As if the last instalment wasn’t bad enough, Warner Brothers it seems has given the thumbs up to yet another Matrix movie.
I’ve said before that I’ve always felt The Matrix should’ve started and ended with the first film. It would’ve been amazing if they’d left things the way they were at the end of that movie, leaving audiences to forever wonder what happened next. Unfortunately though, it’s a money making industry over a storytelling one, so it was inevitable that a couple of sequels would follow (neither of which in my opinion came close to the first).
With the exception of a few elaborate CGI-fuelled fight scenes, a lot of sentinels and a confusing scene where the KFC guy tells Neo what the matrix is all about, I don’t actually remember all that much about The Matrix Reloaded or The Matrix Revolutions despite watching them both more than once. The first film on the other hand I could give you a detailed account of.
Then, a few years ago when we thought the whole thing was long done and dusted, Lana Wachowski (one of the Wachowski sisters - formerly Wachowski brothers and writers/directors of the first three movies) no doubt saw an opportunity to cash in on Keanu Reeves’ new found John Wick success and gave us an utterly terrible third instalment.
With an unnecessary female empowerment theme that completely undermines what the original saga is all about, not to mention missing two of the key actors who made it so successful, The Matrix Resurrections (2021) was not only pointless, it was disappointing and at times infuriating to watch.
After the film’s release Lana Wachowski stated that she had no intention of making any more Matrix movies, leaving me personally wondering why she revived the franchise to tell such an average story. Whether she simply changed her mind, secretly intended to make more films all along, or was “talked into” a fifth instalment by WB we may never know. What we do know though is that she won’t be writing or directing the next one. Both of those duties will fall on Drew Goddard, the screenwriter of The Martian (2015) and director of The Cabin in the Woods (2011) who will be taking the reins of The Matrix 5 with Lana Wachowski staying on as Executive Producer.
What can we expect from another Matrix movie? Well you’d like to think they’d learn from their mistakes with the last one and at the very least get Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving back - IF, that is, they even want to come back. They could of course pick up where the last one left off, but since it was pretty terrible I’d expect that both WB and the new writing team will be wanting to take it in a different direction. There’s also the question of whether Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will even return as the two main stars. Would a Matrix film even work without them? I guess as always these questions will be answered in time.
All I know is that as much as I don’t like to write off films that haven’t even been made yet, the fact that I was happy enough with just one Matrix movie anyway means I’ll probably give this next one a miss (unless the trailer looks amazing in which case I’ll no doubt end up watching it).
How do you feel about another Matrix movie?
Let me know in the comments.