I was promised a terrible woke sequel, but the bad guys are still the Communists (machines) and taking the red pill still wakes you up.
The story is cringe at times, but it's still a somewhat enjoyable action film.
Set sixty years after the events of The Matrix Revolutions, the film follows our hero Neo, who is now living a somewhat normal life as Thomas Anderson in San Francisco as a Game Developer, and creator of The Matrix video games, (insert major cringe at this point with terrible 4th wall breaking dialog). Anderson is seeing a therapist and describes a psychosis of him believing The Matrix is real, after a while a new version of Morpheus offers him the red pill and reopens his mind to the world of the Matrix.
Neo joins a group of rebels and we have pretty much the same old story being told again.
Not only is there a new Morpheus, there is also a new Agent Smith, the problem here is that they have just recast old characters, and the original actors were so iconic in their roles, that this instantly seems alike a huge let down.
The Good
It is still the tale of good vs evil, the common man versus the elite, the special effects are incredible as you would expect.
The Bad
The film is not great, it is also not terrible
Overall
The promises of "reclaiming the red pill" narrative doesn't really materialise, the film is not overly woke, the problem is the film is just not that good. But that is because of the very high standard of the original.
I score the film a super generous 7/10 mainly as I am a huge Matrix fan. Could've and should've been better. We are literally living in a world right now that the original film fantasized about, but the film makers were too cowardly to take head on.
Review by Jon Donnis
