Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm LeaderVladimir and, as you can guess by the title of this post, I genuinely enjoyed The Matrix Resurrections and, if you're willing to listen, I'm willing to explain why.

Before anyone asks, no, I don't think Resurrections is better than the original Matrix, which is still considered one of the best movies ever made, even after all these years. That said, I do believe Resurrections is the best of the sequels.

I'm willing to admit Resurrections has legitimate flaws: the humor is hit-or-miss, the CGI is blatantly obvious (especially with the new Morpheus' physical body), the sequel hooks are distracting and, of course, the nostalgia is laid on really thick.

Let's start with the obvious: Neo and Trinity are alive. You may call their resurrections contrived, but I call them "a second chance", as Trinity herself says it at the ending of the movie. No, I will never forgive Revolutions for killing Trinity in such a pointless, contrived manner, especially after she barely survived a near-death experience in Reloaded.

Ever since Resurrections was announced and greenlit, some people accused this movie of being yet another reboot/sequel in a sea of reboots and sequels, like Jurassic World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and, of course, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The early part of this movie, in which Neo has a brainstorming sessions with his co-workers, implies that the movie is ashamed of its own existence. This particular form of cynicism rubs a lot of people the wrong way, especially if they take it a step further and interpret the movie as telling viewers that they should be cynical, as well.

I do admit I wasn't exactly impressed with the announcement of Resurrections, but that was mostly because I was left disappointed by the ending of Revolutions. That said, I'm also willing to admit there is a certain amount of cynicism in Resurrections. In fact, I have come to interpret Resurrections as a metaphor for the eternal struggle between cynicism and sincerity.

What do I mean with this? In Resurrections, there are two sides butting heads like two packs of animals. On one hand, you have the machines seeking to keep the Matrix active and humans imprisoned within the Matrix because they believe that peace between humans and machines is impossible and the machines themselves have become desperate because more and more humans are willingly leaving the Matrix, which of course leaves the machines without the energy they need to survive. This is the side of cynicism.

On the other hand, you have the alliance between humans and synthients, machines that genuinely want to honor the truce proposed by Neo at the end of Revolutions. This alliance has endured all the way from Revolutions to Resurrections and has even succeeded in building Io, a new city in which humans and synthients can live together as equals. This is the side of sincerity.

At the beginning of the movie, Neo is back to the place he started the original Matrix at: once again, he is a prisoner of the Matrix, living a dull, repetitive life. He is a video game developer that only remembers the events of the previous movies as dreams and vague memories and he used those dreams and vague memories to create a video game trilogy. Because of the success of these video games, Neo is asked yet again to develop a fourth Matrix video game by his publisher, Warner Bros, and gets told by the amnesiac Smith that Warner Bros. will make a new Matrix video game whether or not Neo gets involved in the project, so he might as well get on board. Yeah, this allegory has the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

In the next few scenes, we see Neo's fellow video game developers talk about what they loved about the Matrix games and their meaning, all the while trying to dissect what made the games so good and their hidden ideas, even when Neo, the games' creator, is sitting right next to them. Neo has a bored expression throughout these moments, further illustrating the cynical atmosphere of these scenes.

It's only when Neo meets Bugs (no relation to the mascot of Warner Bros.) and gets released from the Matrix that movie begins to move to the side of sincerity. Bugs tells Neo that his actions in the previous movies did change things for the better and when Neo goes to see Io, the city built by both humans and sentients, the sincerity of the movie only gets reinforced. Even Niobe, who never believed in the prophecy of the One, has nothing but respect and admiration towards Neo's legacy.

The climax and the ending of the movie prove, once and for all, that sincerity will always beat cynicism. Neo is able to convince Trinity to willingly leave the Matrix, believing in her in the same way she believed in him in the original Matrix. This is what the Analyst, the primary enforcer of cynicism in the movie, was trying to prevent. Things like hope and freedom are scary to the Analyst and the machine faction he represents, so they attempt to enforce cynicism because that's the only thing they know. Even when human-synthient alliance has proven that peace is possible, the Analyst refuses to believe that, ironically becoming proof of his own philosophy of people only seeing what they want to believe.

In the final scene of the movie, Neo and Trinity tell the Analyst they won't follow his script and instead, they will keep doing what they do best: help people to escape the Matrix and to take back control of their lives. The Analyst attempt to reinforce cynicism by telling our heroes that people don't want freedom or empowerment, they just want control, even referring them as "sheeple", proving that he only sees humans as means to an end. Our heroes simply laugh at his comments and tell him they will show the people of the Matrix the power of a free mind, ending the movie in a similar way to the original movie. This prove that people will choose the sincerity of the original movie above all else.

You can also interpret the final scene as an allegory for how entertainers can view their audiences. Some see them as a quick way to make a profit, while others see them as worthy of respect. It's an exaggeration, sure, but it does fit into the themes of cynicism and sincerity.

I have already said that there is cynicism in this movie but given the way this movie conveys the cynicism, I don't think we're meant to take that cynicism seriously. Resurrections can be interpreted as a battle between corporate cynicism and artistic sincerity. You can say that this theme makes Resurrections too meta for its own good and perhaps there is a discussion to be had there. After all, going meta with a sequel/reboot can be a tricky thing to pull off and sometimes, it can come off as the storytellers trying to present themselves as smart and clever. But whether the movie is too meta or just meta enough, I don't think it's cynical. I actually see it as the opposite, but then again, that's just my opinion. I'm sure that Lana Wachowski didn't intend her movie to be interpreted that way, but that's the way I interpreted it.

Well, that's all I have for you this time. Now is your turn to tell me what do you think about all of this. You have my thanks for taking the time to read what I had to say. Posting my opinions in this website doesn't make them any greater or more valid than yours and I'm just glad to have this privilege and this honor to share my opinions with you, although I do admit I did hijack this particular topic a little bit. The only thing I ask of you is to deliver your opinions in a polite and civilized manner. The only thing I ask of you is to deliver your opinions in a polite and civilized manner. We're all fans of The Matrix here, we just see things differently. So leave a comment below, thanks for your time and stay safe out there!