results are so meager.
There is hardly a fear of burning inside with a good story that has made Lana Wachowski brush the dust off The Matrix. To point out that these films were innovative when they came out 20 years ago is obviously not enough to give The Matrix Resurrections a corresponding relevance.
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