Almost twenty years on from The Matrix Revolutions, which closed out the original sci-fi trilogy series, it’s finally time to jack in again. The awesome-looking The Matrix Resurrections is coming just before Christmas, with Lana Wachowski and the iconic stars returning to the high-concept franchise that redefined action cinema. The trailers have been uniformly excellent but — as is franchise tradition — raise far more questions than they answer.
One of the biggest is how the lead characters survived the events of The Matrix Revolutions. The trilogy’s finale ended with Trinity dying in a ship crash and Neo sacrificing his life to end the war between machines and humans. But, judging by the trailer and various posters, their situation has been upgraded from dead to very much alive.
But it seems that bringing back Neo and Trinity was always at the core of the new movie. Keanu Reeves explained the new film’s genesis in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying:
“When [director Lana Wachowski] approached me, she spoke about having a story to tell which centered around Neo and Trinity, and that sounded really exciting to me. Neo’s getting a second chance at his life, and he’s getting a second chance with the person that he says is ‘the only person I ever loved.’ … The depth of why this film got made is the sense of it being a love story between Trinity and Neo.”
Co-stars Jonathan Groff and Priyanka Chopra Jonas agree. Groff said:
“When I read the script for this movie I cried because the idea of watching these two iconic actors in these two iconic parts coming back and fighting to have their love again just wrecked me.”
Jonas agreed:
“They both are like well-oiled machinery. Their characters, the way they speak, the way they know each other even as people – it’s just so wonderful to see their camaraderie.”
After the most recent trailer with its killer remix of Sebastian Böhm’s “Wake Up” I couldn’t be more psyched to see this. Right now it looks like The Matrix Resurrections will be a departure from the original movies, and the fourth-wall-breaking is likely to split opinion when it hits theaters later this month. I’m optimistic, and the simple fact that I’m hyped for a Matrix movie in 2021 feels damn good.
The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.
Published: Dec 9, 2021 07:38 am