JUST WHERE DID YOU
GO OUR LITTLE NEO?
Wouldn’t you know it, almost twenty years after The Matrix trilogy wrapped up on a most ambiguous if dissatisfying ending to the most famous setup yet of Man versus Machine. While The Matrix pulled the most incredible
feat in the manner it infiltrated the pop culture scene, nevertheless when all is said and shown, the movie boils down to a different telling of The Terminator, a different Terminator, one that is more like Ultron, creating a SIM world where humans are plugged into so they can be rendered into a complex power grid to feed and advance the world of the machines on the heels of a planetary nuclear meltdown.
It is the manner in which the first Matrix went about telling the story and the visual innovations created for this trilogy that propelled the studio, the producers and the Wachowskis into filmmaking legend with audiences worldwide showing their appreciation for this take on Humankind versus Machine chronology.
The Matrix (1999), Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (both movies released in 2003) created a body of work in the realm of Science Fiction and the more hardcore world of Futurism that keeps growing each decade.
It is worth noting that while the entire movie is steeped into cyberspace, cyberpunk and weaves into what were at the time cutting-edge ideas in the world of computer simulations and A.I., the emergent worldwide web and its potential for end-to-end automation on a global scale, The Matrix remains more a horror “Frankenstein” genre movie series coated with elaborate layers of science fiction and not the other way around, as many ardent fans attempted to paint the genre as science fiction with heavy doses of cyberpunk or gothic style.
The very nature of The Matrix story devices make ingenious use of pre-established structures in horror films that use the concept of dreams and nightmares in a waking state or evil spirits that infiltrate your mind and control your reality and perceptions. The real break-through is that the Wachowskis not only managed to subvert old concepts of horror into a new era of brewing and futuristic
technologies that consumers were just getting their hands on, but they also had a massive budget and production commitment from the studio to create a horror trilogy with the newest arsenal in special effects, computer graphics and some very unique innovations in action stunt cinematography that put the trilogy miles ahead of any would be imitators or copycats.
“… the humor, the style and maybe, well, I don’t know about the ambition, it’s tough to make such an entertaining kind of science fiction film that’s also about philosophy and big ideals.” Keanu Reeves on The Making of The Matrix, 1999
The extra heft of The Matrix lies in the fact that the technology was not the galactic scale far-fetched Star Trek or Star Wars warp engines or Faster Than Light propulsion drives of The Galactica battleship, concepts of technology already heavily used in sci-fi from as long ago as the 1950s.
The boogeyman of The Matrix is that the technology was unfolding within the same decade the movie arrived and represented a new level of computer sophistication, components and network architectures, that was undergoing evolutionary and revolutionary developments in the public eye and in the hands of consumers at retail outlets – in the Here and Now.
This synchronicity of real-life technology and the filmmakers trilogy gave The Matrix’ horror science/sci-fi movie platform more leverage, a high degree of prescience and extremely haunting, persistent, psychological hooks in the social psyche of worldwide audiences. Cut to 2021 and The Wachowskis (albeit Lana Wachowski and new team) unveil what has been decades in limbo and, as Hollywood likes to call it, “development Hell”.
The trailers released this year unleashed a storm of fans comments on the return of characters who died in the previous trilogy, including the core protagonist Neo aka Thomas Anderson played by A-list actor Keanu Reeves. How can the moviemakers bring Neo back to life? Are they going to change the trilogy canon, will the story plausibility suffer or will it fit neatly in the overall world building that has emerged ever since 1999?
How are the new trailers showing a new Neo who does not seem to remember who he was or is? The answers to all of these questions are in the previous trilogy, since the Architect informed Neo he has been killed over and over in the machine world’s effort to refine and redefine The Matrix.
Neo and Zion are a mop up scheme of human beings and other simulations that cannot live with the equation of pre-determined fate and because of the human character flaw (according to the Machine World) that anticipates free will and choice, the system has to find a balance to allow all humans to exist in a Walley
World (winks) that seems to offer them choice when in fact it is pre-programmed to run along specific parameters. Neo and Zion are preset as leaders of the residual individuals who inevitably pierce the veil and piece together the cloak of The Matrix and are eventually led to their demise under the guise of a savior and a liberation movement.
Only it seems with each destruction of Neo and Zion The Matrix undergoes changes or refinements. The movie The Matrix Resurrections takes the viewer on the heels of the sixth time Neo was killed only that time he managed to negotiate a peace with the machines and save Zion from complete annihilation.
How then would it be surprising to see Neo back and a different Neo at that? The machines can clone his DNA which they have on tap along with the DNA of millions of other human beings and they can download his memories or whatever memories they wish into the newly conceived clone.
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The answers to the huge storm of “fan” bewilderment and reviewers banging the drums was nothing more than today’s version of The Matrix, made up entertainment tabloid hype, because all actual fans of the trilogy already know the answer from the clearly outlined structure of events when Neo meets “The Architect” in 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
The fact that The Matrix looks different and colorful in 2021’s Resurrections was also shown in the final closing shots of 2003’s Revolutions set the stage for The Oracle and the simulation programs celebrating Neo’s victory as the moviegoer is shown the drabby green colors of The Matrix fade to normal bright outdoor colors – signaling the agreement Neo reached with the Machines’ central Mind was taking effect moments after he defeated the viral infection aka haywire Agent Smith.
That is not all? We just don’t want to spoil it any more than Vulture Magazine just spoiled ALL of Spidey’s beans (12-17-21) plus their viewership is sky high so their “cool” unveil is way more potent than any we could unleash at the public!
“Ever had a dream where you are living a nightmare only to wake but then
you are dreaming you woke up but are in fact still asleep in your nightmare?”
From West Coast Midnight Run™ Gold/Silver Edition of The Matrix Resurrections
Is Neo In Zion and Zion Itself Another Layer inside The Matrix, a second level Matrix Simulation inside The Primary Matrix World? In other words, our heroes’ corpses never leave their coffins, they are in the clutches of the machine world at all times, even when they believe they have escaped from their pods!
We are not even halfway through our The Matrix Resurrections review but obviously we can’t give it all away. Sign up for your Silver or Gold Membership and enjoy the complete review along with far more photos and downloadable exclusive posters.
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