Film Review: The Matrix Resurrections
The latest installation of the Matrix series delivers slick action sequences, nostalgic throwbacks and deeper questions on the nature of choice and destiny.
As a longtime fan of the Matrix series, I have always found it difficult to grapple with the philosophical questions posed by the Wachowski siblings. Do humans have freedom of choice? Are we doomed by the technologies we create? Do our agency and actions matter?
The Matrix Resurrections delivers the zeitgeist of the original series, framed against the love story of its two central protagonists, Neo and Trinity. The film begins with Neo mysteriously back in the Matrix, alive and unenlightened. As an award winning video game designer of a game based on the events of the original trilogy, he is left restless and searching for the truth, unsatisfied by his daily routine of treadmills, espressos and banal colleagues. There are hints of his desire to break free - an alleged suicide attempt, a psychotic break - but this, ultimately, is a Neo that is far more timid and fearful that the original Neo we meet. This is a Neo who runs from the red pill, who is hesitant to embrace Trinity, and who ultimately goes on a journey to discover his inner truth.
In highlighting the doubt faced by Neo over whether to choose freedom or security, Resurrections also deals with a darker side to humanity - the desire for security over freedom. In the latest Matrix system, a significant part of humanity has seemingly chosen to stay in the Matrix out of their own volition. The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) sums up the paradox of human nature best in his design of a Matrix system built, in his own words, on the twin cores of human nature - desire and fear. In doing so, the Analyst reveals a crucial and disturbing truth about human nature - that the freedom we seek is so often crushed by our innate desire for and security. In this interplay between freedom and security, the Wachowski siblings embed a deeper question on the nature of human choice and destiny - namely, when offered the freedom to chart their own destiny, do humans embrace this, or tend to choose a destiny laid out for them?
Notably, Resurrections delves deeper into the complex world of the Matrix and the Machines. Reduced to a soulless enemy intent on harvesting the bio-energy of humanity for much of the original Matrix trilogy, the Machines in this installment are shown to be a more complex species. As Bugs (Jessica Henwick) notes, the peace settlement brokered by Neo in the original trilogy yielded long-term peace. Despite the destruction of the human homeworld of Zion, the new homeworld of Io serves as a realm of peaceful co-existence between humans and the Machines, with some Machines and programmes even serving as aides for indoor agriculture and extraction operations. Even the villanous Agent Smith (Jonathan Groff) gets a turn as a temporary ally of his sworn enemy Neo. Progress and co-existence, it seems, is possible.
In sum, the latest installment delivers weighty questions on the nature of free will, destiny and human nature, while drawing on the rich worldbuilding and tropes of the original Matrix trilogy. With updated jibes at the perils of modern technology (from Facebook to video games), it lives up to the original series as a thrilling romp through cyberpunk philosophy.
