As much as their impact on cinema can’t be overstated after they completely changed the game at the turn of the millennium, The Matrix Resurrections could well be the last time either of the Wachowski siblings is given a blockbuster-sized budget to work with.
After all, you could make the argument that the pair haven’t delivered anything even remotely successful since Reloaded landed in theaters 20 years ago; after Revolutions, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending all either under-performed or outright bombed at the box office, Lana’s solo effort on the fourth chapter in The Matrix franchise followed suit.
While the pandemic and a simultaneous HBO Max release can definitely be pinpointed as one of the main reasons why a $190 million R-rated blockbuster failed to catch fire with the general public, the fact remains that Resurrections conspired to lose Warner Bros. an eye-watering $130 million by the time it left theaters.
It was nothing if not ambitious swing for the fences, though, with the first act splitting opinion straight down the middle with its constant references to its parent studio, the original trilogy, and Keanu Reeves’ midlife crisis. The downside is that the meta angle often becomes grating, pretentious, and self-indulgent, ensuring Resurrections‘ lasting legacy as a divisive curio.
On the plus side, it has made a remarkable return to prominence on its home platform this weekend, with FlixPatrol naming it as the fifth most-watched feature on Max’s worldwide rankings. It might be the end of the road for The Matrix, but Resurrections did at least attempt to go out by crashing right through the fourth wall.
