Movie Poster

There’s a part of me that feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.

Previous The Matrix reviews:

• The Matrix Revolutions
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix

# Review

The fourth installment of The Matrix comes almost two decades after the second and third. I played The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 demo when it came out but heard some bad things about the fourth film so decided to skip the movie. Now that I’m on a longhaul flight with not much to do, I decided to finally watch the fourth movie. The film mirrors that of the first. Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is the creator of The Matrix, a successful video game franchise which tells the story of the film trilogy. Anderson suspects that the reality he’s in isn’t actually the real world.

The fourth movie feels like a parody of the first film; many of the same themes and even the same scenarios are present but they’re slightly different. The story starts out ok but quickly gets very corny. I do like how this film doesn’t take itself too seriously, even poking fun at the very necessity of having a fourth movie. I also like the games it plays with the audience on whether Anderson’s reality is fake or if Anderson just needs mental health help. The plot quickly gets very generic though, as it tries very hard to evoke the first movie. Reeves’ Anderson and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Tiffany are both still fantastic. I also didn’t mind Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s new Morpheus but Jonathan Groff's Smith is not nearly as good as Hugo Weaving's. The other supporting cast, such as Jessica Henwick’s Bugs and Neil Patrick Harris’ therapist, feel one dimensional and lack character development. As with the prior films, the action sequences are pretty solid; swarm mode is pretty cool and the CGI is pretty decent.

# Conclusion

They should've stopped after the first The Matrix.

# Overall rating: 6.4

What does the rating mean?