A LOVE LETTER TO THE SERIES

lana wachowski's plan worked, everyone: i'm watching SENSE8 again. i can only assume that was her cunning purpose in putting half the show's cast in THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS. but re-experiencing SENSE8 has made me realize exactly what it has in common with CLOUD ATLAS and the world of THE MATRIX: in their own way and with their own style, all three are trying to tell all stories, every story, all at once. can one movie depict everything that happens between birth and death, the history and future of an entire species? can one tv series capture every emotion you feel in a lifetime, the elation and desolation and everything-in-between that you feel in a single fucking day? can a scifi action trilogy encompass all of reality and unreality, the natural and supernatural, the waking and the sleep?

the wachowskis say, resoundingly, yes.

THE MATRIX isn't as big as the mass-marketed franchises we're used to now, but unlike those franchises, the possibilities within the world of THE MATRIX (and your imagination) are limitless. any lonely nerd who spent many a night watch their ANIMATRIX dvd with the lights out (am i projecting?) knows what i'm talking about. read between the lines of THE ANIMATRIX or RELOADED and you realize that you don't just have the potential of zion, the machine city, the matrix, and every single human, machine & program within... you also have a psychedelically bendable reality and time. you have the dreams of billions. you have vampires, werewolves, demons, and angels. love and war! dance, music, sex, romance! and if you've read THE MATRIX COMICS like i just did for the first time, there are even asteroid-throwing aliens. (that's canon, baby.)

the wachowskis created something beautiful and inspiring with THE MATRIX universe, and you can tell by what the artists they invited to come play in that universe created in turn. you can tell from the students and philosophers who love to speak on and write about the trilogy. and most importantly, you can tell from the communities that have come to so tightly embrace these stories and characters and create their own art based on it, the nerds and the freaks and the goths and the queers.

perhaps the relationship between zion and the matrix is the key to that last connection, the emotional one. there are those of us who felt we had no chance of "succeeding" in life until the internet came along, or until texting became our primary method of communication. (...and flirtation.) what does THE MATRIX depict? a "real world" where our hair is awkward and our clothes don't fit right, our skin hasn't seen the sun in weeks and we have to do hard, shitty work just to keep existing... and an online world we can "jack into" where our outfits are fly, our hair is always fantastic, we fight the power and look cool doing it -- and we do it with our friends, looking equally fly by the way. is it any wonder it became the perfect escapist fantasy for everyone who's ever felt more comfortable living life through their screen than through quote /unquote reality?

all that to say, from the second i saw THE MATRIX after school on opening day in '99, i was in. in deep.

i always wondered if anyone thought about this rich creative world as much as i did. the wachowskis imbued their script, movie, and eventual trilogy with detail, and you can tell that behind every scene we saw were hundreds more little details, choices, and years of thought from two comic book nerds* who love and care about stories just as much as we do.

*i only just discovered one of the wachowskis first writing credits was the comic book adaptation of clive barker's NIGHTBREED... which is a movie that deserves its own essay here (see the DIRECTOR'S CUT if you can) and a comic i definitely need to find someday.

to those who didn't think the wachowskis had a plan for the sequels... go back to THE MATRIX and listen to what morpheus tells neo on the nebuchadnezzar. he describes "a one" who came before neo, many years ago, who freed the first minds from the matrix and (re)built zion. he doesn't even realize he's telling neo exactly what the architect tells him in RELOADED: this is a cycle, these are revolutions of a wheel. there is no end to a war where one side beats the other, only the same fight, over and over.

i vividly remember reading THE ART OF THE MATRIX in various now-out-of-business toronto bookstore chains, a massive, gorgeous hardcover i could never afford. (when i finally got a job and could afford it, it was well out of print.) the book contained the shooting script, and neo's original final speech to the machines at the payphone fascinated me.

hi. it's me. i know you're out there. i can feel you now.

i imagine you can also feel me.

you won't have to search for me anymore. i'm done running. done hiding. whether i'm done fighting, i suppose, is up to you.

i believe deep down, we both want this world to change. i believe that the matrix can remain our cage or it can become our chrysalis, that's what you helped me to understand. that to be free, truly free, you cannot change your cage. you have to change yourself.

