Netflix R-Rated Sci-Fi Blockbuster Takes Fan-Favorite Franchise Into Wild New Territory

If you’ve never watched The Matrix Resurrections, your first question is probably how there could even be another sequel. The final film of the original trilogy (The Matrix Revolutions) had franchise protagonist Neo complete his transformation into cyberpunk Jesus Christ by giving his life to finally defeat Agent Smith once and for all. After this, humanity and the robots entered into a truce, so any sequel would have to deal with the fact that the franchise had lost both its hero and its driving conflict.

Without diving into too many spoilers, The Matrix Resurrections reveals that Neo has been resurrected, but in a delightfully meta twist, he is back to living life as Thomas Anderson (sort of), someone who has become wealthy and famous thanks to the success of his Matrix video games. His latest game includes Trinity and other details he seemingly remembers from his days as Neo, though his psychoanalyst provides a steady dose of blue pills to help him separate his waking hours from his crazy dreams. 

Before too long, he meets old friends and new allies and is thrust into another adventure that blurs reality and simulation, all while a new foe helps him realize what is most important. The overall effect is very trippy–kind of a meta hat on a hat–but there are plenty of great scenes, including one where a bunch of game developers argue over what The Matrix is all about, including someone saying that it’s all about bullet-time and nothing else.

How much you enjoy the film reflecting real-world debates about the franchise will, in all likelihood, determine how much you enjoy The Matrix Resurrections.

Your enjoyment will also hinge on how much you enjoy the cast, including returning stars like Keanu Reeves, Acolyte star Carrie-Anne Moss, and even Jada Pinkett Smith. There are plenty of new faces, too, with the new villains being the standout additions to the franchise. We were a bit skeptical about the introduction of both Jonathan Groff and Neil Patrick Harris to this franchise, but both were so perfectly creepy in their own way that they stole almost every scene in which they appeared.

Sadly, The Matrix Resurrections was a box office bomb, earning only $159.2 million against a budget of $190 million. It fared better with critics but was still divisive: it currently has a 63 critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the film’s witty writing and heartfelt focus while noting that it never feels nearly as original as the original movie. That movie completely transformed Hollywood, and as it turns out, it’s hard to do that a second time, no matter how many sequels you put out.

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With that being said, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of The Matrix Resurrections: once you make peace with the fact that it puts character development ahead of cool action scenes (though the scenes we get are electric in their intensity), there is plenty to love in this Lana Wachowski film. It’s a kind of cinematic Rorschach test in which how you see it is a reflection of how you see the earlier films. In other words, it’s not for everyone.

You won’t know how you feel about this film, though, until you take the red pill for yourself. The Matrix Resurrections is streaming on Netflix right now, and only by watching it can you decide if it’s “the One” or just one that should never have been made. Either way, you’ll definitely be saying “whoa” by the time the credits roll.