Set in the world of the original Matrix, “Matrix Resurrections” was released on December 22, 2021. This movie was directed by Lana Wachowski and is the eighth movie in the classic Matrix trilogy.

The film takes place sixty years after the previous movie, “Matrix Revolutions”, and revolves around the plot of Neo and Trinity, played by Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss respectively. 

The movie’s beginning explores the idea that both Neo and Trinity were destroyed and replaced by a new code and reborn as Thomas and Tiffany. 

They have very different lives: Neo is now a videogame designer, and Tiffany is married with kids. Their lives are dictated by the Analyst who attempts to keep their identities secret from the rest of the world. 

However, this plan fails when Bugs notices a distinct facial correlation between Thomas and Neo. Eventually, through much talk and lecture, Neo is confirmed; and Bugs and Morpheus give him the choice of taking a red or blue pill. One will allow him to escape the “fake life” and seek the truth, while the other will let him stay and repeat the same life every day.

Thomas Anderson decides to take the red pill through much thought, which makes Neo awake and aware of his surroundings in the real world. The plot then derives from Neo needing to find Trinity as they are weak individually but very powerful when together. Eventually, they are set to fight off against the Analyst.

“Matrix Resurrections” does an excellent  job of creating a new storyline. The movie also does an excellent job of alluding to the older films in the trilogy through its scenes and soundtrack. In several scenes, in the background, you can see parts of the original movies, and in a couple of fight scenes, those scenes are a direct tribute to those earlier films. The soundtrack itself made many, including myself, go down a path of nostalgia.

While this film does many great things, Several  things weren’t so great. First, “Matrix Resurrections” has a screen time of two hours and twenty-eight minutes, which for many people, is challenging to sit through. I feel that the movie had a lot of long and complex dialogue with multiple characters, making it difficult to understand what was happening. 

The other downside to the film for me was the amount of action. There were many talking scenes in this movie that seemed to take away from the “action” scenes you would expect from a Matrix movie. Those movies previously in the series brought you action every couple scenes and really let that action speak for itself. Versus in “Resurrections” the action was spread apart vastly.  

It would be nice to see more action scenes because, in the previous film, the action scenes were so intense they kept you on the edge of your seat. 

My final issue with the movie was that it felt based more on profit rather than developing the storyline. It’s important to differentiate when you should stop “milking” a specific storyline or series and instead start a new one.  Based on the previous titles of the Matrix this movie fell short in it’s story line and interest. Like other movie franchises, such as Friday the 13th and Star Wars notably. 

Overall, I would rate this movie a 3 out of 5, because it was generally quite simple. There was an extreme amount of not-so-interesting dialogue, and although the scenes with action were well thought out, there simply was not enough of them. Keanu Reeves did a good job acting and indeed added to the movie.