Allan Bryce, Anton van Beek, Steve Kirkham and John Martin take a look at the latest sci-fi and fantasy cinema, Blu-ray and streaming releases…

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2022)
4K UHD & Blu-ray, Out now, Warner Bros., Cert: 15

★★★

Still recovering from the psychotic break he suffered following the completion of his phenomenally popular The Matrix videogame trilogy, world-renowned game developer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is horrified to learn that the bigwigs at Warner Bros. have decided that they want a brand new Matrix game. Still struggling to differentiate his dreams from reality, Anderson’s therapist (Neill Patrick Harris) urges him to carry on taking a course of blue pills, but not even these can help when Anderson is approached by a young woman called Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and somebody claiming to be Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), claiming that they have come to free him from a brand new incarnation of the Matrix…

And that’s just the first act in this long-delayed fourth instalment in The Matrix franchise. It’s also the best part of the film, with returning writer-director Lana Wachowski (sibling Lilly didn’t come back) happily biting the hand that feeds her as The Matrix Resurrections gets all meta about the endless recycling of existing IP and the unwillingness to invest in original ideas. One truly hilarious scene involves a group of game developers sitting around a table brainstorming (terrible) ideas for what they’d expect from a new instalment of the franchise.

Unfortunately, once Keanu regains his memories and gets his Neo mojo back, The Matrix Resurrections becomes just another Matrix sequel: a messy mix of big ideas and big action that never really comes together as a cohesive whole. To make matters worse, the film is peppered with cameos from characters from the earlier films, with no explanation of who they are and why they matter - given it’s been almost 20 years since the last instalment, The Matrix Revolutions, hit cinemas, it might have been nice to include some kind of reminders.

More troubling still is how flat so much of the action seems. In the two decades since the original Matrix trilogy happened cinemas have been packed full of superpowered characters. As such, it was always going to be a big ask for The Matrix Resurrections to revolutionise modern action cinema in the same way that ‘bullet time’ did back at the dawn of the millennium. But the enhanced version of ‘bullet time’ cooked up here (basically characters moving at normal speed through slow-motion environments) feels oldhat and not especially exciting.

If this all sounds overtly negative, it’s because The Matrix is such a landmark in modern action and science-fiction cinema. That none of its three sequels have come anywhere close to measuring up to it isn’t especially surprising; despite the original film’s open ending it never really felt like it actually needed a sequel. The story had been told. The Matrix Resurrections doesn’t change this. But at the same time there are enough good ideas here to make the film a reasonably enjoyable watch - more so than The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, anyway. So sit back, pop a red pill and dive back in…

Extras: The 4K disc doesn’t include any extra features whatsoever. Pop in the Blu-ray copy, though, and you’ll find a fair set of goodies to dive into - even if there’s no attempt to do anything as innovative as the ‘Follow the White Rabbit’ mode on the old DVD release of The Matrix. No One Can be Told What The Matrix Is (nine mins) finds the cast reflecting on the franchise;

Resurrecting The Matrix (31 mins) discusses the making of the new film and the reasons why it took so long to happen; Neo x Trinity: Return to The Matrix (eight mins) chats to Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss about their memories of meeting on the original film and returning to their iconic roles; Allies + Adversaries:

The Matrix Remixed (eight mins) looks at the new characters - and new versions of old characters - that appear in the film; Matrix 4 Life (six mins) is another reflection on the films from those involved in making them; I Still Know Kung Fu (five mins) drills into the film’s stunt work and fight choreography; and The Matrix Reactions (49 mins) is a collection of nine featurettes breaking down specific scenes from the film.