The Matrix Resurrections

This week's movie rental was The Matrix Resurrections ...

a 2021 American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski. It is the sequel to The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the fourth installment in The Matrix film franchise. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson reprise their roles ...

This film is set 60 years after events of the 2003 third Matrix movie in which Neo (Reeves) and Trinity (Moss) died. I have seen the first movie many times and liked it a lot. I only saw the second movie once and didn't really like it. And I never saw the third movie. Some of the stuff in the new movie was confusing, but reading the Wikipedia page helped fill in the things I'd missed.

In this film, Neo/Tom Anderson has been resurrected and is living in the simulated world of the Matrix with no memory of his real past. Instead, he thinks he's a video game writer who years before had created the most popular game ever: The Matrix. While he struggles with his mental health and longs for his lost love, some of the free people not living in the Matrix try to free him and Trinity from the simulation.

The reviews of the movie are all over the place. Here's a bit of the review in The L.A. Times that might help you decide if you want to see the film ...

Five questions to help you figure out if you’ll love ‘The Matrix Resurrections’

[...] Released Dec. 22 in the age of Omicron, in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, “The Matrix Resurrections” is an enticing work of nostalgia for those whose minds exploded watching Keanu Reeves’ hacker hero fall down the rabbit hole only to wake up in a grimy machine dystopia as Neo, the fated cyberpunk savior of humanity, in the original “The Matrix.” Next came 2003’s well-received “The Matrix Reloaded” (aka the one with the rave scene) and 2003’s not-so-well-received “The Matrix Revolutions” (the one with no rave scene — you do the math), pushing the franchise’s worldwide grosses over $1.6 billion.

[...]

But this “Matrix” is not like the old “Matrix,” and that’s very much by design. At once sequel, reboot, and self-aware critique of the previous films and their legacy, “Resurrections” is sparking starkly divided reactions and cinephile debate. Will you love the Nü “Matrix?” Times reporters Tracy Brown and Jen Yamato are here to help ...

Over all, I'm glad I saw it. And there's a cat :)