The Matrix trilogy revolutionized the sci-fi genre when it first came out in 1999. It pushed the boundaries of CGI and action in a way no other film had before, not to mention the whole mind trip it created by the blue pill/red pill conundrum that is now a part of modern philosophical debates. The announcement of the sequel to the trilogy, The Matrix Resurrections, left a lot of people raising their eyebrows, and if you have yet to see it, one actor from the original trilogy has succinctly summed it up.
The fourth entry wasn’t a complete disaster by any means, but it lacked much of what the first three had – a lot of green-filtered cinematography for starters. Speaking to Variety at the premiere of Netflix’s new fantasy flick The School for Good and Evil, Laurence Fishburne, the original Morpheus (recast and played by Abdul Mateen II as an AI version of the character) brought up his own opinion of Resurrections.
His appraisal mirrors what many others felt upon watching this new addition as he stated, “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” cue very long pause, “and it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.”
He did praise his old co-stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss for their return to their roles, “I thought Carrie-Anne and Keanu really did their thing. Yeah, that’s what I thought.” When asked if he missed playing his iconic role, he gave a very sincere response of “no, not really.”
The Matrix Resurrections is unlikely to go down in the annals of cinematic history or become a cult classic as its predecessors have already done, but it is still an entertaining watch – with more crazy martial arts and gymnastic-like stunts, a ton of slow-mo bullets, and a fight between what is real and what is not.