when i used to look out at this world, all i could see was its edges, its boundaries, its rules and controls, its leaders and laws. but now, i see another world. a different world where all things are possible. a world of hope. of peace.

i can't tell you how to get there, but i know if you can free your mind, you'll find the way.

i can't tell you how many times i read it. it was apparently changed at the request of "the suits" at warner brothers, changed to something much more traditional and crowd pleasing, but it shows the wachowskis knew exactly where this story was going from the very beginning. it's the original ending of THE MATRIX, it's the ending of REVOLUTIONS, and it's the ending of RESURRECTIONS. it's the exact same idea shown to us in three different ways: the only future is all of us, minds open and free, working together. communal resistence.

i know now there are definitely people who thought about the world of the matrix as much as i did, and it's been a delight to read their theories and see their creative expressions in the lead to and since RESURRECTIONS. one of those particular delights was THE MATRIX 404 podcast, hosted by therese and avery. i haven't gotten to their thoughts on RESURRECTIONS yet (they had to have loved it, right??), but i adore their perspective and the attention to detail with which they've been combing through the entire series. they get to have the conversations i've been wanting to have since the 10-disc (yes, ten) MATRIX box set came out on DVD in 2004, complete with wachowski liner notes (and yeah, i got the fancy one). my favorite detail they uncovered was that there's a canonical reason everyone inside the matrix wears sunglasses: once you've been to the real world, the artificial sunlight of the programmed world feels glaringly bright. remember how i said imbued with detail?

that original marketing campaign over twenty years ago -- the one that got us sitting in theaters, quivering with anticipation despite knowing next to nothing about the movie we were moments away from seeing -- asked, "what is the matrix?" and like any great scifi concept, like STAR TREK or THE TWILIGHT ZONE before it, the answer is... it's a playground for ideas. it's a creation in which the potential for stories and characters is unlimited. and the best part about the world of THE MATRIX is that it doesn't need the streaming tv spin-offs or annual mechanically produced sequels scheduled before anyone has a creative idea. maybe there will be more chapters to this story, but this series wasn't meant for easily marketable content fresh off the assembly line. the creators of THE MATRIX have always been searching for the same answers we are, and it feels like THE MATRIX was meant to inspire our imaginations, to open our minds, and maybe even help us find... or manifest... our selves.

and it's working.

i think the fake movie review format is a fun way to talk about at least some of the millions of thoughts about this story swirling through my mind, so... here we go.

THE MATRIX (1999)

what's left to say about THE MATRIX? it's the perfect version of that story, the chosen one/good v. evil tale that finds us again and again, and it's easy to love because it hits every beat of it so fucking perfectly. the brilliance of the wachowskis is that they hit those familiar beats and tropes* **, but put so much effort into making sure every moment of it still felt completely fresh and original... and they did it knowing exactly how that story they had so intricately built would be subverted and deconstructed the moment the next chapter began.

every single scene of THE MATRIX has either an action beat or a line that has since become iconic. how is that even possible? damn you, the wachowskis.

*perhaps one valid complaint about THE MATRIX is that they hit the "magical negro" trope with the oracle... but i would argue that's also immediately subverted when neo next meets her in RELOADED, and by REVOLUTIONS she is arguably the character driving the story and it's neo who is acting in service of her intentions and machinations.

**i would also like to point out that by RESURRECTIONS, the "magical negro" character was replaced by priyanka chopra's magical south asian. we're movin' on up!

* * * .7 / 4

THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003) // ENTER THE MATRIX (2003)

i can't remember if i've ever been more excited for a theatrical experience than i was for THE MATRIX RELOADED. the hype was real. and for me, that hype was more than met. RELOADED is exciting, stylish, boundary pushing, and feels free to just dump information about this world on us with an almost uncomfortable directness. the entire freeway action sequence is still iconic, it's been almost 20 years and i can still only think of a handful of times that level of excitement and exhilaration has been achieved in theaters. it also has a chocolate orgasm cake.

