The Matrix 4 is not just exciting - it is essential, regardless of how objectively good, bad, or painfully middling it turns out to be. In a world dominated by corporatocratic magnates and corrupt political matadors, you’d think maybe a film about the dichotomy between agency and apathy might have something meaningful to say. Maybe. Might.
Let’s get the contrarian criticisms out of the way: Keanu looks like John Wick Keanu, not Neo Keanu. Laurence Fishburne is conspicuously absent - probably because Morpheus is canonically dead, innit. There are some fairly ostentatious pyrotechnics rigs, which might initially seem a little bit uncharacteristic of the Wachowski Sisters’ iconic trilogy, but, like… dodging bullets, mate. The most famous scene from The Matrix is a slow-mo shot of Keanu Reeves doing the limbo under a load of bullets Elrond off of The Lord of the Rings fired at him. I think it’s okay to have a building-go-boom scene or two in an action film that has historically been honest about its status as, you know, an action film.
Ever since I originally heard that Lana Wachowski had decided to revive The Matrix, I have been sceptical in the same sort of way you feel before sitting an exam you haven’t studied for: it’s inevitable, it could be fine - great, even - but the last thing on Earth you want to do is actually think about it. More so than anything else, you want to roll with the punches in a fugueish haze until it’s all over and you can take stock of your feelings with the safety of hindsight in tow. Basically, I have been consciously - and maybe even subconsciously - trying to forget The Matrix 4 exists until I see the credits roll.
Unfortunately, I can no longer do that, because Lana Wachowski has done the seemingly impossible and put out a trailer that should excite even the most hair-splittingly hypercritical Matrix fans on the planet, provided they are not being knowingly sanctimonious.
The Matrix - particularly the first film - is and always has been extraordinarily clever. The ability to juxtapose the aforementioned bullet-dodging with subject matter that meaningfully engages with philosophical doctrines like existentialism and nihilism is in and of itself an extremely impressive feat. While a lot of films look inward, delving deeper and deeper into their own inherent artifice for the sake of achieving verisimilitude, or the appearance of reality, I defy anyone who claims to have come out of seeing The Matrix and not felt a shift in perspective. The Matrix redpilled the world, and we’re all better for it. Well, most of us are - the Nazis who don’t actually understand The Matrix are bluepilled bigots without the bliss. Sad.
It has been 18 years since The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions launched six months apart from one another back in 2003. While often considered drastically inferior to the Wachowskis’ inaugural effort, I think it’s safe to say that this series is one of those rare, precious untouchables. This is why The Matrix 4 is such a precarious premise - has too much time passed? What can it truly say? Will it work with just Lana and no Lilly? Can it speak to power in a way that is authentic and courageously subversive? Why, now, in 2021, do we need this?
Any concerns I had previously have since dissipated into thin air. This trailer - this testament from Lana Wachowski herself that The Matrix is necessary in the contemporary zeitgeist - is the first sure sign that The Matrix is back, and for good reason. I’m not sure if it can top the first film - very few movies can - but it has certainly proved that it has earned the right to try. It is, from what we have seen, a bona fide Matrix movie. Until I realised that after watching the trailer this afternoon, I hadn’t properly considered how essential that is right now.
If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll have a fair idea of the framing here: Neo is presumably back in the Matrix, unaware of his previous rebellion alongside Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of the crew. He scoffs blue pills like Maltesers in a communal party bowl, although he is conscious of the fact that something isn’t quite right. If anything, his mentality feels a bit Orwellian - there’s a distinct air of “Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me.” Even the song lyrics speak of a pill that makes you bigger, one that makes you small, and a third option that makes you feel nothing at all. Neo’s outlook and repressed memories of what happened in the first three films are the most powerful thing about this trailer. Yeah, the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole stuff is very Matrix-y, and I’m excited to hear what sort of ridiculous names the new redpillers have, but it is in Neo’s confusion - Neo’s distrust of his own instincts - that The Matrix 4 feels truly contemporary.
In a world where we are so often powerless and defeated, The Matrix simultaneously functions as a mass wake-up call and a call to arms. It is a mammoth middle finger to every facet of the world that is unjust, a raised fist to the stampeding goose step of institutional corruption and oppression. While it looks distinctly like a Matrix film - how stylish is that “Simulate” shot! - it also feels like one without necessarily feeling too much like the original three.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s been almost two decades since the last Matrix movie. Sure, Wachowski and her team could have just riffed off the first three and went for a holiday blockbuster. Do you really believe that Lana Wachowski would do that, though? If so, pardon my French, but you’re acting like a bit of a moron. The Wachowski Sisters speak truth to power with novel, intelligent cinema. While Lilly Wachowski isn’t on this project, her illustrious “fuck both of you” tweet to Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump only further accentuates how unflinchingly courageous these women are.
The Matrix 4 looks great. And even if it turns out not to be, it is undoubtedly going to become one of the most essential and influential films of this cultural moment.
“You hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."