If you want to go into The Matrix Resurrections completely cold when it comes to theaters and HBO Max on December 22, then what are you doing here? Turn back, for there be massive spoilers for the entirety of the movie ahead.
Everyone involved with the fourth installment in the franchise has been keen to stress that it isn’t a sequel, and if the information passed along to World of Reel from a recent test screening is any indication, they weren’t lying. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call it perhaps the most self-aware and meta blockbuster we’re ever likely to see.
The viewer even uses Wes Craven’s New Nightmare as a reference point, because everyone in The Matrix Resurrections appears to be fully cognizant of the original trilogy. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus and Jonathan Groff’s Agent Smith are recoded versions of their previous iterations, with Neil Patrick Harris’ The Analyst the villain of the piece.
Keanu Reeves’ Neo is in fact a game developer working for a company owned by Warner Bros. called Deus Machina, who created console titles that form a series known as The Matrix. Co-writer David Mitchell said it would subvert blockbuster expectations, which it apparently does by using scenes from the first film and video game tropes, in general, to form the basis of the story and serve as the inspiration behind the action scenes.
If people don’t like it, then you can bet your ass Space Jam: A New Legacy is going to come up an awful lot in any negative reviews, but it certainly sounds as though The Matrix Resurrections is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
