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How The Matrix 4 Can Re-define Sci-Fi Movies (Again)
Director Lana Wachowski and Keanu Reeves are returning to The Matrix for a fourth installment that could once again redefine sci-fi blockbuster cinema. It’s easy to downplay just how seismic an effect Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix had on the popular consciousness when it premiere in 1999. Audiences had never seen anything like it. The film evolved into a massively profitable trilogy and, alongside the successes of the Star Wars prequels and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, helped to craft the modern Hollywood high-concept franchise that has come to dominate the business for the past two decades. To this day, The Matrix series inspires debate and continues to cast a shadow over the entertainment industry. It could be argued that we simply wouldn’t have the Marvel Cinematic Universe or films like John Wick without The Matrix.
Discussions of a new Matrix movie or possible remake have floated around the internet for years, but seldom with the Wachowskis' names attached. It was always assumed that any new Matrix movie we got would be a reboot of the original, something without the involvement of the cast and crew who made it so iconic in the first place.
To the delight of many fans, The Matrix 4 is happening, and Lana Wachowski is co-writing and directing it solo (Lilly is currently working as a co-writer and showrunner on the Showtime series Work in Progress.) Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are returning to play Neo and Trinity, while new additions to the cast include Priyanka Chopra, Neil Patrick Harris, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas (the film adaptation of which was co-directed by the Wachowskis) is on board as co-writer. The Matrix 4 is currently filming in San Francisco, and production is also set to take place in Chicago and Germany.
The Matrix Changed Sci-Fi Movies
There are so many reasons to be excited by The Matrix 4, even if you felt burned by the original sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. We shouldn’t downplay just how good and how game-changing that first movie was. The combination of cyberpunk, Eastern philosophy, Hong Kong-style action, and mind-bending special effects made for one of the most thrilling and unique blockbusters of the decade and maybe even of the entire history of cinema. Everyone started copying or parodying the iconic Bullet Time effects, wire-fu fight scenes became ever-more popular, and the movie introduced audiences to a whole new vocabulary, particularly the concept of “taking the red pill” as a metaphor for rejecting society’s delusions in favor of reality.
It’s a film that is both viscerally thrilling in terms of its dazzlingly shot action scenes and intellectually challenging with its themes of evolutionary psychology, utopian philosophy, and Christ imagery. To this day, audiences continue to fight over what the films truly mean. After both Wachowskis came out as transgender, trans readings of the stories became popular, with some seeing the idea of Neo taking the red pill as akin to gender transition (Lilly Wachowski has said that "it's a cool thing" that "a critical eye [is] being cast back on Lana and I’s work through the lens of our transness."). The Wachowskis paved the way for 21st-century cinema.
How Sci-Fi Movies Have Changed Again Since The Matrix
The Matrix may have changed the game, but the medium itself has evolved a lot since The Matrix Revolutions premiered in 2003. The trilogy was one of the key intellectual properties that made Hollywood near-obsessively focused on investing in series rather than one-off titles, and that reign of the franchise continues to this day. Indeed, it’s only gotten larger since the Wachowskis entered the field. Now, expanded universes are the name of the game, from the king of the field, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to great pretenders like the DCEU and myriad failed attempts made by studios to copy the model. Sci-fi and associated subgenres rule the roost in an indomitable way.
Studios are more interested in working with pre-existing IPs that are familiar to the general public. Ironically, The Matrix is now one of them, but it was still a major risk for Warner Bros. to put money on the table for a wholly original concept in 1999. Nowadays, such a thing is an absolute rarity. Greater room has been allowed for stylistic changes between films in franchises and expanded universes, but for many years, especially with the first couple of phases of the MCU, a more uniform mold was used from movie to movie, leading some viewers to claim that all these movies looked and felt the same.
As the importance of the international box office, particularly in China, has become crucial to the success of Hollywood, films of major budgets like these blockbuster franchises have to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. That means you don’t see a whole lot of nine-figure high-concept titles taking on themes of Eastern philosophy or the ethos of the cyberpunk movement like The Matrix, a series that demanded its audiences pay attention to more than just the action scenes. The Wachowskis never stopped being intellectual or strange but perhaps the industry itself took a major step back from what the siblings helped to establish, for better or worse.
How The Matrix 4 Can Re-Define Sci-Fi Movies Again
After The Matrix trilogy, Lilly and Lana Wachowski never stopped pushing boundaries or making truly bonkers and esoteric work. Their ambitions only got grander as the years passed. 2008's sinfully underrated anime adaptation Speed Racer was a visual feast that successfully recreated the frenetic energy and style of Tatsuo Yoshida's manga and still feels like a breath of fresh air thanks to its slick vibrancy in a world of gritty realism. Cloud Atlas truly pushed the boundaries by adapting a seemingly unadaptable novel that spanned time, space, and genres. Their Netflix series Sense8 was a proudly queer sci-fi romantic drama that blended politics, identity, and eroticism to tell a truly unique tale. Even their oft-maligned space opera Jupiter Ascending deserves better than the bad reviews, offering an unabashedly feminine take on science-fiction that embraced campiness and romanticism over macho action.
It’s 2020 and still, nobody makes work like Lilly and Lana Wachowski. They don’t repeat themselves, and they don’t like to take the oft-trodden path. At a time when it feels like cinema is at great risk of becoming ever more homogenous, thanks to growing media monopolies and the overwhelming forces of a handful of properties, there’s something truly comforting about knowing that the Wachowskis will always be out there doing their thing. That’s what makes Lana Wachowski’s return to The Matrix so thrilling. She helped to change the game, and it seems like she could do it all over again. Her work challenges audiences, as does that of David Mitchell, her newest collaborator. The current Hollywood ethos dictates that blockbusters should contain simple themes and character arcs that everyone can understand, even if they’re only half paying attention, and the Wachowskis have never embraced that condescending attitude, thankfully.
Technology has also evolved vastly in the two decades since The Matrix. The kind of effects that were so shocking and new in 1999 are now commonplace to the point where audiences barely notice them. The Wachowskis, however, have always used the technology of their time to advance their storytelling and create unique visual experiences. Think of the retina-burning sleekness of Speed Racer or even the divisive use of make-up in Cloud Atlas. It’s dizzying to think of what Lana Wachowski can do with the current era of VFX in The Matrix 4. The medium currently favors photorealism, but that’s never been the Wachowskis’ thing. Who knows where they can take things and how far they can push the boundaries, especially with Warner Bros. backing them all the way?
Lana Wachowski is back at the helm of her own property with a major budget in her corner and the support of one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. Keanu Reeves is back, a bigger star than ever, and one of the most acclaimed authors currently working in the English language is co-writing the script. Film has changed so much since 1999, but the Wachowskis always work best when they embrace the changing times while looking ahead to a seemingly impossible future. With all of that in Lana’s corner, how could audiences not be excited for The Matrix 4? The Wachowskis are used to changing the game, and it very well could happen once more.
The Matrix 4 (2021)
Release Date: May 21, 2021
