The Matrix (1999) was an amazing film, pushing the edge of visual effects and telling an intriguing story in a way that got a lot of people thinking about philosophical concepts that might otherwise have passed them by. I went to see it at the cinema, not really knowing what to expect; when I came out, I was a fan and, like many other people at the time, it was the movie that persuaded me to invest in a DVD drive for my computer, not least to watch all the included extras multiple times. I also quite enjoyed the second film in the trilogy. By the third, I felt that, although the visual game was even further up, it failed to come anywhere close in terms of intellectual interest.

I’d heard that a much more recent film had come out but, until I spotted on Amazon Prime Video (I’m briefly a member again to facilitate some of my Christmas shopping), The Matrix Resurrections (2021) had pretty much passed me by.

Was it worth watching? It generally got bad reviews but I rather enjoyed it. There was a lot of rehashing of old ground, including numerous clips from the earlier films, but it was an entertaining way to revisit the franchise. To my mind, it still falls far short of the original although I’d personally rate it some way above #3 and I quite enjoyed seeing how they coped with the challenge of having the two original lead actors back and working in the fact that they are twenty years older than in the original. However, I don’t think we really need a Matrix 5 or beyond. I hope nobody else thinks it is a bright idea to breathe the words “Let’s reboot the Matrix… again” in a producer’s ear!