Author: Stacy Nguyen
Northwest Asia Weekly
In 1999, my brothers and sisters and my parents rode around in an RV, and regularly traveled across the ocean and Oregon on weekends. In order to pass the long driving and relax before going to bed, we will exhaust our copy of “The Matrix”, which was a DVD with a plastic sleeve at the time, and the cover was Keanu Reeves and Kylie Annie Moss.
I am totally fascinated. We must have seen that movie 50 times in a year. We also watched all the behind-the-scenes footage and watched movies with comments-this may be the first time I introduced Reeves as a very cool guy. This may be where my adoration of this man started, and I know this is not new, because only monsters don’t love Keanu.
What I like about the original “The Matrix” is not the pathological fight scenes or the awesome special effects at the time. This is the story—the idea that ordinary people can actually do extraordinary things (such as avoiding bullets and become the savior of the human species), and the idea that we may all live in a false world, comfortable enough Let us be complacent, but in reality we are robot food-just gears in a machine.
This concept resonates more now, right?
This is why “The Matrix Resurrection” appeared at a particularly suitable time, more than two decades after the first movie was released. The fourth part of the franchise deals with the same theme as the first part-maintaining enough loyalty, it almost feels like a renovation.
But this is actually what I really like about it. Since most of us may have seen the “The Matrix” trilogy, this minute is very hot, so the fourth adaptation that requires a deep understanding of the previous movies will really fail. I am too lazy. I don’t have the energy to browse more than 8 hours of content, just to prepare myself for this review.
It turns out I didn’t need it! “The Matrix Resurrection” feels like a very clever mix. It has many flashbacks, as a callback to the failure of early movies, deliberately leading the audience along the way. You don’t have to watch another movie to enjoy this movie (of course, it does help).
How Asian is Keanu Reeves? I spent some movie time crazily wondering this. When I watched him practice martial arts, I thought, “Oh, beautiful Asians!” But I checked. He is a little bit Chinese, he is more like a Hawaiian-about a quarter. But you know, this question is a bit creepy at this point. Reeves is so cool, so we should definitely welcome him to our tribe with open arms. We should of course expand our definition of “Asianness”. In past interviews, he claimed to be a person of color, so it is obvious that this guy totally wants to be one of us.
Perhaps even more worth mentioning is Jessica Henwick, who played an important role in the fourth installment. Henwick is a Chinese Englishman, and her role is to push things forward in the movie. She is the one who “awakened” Morpheus and pulled Neo out of the Matrix (again). She is young and optimistic, and plays this role with characters from all over the world who have been fighting against their conquest and oppression under robots for a long time.
She is also the counterpart of this movie’s audience. We have been fighting epidemics for too long. We are also tired. Watching a character just believes that it will succeed, which is actually a comfort.
This update is directed by Lana Wachowski, who directed the rest of the series with her sister Lilly (she did not come back to co-direct the fourth part). I am very happy that Wachowski is back to direct this film, not some random shows hired by the studio, just to make ruthless money in a market full of restarts and sequels. She gave a lot of love to this movie and I am grateful.
“Resurrection” may also be the most interesting or humorous of all “The Matrix” series, because Wachowski understood the meaning of returning to the film franchise decades later. I like this about her. I don’t think some hardcore fans of the original will like that. But in reality, these people are annoyed by people getting old, people will not always be 30 and stay the same.
To be honest, I might not rewatch “Resurrection” 50 times. Part of the reason is that I am older and different, but I don’t have time to have that much screen time. However, on the other hand, “The Matrix” feels incredibly novel and genre, while “Resurrection” actually feels a bit old-nostalgic.
But it’s just an interesting watch-maybe twice, because sometimes the plot is very complicated and difficult to follow completely. Observe whether it requires a lot of nostalgia. Look at Keanu.
Stacy Nguyen can be contacted at stacy@nwasianweekly.com.
