We can't go back
We won't

An absolute triumph.

It succeeds as both a sequel to the original trilogy and its own thing. It’s the natural extension of the world and characters from the trilogy but doesn’t lean heavily on nostalgia. It’s a commentary on the current reboot/sequel consumer culture that dominates the film industry. I loved it.

The film was clearly a very personal endeavour for Lana and I think that it shows. The film cares more about the emotions of the characters than the rules and the logic of the established world, I found that refreshing. I know a lot of others have said this, but it does remind me of The Last Jedi but it’s also what Reloaded and Revolutions are like. They zig where people expect them to zag, and I guess more people will come round to it as they did with the other sequels.

The new additions to the cast are great, Yahya and Jessica are stars in the making and Jonathan Groff and Neil Patrick Harris are pretty fun. Harris has this Ben Shapiro-esque rant about facts over feeling which he clearly had fun with. Keanu and Carrie are of course fantastic, it feels like they never hung up their leather trench coats and shades. I really loved Carrie’s performance, probably my favourite in the film.

The technical differences between this and the original trilogy are really intriguing to me, Lana makes bold choices like ditching the green colour grading for example. I wish the fights were better but the film cares more about the emotional scenes than the action scenes. The new additions to the world of the matrix are very welcome. I’m sure the swarm concept will be deconstructed for years to come; I choose to believe it’s representing consumers literally being controlled to take out dissenters. Somewhat ironically this movie opened a week after Spider-Man No Way Home.

I do wonder as to whether we will get a sequel to this because it is left very open-ended. But if it is just one and done, I’m happy it was so fucking good.