Did the trailer give you ideas of seeing the American military as the Red Queen's foot soldiers? How excited were you for this Matrix movie on the scale of zero to ten? Me? 100!
One thing that can be said with confidence is that if Keanu Reeves goes to the Matrix with a dose of Morpheus, there is a certain set of 90s kids that will show up regardless of the content. And the last couple of years have been a season of recaps of the 90s movies and television, the Spiderman movies did a parallel universe tie-in, Sabrina came back in a darker avatar and of course here, Neo will be meeting Trinity in an Alice in the Wonderland universe. Right from the melting mirror scene this bringing together of those two universes was due.
It is as if the movie itself treats the last two Matrix movies as a dream and picks up the thread from the first movie and wakes up from an amnesia where the two characters have been leading a "normal" life having erased the apocalyptic scenes of their past. Neo has not forgotten but considers his past escapades as a game reality. Especially considering that the first movie was talking about a world where Artificial Intelligence was becoming an all pervasive presence is quickly becoming a reality, this movie was due for a reboot.
And so it is the shrink Neo is seeing, Neil Patrick Harris, (perhaps a hookah-smoking caterpillar, or the Cheshire Cat, who quotes a philosophy and disappears,) is called The Analyst, the person who is supposed give you insights into reality is the person who takes you away from it. Mental health concerns are rising all around the world and there is a need for an enquiry into what goes into the making of those anti-depressants and the anxiety pills we are popping!
The movie introduces more characters such as Bugs, the literal rabbit that takes Neo down the rabbit hole and Priyaanka Chopras's Satee (the Indian mythological character who brings back her dead husband from the God of death,) who interestingly handles the Resurrection pods. There is Morpheus, of course, played by Yahya Abdool-Mateen, who has completely morphed into an AI now and unlike the sure and calm Morpheus of Laurence Fishburne, now struggles with his own identity, which is different but endearing.
The movie gives equal weightage to all its characters although it wastes a significant time on action much like the original.
What I was expecting was more visuals and metaphors alluding to Alice in Wonderland and The Looking Glass. (Even their release date was alluding to that!) America as some sort of Queen of Hearts. And why is Trinity not the Alice that takes Neo to the wonderland? All I am saying is that although we love the black-neon green aesthetics of the original movie, here was a chance to introduce an entirely new imagery to the movie's canon and introduce a classic like Alice in Wonderland to a new generation. Heck there was already a black cat from the Looking Glass!
This below is not so much a review but a reminiscence of the first Matrix movie, the first time our generation discovered what movies could be!
could lead to great movie concepts. The movie opened up several philosophical and existential questions for our generation and led us down the rabbit hole of reality and its myriad manifestations. For the first time we looked at religion as having the capacity to teach us to question rather than just instruct on how to lead a daily life. The words Maayaa and Nirvana were the buzz words.
The visuals of the movie were more than mere CGI, even they were driving the questions the movie wanted to ask. It made us read books like The Looking Glass with entirely new eyes. The action scenes sometimes took over the narrative but that was not entirely a hindrance.
With movies like Fight Club and Matrix America was considering how truth was being more elusive in the capitalist world that encouraged veiling the facts.
Although Hollywood had started making profits in India, the popularity of Matrix may not be really apparent to others. It may not have been a popular theatre movie but it was one of first movies college kids discussed constantly, quoting its lines and discussing its ideas. At least the nerdy kids like us did!
Keanu Reeves who already had a fan following from his movie Speed also became an overnight icon for the rest of us. We read about how he lead a hermit like life and the philosophy that he preached. He was cool in a way no one was. He was not the manly hero that even Hollywood likes, or the romantic chocolate boy, but he was cool by being, in a way, less narcissistic. He was not indifferent but a recluse. He was cool by not wearing something but just by being himself.
The Matrix is one of the cult classics which will keep on re-spawning with new ideas and concepts.
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