Review

Going to the cinema asking for a ticket "to see the Matrix" in 2022 was an odd feeling. That odd feeling became déjà vu with the first scene. Even though I haven't watched the original movie in over a decade I still recognised it immediately.

The strange feelings didn't stop there. "Neo", back as Thomas Anderson, is a software developer who built a successful game called "The Matrix" featuring the story of the original trilogy. Now the parent company are creating a sequel "with or without him", which cuts far too close to the bone regarding the movie itself. There are a lot of references around this topic, mostly superficial, but have a deeper impact if you actually think about them.

The first act plays out in a similar way to the original movie; trying to get Neo to follow the rabbit hole – it is even interspersed with actual scenes from the first movie (the video game in this world) and recreations to jog Neo's memory.

Once Neo is back in the "real world", the movie feels a lot more familiar and as you might have expected the movie to play out. There are still the battery farms, there is a new human underground city. This time there are some robots working with the humans and even a augmented bridge to the code in The Matrix.

There are some good rifts off certain aspects of the original trilogy, such as bullet-time and Neo's God-like ability to fly. Everything in "The Matrix" world felt self-referencing and that was the point. We get some changes, such as with Agent Smith and interesting upgrades – there are no fixed phone lines like back in 1999.

The fourth installment wasn't needed, but I appreciate what they tried to do. The story was different, the action was good and the entire movie subverts your expectations. The movie is filled with interesting ideas and quotes, they're either making jokes or a profound statement. It was a fun movie to watch with plenty of themes which require analysis to uncover and understand, much like the original trilogy.