The Matrixis one of the films that made cinematic history. In addition to inspiring a wave of action films in the early 2000s, includingUnderworldandEquilibrium, it helped launch the second act ofKeanu Reeves' career. It also apparentlyhelped save a Warner Bros. executive’s job, according toLilly Wachowski. Like any successful film,The Matrixwould receive sequels in the form ofThe Matrix Reloaded,The Matrix Revolutions, andThe Matrix Resurrections.
WhileThe Matrix ReloadedandThe Matrix Revolutionswere box office hits, reception from critics and fans was mixed — especially when it came to howThe Matrix Revolutionsended the trilogy.The Matrix Resurrections, on the other hand, receiveda mostly positive receptionbut didn’t make back its budget. So what’s the deal with these films? The answer lies in the fact thatThe Matrixis driven by a compelling mysterythat its sequels lack.
‘The Matrix’ Was Built on a Mystery That Slowly Unfurled and Hooked Its Audience
Part of what makesThe Matrixsuch a compelling watch is thatit slowly unfurls the mysteries behind its world, fully immersing the audience. The very first scene features Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)breaking into a mysterious locationto perform a bit of hacking; nothing is revealed about her except that she’s an extremely skilled fighter and hacker. This leads to a barrage of questions: Is she meant to be the protagonist of the film, or its antagonist? She’s equally mysterious as the black-suited agents who seem to be able to follow her, and the enigmatic man, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), to whom she reports. The mystery only continues when Reeves' Thomas Anderson — the man who will one day become Neo — is approached by those same agents, which leads to a bizarre metallic worm being placed in his body. Again, the question is raised: Who are these guys, what do they want with Neo, and how is it tied to Trinity?
It’s Time to Go Down the Rabbit Hole and Accept ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Is Great
Lana Wachowski’s 2021 sequel ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ was an ambitious legacy sequel that emphasized the themes of the first film.
Finally,the grand revelation comes when Neo comes face to face with Morpheus, who offers him a red pill or a blue pill. Neo opts for the red pill, which awakens him to the fact that he’s more or less been a battery for a race of machines that rules the world. From there, the answers start trickling in, and it makes you look atThe Matrixdifferently.The Matrixalso continues to introduce a few more mysteries throughout its runtime. When Neo meets the Oracle (Gloria Foster), her ability to see the future is left as a mystery. Neo’s death and resurrection come with the ability to bend the Matrix to his will — another mystery. These mysterious elements help make the world ofThe Matrixmore interesting, and it’s a lesson that the sequels should have remembered.
‘The Matrix’ Sequels Attempt To Expand the World, but It Was Just Confounding and Underwhelming
The Matrix Reloaded, at first glance, looked like it would continue the high-octane action and philosophical underpinnings that made the first Matrix movie such a success. However,it starts to explain things that didn’t need explaining, which sap a great deal of mystery from the film. The Oracle’s mysterious ability to read the future? Turns out it was because she was a part of the Matrix. The mysterious Twins (NeilandAdrian Rayment), who can phase through objects and pose a formidable threat? Morpheus blows up their car, and they never show up again. But the worst offender is the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), the “creator” of the Matrix. When Neo comes face to face with him inThe Matrix Reloaded’s climactic scene, the film’s momentum screeches to a halt as the Architect proceeds to unveil the truth behind the Matrix. Not only does this zap a lot of the mystiquefrom the mythos the Wachowski siblingsbuilt up in the first film, but Bakaitis' performance as the Architect feels less like an all-seeing creator and more like a stuffy college professor.
The Matrix Resurrectionsis another example, as itintroduces concepts that it never really explores.It’s revealed that after Neo sacrificed his life to stop a rogue Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) inThe Matrix Revolutions, man and machine found peace… until man chose to leave the Matrix, causing machines to attack humanity and a program called the Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) to resurrect Neo and Trinity to keep the machines' existence going. This is all covered in a lengthy bit of exposition (breaking the “show, don’t tell” rule), but more importantly, that sounds like something that would have made for an amazing plot. Likewise, it’s revealed that Neo created a program that took on the appearance of a young Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), which also contains aspects of Smith. A character containing elements of Neo’s mentor and his nemesis would have been an interesting dynamic to explore, yet once again, this is only barely touched upon.
A new Matrix movie is in the works, and it’ll be helmed byDrew Goddad, a filmmaker who’s crafted some compelling mysteries. Goddard’s previous works,The Cabin in the WoodsandBad Times at the El Royale, both feature a layered mystery and a compelling cast of characters. Those are elements the Matrix franchise will need to return to if it wants to capture the success of the first film.
The Matrix
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth–the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