"i remember. i remember you used to dance."

when i saw RELOADED, most of my friends were het-white-cis dudes. (i didn't have a lot of options at the time.) i still remember how sad it felt to see the zion rave/sex scene become a punchline to them. i had never, ever in my life seen brown bodies and skin represented and celebrated onscreen in that way before, and we still rarely get to see our larger than life heroes in these epic comic book tales express sexuality, let alone actually fuck.* (neo and trinity are straight up horny for the first 25 minutes of this flick.) it moved me then, it still moves me, and i will defend that scene and this movie** until the day i die.

*imagine if the only way you knew your heroes fucked was their weird, angsty, adam driver-shaped kid.

**i include the cutscenes the wachowskis shot with jada pinkett's niobe for the ENTER THE MATRIX video game as a part of the RELOADED story, and i still think the whole concept of the video game plot running parallel to RELOADED and leading straight into the final movie was cool as fuck and ahead of its time.

* * * .8 / 4

THE ANIMATRIX (2003) // THE MATRIX COMICS (1999-2003)

the highlight of THE ANIMATRIX (outside of THE SECOND RENAISSANCE shorts where we learn all our lore) has always been BEYOND*, where a young woman, her cat, and a bunch of neighborhood kids stumble upon a "haunted house" full of matrix glitches, and they all play in it until agents of the system arrive for the clean up. the MATRICULATED short introduces perhaps the most exciting idea into the mythos -- that machines can also have their minds freed. like us, they can choose to stop fighting, like us, they can find a new purpose. (this is definitely followed up in RESURRECTIONS.) even the less mind-blowing shorts still go all the way in their animation, each with its own unique style.

*i know i'm not the only one who loved BEYOND, because marvel wholly ripped it off for the beginning of THOR: THE DARK WORLD, the only memorable sequence in that movie.

the same can be said for the stories in THE MATRIX COMICS. some of the writers and artists focused on similar themes and ideas from the first film -- perhaps the more obvious ones (agents chasing people, basically). but others dug deeper, the most oft-cited being neil gaiman's GOLIATH. where to even begin describing this story? the way it plays with how time can be manipulated inside the matrix, the way it just casually introduces the idea that aliens have arrived in the real world and the machines need one human pilot to help fight back... and the exact means they go about achieving that, it all has to be read to be believed. it also somehow it still fits perfectly in this universe, contradicting nothing that came before or has come since. what a world.

THE ANIMATRIX and the comics do a beautiful job of showing us just how deep the rabbit hole goes in ways the plot-driven films couldn't always do, and they add so much to the experience of watching the films.

* * * .6 / 4

THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (2003)

so THE MATRIX was easy to love, right? REVOLUTIONS is decidedly not easy to love. it's maddeningly ambiguous, with very loud, long action sequences. it's also the darkest of the films visually. but when watching it before RESURRECTIONS, what struck me was the feeling of community. every character introduced, big or small, has a part to play in ending the war, and that ending would not have come if any one of them wasn't there. the first film introduced us to our "savior" only for us to watch him spend the next two movies constantly unsure, always searching for his path, often barely even able to make decisions. perhaps the only things neo knows are that he loves trinity and that he ain't no fuckin' chosen one. our trio of heroes, neo, trinity, and morpheus, are in fact all lost in REVOLUTIONS, most of their beliefs disproven or discarded, going forward only because they know they must and because what has happened over and over again cannot happen again. this is certainly not what we expect from our blockbuster action stars.

the final fight with neo and smith is worth mentioning, because... i distinctly remember not knowing how i felt about it back in 2003. back then we weren't used to seeing movies attempt what comic books can do easily, and it comes right after the already massive siege of zion sequence. watching it now, in our four-color comic book world of 2022... wow. it's so stylish and distinctive, and even though it feels like we can see a new superhero movie every week now, this is still the most striking and successful example of a battle between two flying characters i can remember. despite not being based on a comic book, the entire MATRIX trilogy looks and feels more like a graphic novel than most actual comic book adaptations.

what an ending. what a trilogy. what a complete experience. but wait...

