The Matrix Resurrections
the first time i watched this movie i really actively disliked it because i was coming straight off of the third matrix movie and the original trilogy gets me so hyped up that its hard to appreciate what this movie attempts to accomplish. the camera work is absolute uninspired garbage, the cgi looks worse, the color grading feels all wrong. digital is being used unartfully in a MATRIX successor, it just feels like a little bit of a crime to do this with this execution. i also have to admit that i have a very negative initial reaction to what this movie does narratively, stripping away the sincerity and internal consistency of the trilogy in order to respond to and comment on it using a metanarrative.
pulling the curtain back like this is a bold move, and i have come to appreciate it a bit more but i will still always prefer straightforward narrative to insecure postmodern self referential deconstruction. with that being said considering the fact that according to dialogue in this movie it was probably Forced into existence i am glad it took this form because i think that this angle is the only Honest way that another matrix movie could be made. it has Somehow retained its integrity despite being not very gratifying to actually watch, and being born out of a disgusting cycle of cultural regurgitation and vomit eating.
i think that its very honest to acknowledge what the trilogy means, all of it at once, but especially the fact that artists (perhaps especially mentally ill ones) have a grand spiritual projecting relationship to their work. i enjoy what this movie has to say about the defanging and co-opting of pure human expressions and movements by overculture. i think it does a brilliant job of threading the needle between every interpretation of the matrix's metaphors and how many of them are interlinked and mirror each other.
the matrix was a massive success but it cannot save the world. it can comfort and inspire marginalized people but it cannot truly liberate them, let alone the unmarginalized who suffer under these systems too and who gladly eat neutered misinterpretations of its extremely radical center. this reality has set in, the grip of the matrix is too tight to be shaken by art, so what now? the artist must learn to live with themselves and those who understand must also comprehend the fact that knowledge and faith alone are not enough. transformation is a consistent process enacted upon oneself, to reject apathy and to choose to do the slow painful internal work through faith and a sacred compassion. may that very same transformation one day seep through us deep enough into the tendrils of the system that it may be vulnerable enough to truly dismantle, until then we love ourselves and each other.
(08-18-2025)