tom cunningham

The opening scene of the matrix begins with an apology to the audience - an acknowledgment that the fourth edition of the series will not meet your expectations - if only this scene made it to the trailers we could all have avoided the disappointment. Self critical dialogue in the film speaks of the struggle the directors faced to try and match the action and existential crisis induced by the first matrix movie. A film that came out during the golden era of hollywood when the appetite for original content was high and directors had the budget to deliver on it. Unfortunately, like the Indiania Jones crystal skull movie that came before it, or the marvel series in general, this movie is indicative of the nostalgic, low risk reboots that fill our modern theatres. Once the apology is over, a drone of convoluted dialogue brings you up to speed with the tenuous connections between this film and the three that came before it. Dead characters have been brought back to life numerous ways, from the ferro fluid ”spoiler”, to the rebuilt ”spoiler” - these characters resurrection is as tedious as the resurrection of the dead franchise. To label the dialogue as self referencing nostalgia is generous, more accurately, it’s a parody to the genuinely deep philosophical theme of the first movie. With the recent development of Meta by Facebook and the growing existential threat of AI, parody seems like an uninformed choice. A choice that would have been more appropriate after the Y2K bug - around the time the first movie came out than in 2021. I watched the new matrix film hoping for the narrative to grow with the audience. I wanted a story that confidently tackled existential issues that the franchise first introduced to the mainstream, infused with a more contemporary take on AI to add to the story. What we got was a nostalgia fest that parodied the franchise and stripped it of any remaining credibility. I give this movie one star