* * * .9 / 4

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2021)

i guess i can say the tumblr equivalent of "well, that blew up" about THE MATRIX HAS ME (OR THINGS I LOVED ABOUT THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS). it's heartwarming to feel the love for this movie, the continued love, after that initial swell of dummies racing to post their negative reactions before the credits had finished streaming. if you don't like giving things a second thought, perhaps this isn't the franchise you're looking for? (get it? see what i did there? STAR WARS sucks.)

having loved the original films, shorts, and comics so much and for so long... of course i was nervous about THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS. even after the wholly unique experience of CLOUD ATLAS and after SENSE8 literally changing my life... i was scared. we've all seen how sad and empty most of these "twenty years later" re-sequel-boots have been, and we've all felt the disappointment -- even if the movie is fun -- when the hollowness of that "cheer at the screen" moment became evident before we even got to our car after leaving the movie theater.

then that trailer dropped and i got really scared, because it was the best movie trailer i'd seen in a long fucking time. i got goosebumps just from neo and trinity shaking hands, seemingly meeting (again) for the first time. was it possible that a fourth MATRIX movie somehow wasn't just going to to be good, or fun, or exciting, but... magic?

i'm not going to keep anyone edging here: yes, i found THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS to be magic. in fact, i couldn't stop watching it. i experienced it with as many people as i could, both at home and in theaters, omicron be damned. i'll remember those experiences forever, because i felt just like i did as a teenager seeing THE MATRIX way back when... but for entirely different reasons. THE MATRIX is cool and all, but RESURRECTIONS has an earnest, beating heart. i can't express how much it means to me that lana and her team put out a story so full of love -- both onscreen and behind it (everything is still imbued with detail) -- in these absolutely nutbar times of ours.

and speaking of the times we're so lucky to live in... let's talk about suicide.

this is not something i've seen discussed, but there's a thread of suicidal ideation running through this entire franchise. neo doesn't become "the one" until he dies (in 1), and further, he doesn't stop smith/the war until he actively chooses to die (in 3). his first test with morpheus is jumping from a building. kid in KID'S STORY "escapes the matrix" by jumping off the roof of his school and dying, which is a particularly dark and potentially irresponsible idea to put out into the world. and in the most "holy shit" moment of the movie, RESURRECTIONS gives us literal suicide bombers, attacking neo and trinity with their bodies as they leap to their deaths at the whims of the analyst.

however, what's quantified thematically through the characters is that sometimes when you feel suicidal, it's not just coming from a place of bleakness. it's a strange form of hope, even if a futile one, that making a leap can take you somewhere better. depression runs through the entire series, but it's never depicted better than through neo in RESURRECTIONS. to the characters in this story, the question "what is the matrix?" has very little to do with simulations and machine overlords... the question is the hole they feel, the emptiness we all feel, when we aren't living the right life... or feel we don't belong here... or when we can't even be our true self with one other person on the planet.

"i fly... or i fall."

it wasn't easy to see the imagery of jumping to your death return so vividly to the series in RESURRECTIONS. these were the last few moments of my best friend's life. neo, and later trinity and neo together, stand ready to jump from a building knowing that they will either fall or fly. to them, the point is that it doesn't matter which one happens. either is an escape from a life that doesn't make sense, a life without their identities and without each other. in our world, when we jump, we fall. there's nothing to ideate about suicide here, and my best friend is dead. but in the world of stories and in the world of THE MATRIX, when you jump... you fly. neo and trinity now get to fly, free, forever. i told you it was magic.

keanu reeves and carrie-anne moss make neo and trinity's love so believable, so human, so fucking palpable in RESURRECTIONS. the moment the analyst explains that it was never just neo as the one, but both of them, everything makes sense -- including the previous films. this movie does an incredible job of updating the ideas behind THE MATRIX for our times, both in the utterly fun and bewildering first half hour, and later with the analyst's methods and motivations. and i believe it argues that if nothing truly makes sense anymore, if fact and fiction are indistinguishable and the enemies unbeatable, if running, hiding, and death are imminent and there's nothing left to philosophize about... the only thing that makes sense is love. it's hard to disagree.

* * * * / 4.0

2022.03.17