Chelsea Evans

I can't name one thing I appreciate about this movie. The premise, the casting, the lighting, the staging and choreography, the wardrobe, the SCRIPT, the tone (this Morpheus was cracking jokes and wearing brightly-colored suits, for some reason), everything about it is shockingly lazy. I've never been so grateful to have not spent money on seeing a movie in theaters. It seems as if the filmmakers couldn't decide, even among themselves, whether the film was going to be a formulaic reboot or some sort of new-universe spin-off. They lean heavily on callbacks to the previous trilogy, which come off as contrived, instead of nostalgic. It actually works against them, in my opinion, making this film look like it's coming up short. The fight scenes are, disappointingly, few and far between, and the ones we do get keep your heart beating exactly at its resting rate. (And no, I don't think it has to do with Keanu Reeves' age.) They've literally copied and pasted earlier choreography into this film, even parts of the iconic subway scene. The sequences that aren't reprisals are, at best, boring; and at worst, downright comical. Is this fan-fiction, a TV film, or a high-budget Hollywood blockbuster? I love Jonathan Groff, but despise his version of Agent Smith, whose motivations were always pretty clear before. I find Groff too youthful and cute, not even close to mean enough. Also, why the hell was there so much comic relief in general? Neil Patrick Harris (whom I also enjoy as a performer) would've had no place in one of the other Matrix films, so what is he doing here? I suppose the filmmakers wanted to update this sequel, and that's where my problem really lies. Watching this installment, I found myself laughing at the costumes, cringing at the jokes, rolling my eyes when things became serious again in the next scene, but mostly just waiting for the end credits. Other gripes: the attempts at styling baby hair on a white woman are ridiculous, the moment when Bugs tells Neo that their friendly machines "prefer to be called synthients" was weirdly political, and after 2.5 hours, I couldn't explain the plot if I had to. TLDR; there's something fishy about the amount of 5-star reviews one can find for this film.... As a fan of the trilogy, I wholeheartedly reject this one from the series and see it as a standalone. Poor execution all around. Full-throttle deviation from the aesthetic and tonal blueprint of the first three films. Full disclosure, I generally don't care for reboots of things that I grew up watching -- which the Matrix trilogy is -- but if you're into that, you might find this film okay.