30/12/2021
[MATRIX: RESURRECTIONS]
Many times I've been trying to dodge not only spoilers but also opinions and reviews, before I could actually watch a new movie, that I was really waiting for. It's not easy and every user of social media knows it. Thing is, I don't always succeed. Sometimes it's a pure accident. Sometimes it's my everly unsatisfied curiosity that wins with my determination to stop myself from snooping too much. When it comes to Matrix: Resurrections, I really did a good job. Sadly, just days before I went to the cinema, I saw many fanpages saying the same thing: „New Matrix failed to deliver”. I might be a bit of a hypocrite, because even though I like to write and talk about stuff that I enjoyed, or not, I rarely read or listen to others. And so I went to the cinema without any specific expectations, besides experiencing a lot of nostalgia.
Back in 1999, when the first Matrix movie was released, it was crazy. So many people wouldn't stop wondering what's going to happen when we get to the new millenium. Are computers going to get crazy? Are we going to experience chaos impossible to easily fix? Today we all know answers to these questions. World of computers continued to work out pretty well. Or at least it seems so. But let's get back to the movie itself. Dark and gloomy world, protagonist who was kinda nerdy, mysterious characters who could do some amazing things and a really weird chain of coincidences that led to the ultimate truth: humans were living in a sophisticated simulation. The real world was out there and it wasn't pretty. Thomas Anderson, or rather Neo, decided to get to know the real world, because for his whole „life” he felt like everything he knows was fake somehow. And he was right. As a kid, I absolutely fell in love with action sequences, which were so spectacular at the time, that I was simply enchanted. I enjoyed the biggest twist about the fake and real world. I was intrigued and I wanted to know everything about the real world, just like Neo. And like all people, I had to wait until whole trilogy was released. After finishing whole thing a couple of times, I could easily notice so many little details that led to understanding of various methaphors being the very essence of the whole franchise. I absolutely loved it. And don't get wrong, I'm not saying that I did it all without any help. I read articles, I talked with other movie fans, but the biggest help ever wasn't available to me yet. Internet came to my life a bit later, but as I watched Matrix trilogy again and again, I started to dig and read about it even more. It was a gift that kept on giving.
I believe that Matrix is a series of movies that always had different meaning to their viewers. To me, the most important part was always the „choice”. Not any particular choice, that is. But the whole concept of a choice. Will you follow the white rabbit? Which pill are you going to take? Will you save someone you love or perhaps you will do something else instead? Will you fight for what you believe in? Will you trust someone who doesn't seem to have any interest in helping your cause? So many choices. So many questions. And so many answers as long as the audience was ready to think and connect the dots, according to their own beliefs. What made me believe that I was right about it, was the final scene when Neo fought Smith. When agent asks him why does he continue to struggle and fight, Neo simply answers that he's doing this because that's his choice. To me that was all I needed. Finally he gets Smith to infect him and thus his great journey ends with the biggest sacrifice that one could imagine. He didn't simply lost his own life, but also he lost the woman he loved more than anything else. Many viewers were unsatisfied with this outcome. Was it all for nothing? Are machines going to uphold their deal? Is it really over? The Architect who ran the Matrix itself, said that he would release anyone who really wanted it, and the rest can stay in the Matrix, so they won't have to struggle with the real world. I didn't know answers to these questions. No one knew (maybe besides creators of the story). It was a really satisfying ending for my taste.
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Years later, in 2021, the newest Matrix movie was released. It's very title – Resurrections – says a lot about it's plot. Obviously I couldn't simply avoid watching the trailer. So once again I saw Neo and Trinity. And once again I had to ask myself: is this real world? Is this another Matrix simulation? Why? And how? Are they simply programs imitating people who died so many years ago? What about the other good ol' crew like Morpheus and the rest? Seeing some crazy action sequences told me that it couldn't be the real world. It had to be Matrix. Like all the other fans I had a simple choice: to see the movie, or to not watch it at all. But was it really a choice if my mind was instantly made up the moment I've heard about the movie? That simple thought made me feel really excited. And so I went to the cinema to see it for myself.
This time Thomas Anderson wasn't a simple, boring corpo guy. This time he was a real celebrity. Famous video games developer. Creator of the Matrix trilogy. Sounds meta? It does. We can see a lot of winks to the old trilogy. So much of it feels very similiar. You know that feeling when you go to a restaurant that you ate in many, many years ago, and then you go back to see that this is the same place, but with different menu, new faces to serve you food and drinks, and new decor? I felt like this. And I wondered what is behind all of it. Thomas says that he enjoys his work, but we can see that he's miserable. He even has a therapy that is supposed to help him with his stressfull life and the problem he has with seeing the difference between the real world and fiction. To us, it all sounds like bunch of lies, but it's easy to empathize with his struggle. The moment we see him having like tons of blue pills is another wink to the original movie. He really doesn't feel like leaving this life, even though he doesn't enjoy it. He constantly sees Trinity, who goes by name Tiffany, but sadly for him she's married and she has kids. Obviously finally things get really intense and everything starts to make sense. Neo and Trinity are trapped. But how did their bodies survive and for what purpose? Nothing is a coincidence and very soon we get to understand what is the deal here. Once again, our heroes have to make choices. And deal with their consequences. This time there's no Oracle to guide them. Neo doesn't seem to have the same power as he ended up with at the end of the original trilogy. But apparently Trinity has more mojo in her than it was shown before. In a cruel twist of fate, machines were keeping them close, but separated, because as it happens, whenever they were together, wonders happened. Separated they were weakened. What it say to me is that this time the bond between two people in love is the greatest source of power ever. This leads me to another question: is the „choice” itself the most important theme again? Or maybe it was depowered? Since I watched the movie only once, I'm still not convinced. The ending was kinda... Surprising to me. I expected something else. I'm not saying I was dissapointed. But definitely I need to watch it again, so I can formulate my thoughts better.
Last time we saw Matrix as world stuck in 1999. This time it's 2021, I reckon. Smartphones, social media, video games. All that makes us feel like home. We even get to see some old faces, and let me tell that I absolutely loved Merovingian's ranting. If you won't at least smile while listening to this, then you must be no fun at the parties. If you wondered what happened to the humans in real world, don't worry, you'll see it for yourself. It's more impressive than Zion. And the fact that some of the machines, or rather synthients as they prefer to call themselves, live in peace with humans there and help them to thrive, is something that helped me to stand firm with my feeling that Neo's and Trinity's sacrifice from years ago wasn't for nothing. It's not perfect, but it's a good start, I'd say.
My conclussion is that if you are a fan of the original trilogy, you just cannot simply ignore the new movie. The choice is obvious. Don't be afraid that this time it won't be the same. Because obviously it won't. Times changed. Years passed. World evolved. You all changed. And the movie had to do the same in order to preserve sense. Personally I'm satisfied and I can't wait for a next movie. I'm sure it will happen sooner or later. Until it does, I will make sure to watch Matrix: Resurrections a couple times more.
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