The people behind the scenes are the same, but also different. Writer/director Lana Wachowski emerged as a trans icon (along with her sister Lilly), and has made a sequence of sometimes fascinating, sometimes puzzling work since the initial Matrix movies. Stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss have (oh so subtly) aged, enough that Reeves was able to fully revitalize his own career in the intervening years. What could The Matrix Resurrections do to remain relevant?
Read MoreLike either of the two previous movies, the more you think about the details of the time travel, the less sense it makes. This is, after all, the series where characters randomly exclaim “Station!” as a catchphrase, an incredibly dense in-joke from a deleted chunk of the second movie’s screenplay. Somehow, the movie doesn’t need a trim, rules-bound universe - it gets by on sight gags and performances alone.
Read MoreThe movie adds 167 deaths alone - more than half the total - and many of these come in lengthy, technically dazzling scenes whose only crime is that there’s too much of them. It sounds odd, but for all the thrills and grim laughs in Chapter 3, the movie could do with being 10 or 15 minutes shorter.
Read More