Let’s just get this out of the way. The trailer for The Matrix Resurrections sucks. Now, watch the trailer below.

Director: Lana Wachowski
Writer: Lana Wachowski
Staring: Keanu Reeves, Jessice Henwick, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carrie-Anne Moss
Streaming: HBO Max
Release Date: December 22, 2021

So on IMDB, it states that the plot is unknown. If you watch the trailer, you realize you can just watch The Matrix (1999) and be set. Literally the first minute of this trailer is just rehashing the same process that was the original movie.

The first two seconds of the trailer looks like a Nickelodeon animation town but we get a sense its not real right away because we see a black cat; a natural callback to the original.

It appears that Neo (Keanu Reeves), or should we just call him John Wick, is in therapy and is dealing with some amnesia. Neil Patrick Harris, in the role of the psychiatrist, is telling Neo that he is not crazy, but I hypothesize that NPH is just a spy for someone caging Neo’s talents.

The amnesia spreads to the character of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). She and Neo have a handshake and ask if they have met before, to which each of them say no. We are getting another rediscovery of self??

When the poster of the pills rose up earlier this week, I was pumped. It was a great, simple poster.

At the 43 seconds mark we have the musical cue, “One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small.” The pill motif will not be going away. Neo is shown dumping blue bills everywhere…aka he is throwing away the fabricated world. AKA THE FIRST MOVIE.

There is an Alice in Wonderland direct reference, another call back to the first movie and a classic allegory of the cave metaphorical journey.

The power of Neo, which is being caged somehow in the world he is escaping is shown at the 1:30 mark when he is battling the character being played by Pahya Abdul-Mateen II. That man has been in a ton of movies lately; the star of Candyman (2021), Trail Of The Chicago 7 (2020) and the HBO show Watchmen. In Matrix: Resurrections he is playing the Morpheus character for all purposes, unlocking the abilities of Neo.

We get a look at the machines around 1:45 and the realm of the real world that Neo has seemingly forgotten.

The lyrics to the song underlying the trailer is the best part of the trailer. it is a vamped up version of Jefferson Airplanes’ White Rabbit.

“When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead…and the Knight Is talking backwards and the red queen’s off with her head…and the Red Queen’s off with her head…”

The odd things is that with the last line of “And the Red Queen’s Off With Her Head” comes with Trinity being under control of the machine. Maybe a bit for foreboding foreshadowing.

The last minute of the trailer is just a montage of action, slow-mo, camera-whirling action. If that is what you are looking for in a Matrix movie, then Matrix: Resurrections is your type of movie. Speaking personally, Matrix: Reloaded (2003) and Matrix: Revolutions (2003) suffered from more action and less philosophy.

The final major action sequence is Neo using the force to shift a rocket toward a helicopter on a rooftop. Another callback to the first Matrix when Neo discovered his powers and Trinity began to believe after he dodged the bullets.

We are going back to the Matrix, but this trailer did not make me excited for Matrix: Resurrections.


“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Apple)
“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Spotify)

Stanko Excel Lists | Movies, Books, Podcasts. TV Shows
Stanko Letterdbox Account


The 96th Academy Awards – Stanko’s Version (Version 1.0)

DISCLAIMER WARNING: I HAVE ONLY SEEN 10 MOVIES FROM THIS YEAR SO FAR. YEAH I KNOW SAD, BUT I HAVE WATCHED 119 MOVIES THIS YEAR AS OF NOW SO I’LL GET TO MORE THIS YEAR.I HAVE SEEN 10 MOVIES THOUGH AND THAT IS ENOUGH TO ROUND OUT BEST PICTURE NOMINEES. THEN I FILL IN THE…

Reflection On “The Big Picture” 1990s Summer Blockbuster Draft

Loved this draft idea from The Big Picture crew. I am not going to be able to do my normal redrafting because there is just enough movies to pick from, but I will have fun going through all of the different categories and determining what my dream lineup would be from the movies i have…

Want To Know What Mid 2000s Oscar Bait Is Like? Watch “Cold Mountain”

“In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.” Director: Anthony MinghellaWriters: Charles Frazier, Anthony MinghellaStaring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Brendan Gleeson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone,…

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s