[ad_1]
As the 1990s entered its dusk, one was ahead of its time in prophesying a dim outlook on technological advancement: The Matrix. As a new millennium dawned, The Matrix sounded the siren that technology was advancing too quickly for safe human consumption. Although The Matrix Trilogy is a mixed bag among fans and critics, the first film still stands out to this day as a science fiction epic. It largely explored the notion of living out the rat race versus being ‘awakened’ to the machinations that truly run reality. A truly inventive look behind the proverbial curtain.
Pulling threads from other science fiction exploits from years past (but most notably The Terminator), The Matrix follows a battle-hardened band of humans. This merry band is all that stands in the way between fragile humanity and a system that views humans as a cancer to be wiped from the face of the Earth. That was 22 years ago, and audiences have not lost the desire for the flavor of dystopian epics. So what can The Matrix: Resurrections tell its viewership about their world that they do not already know?
Technology has changed rapidly since The Matrix was in theaters: Facebook (sorry, Meta) did not exist, YouTube did not exist, and Amazon was still largely a book company. Based on The Matrix: Resurrections very name, trailer, and trends in technology, there are many things the film can say about our hyper-technological world.
The very word ‘Resurrection’ is curious in the film’s title. The word has a very important meaning in Christian theology, and Neo is somewhat of a Christ-like figure in The Matrix. He is bluntly referred to as “The One,” that is: the man who essentially be humankind’s salvation in a rotting world. Neo is capable of literally stopping bullets in their path.
Perhaps the name merely refers to the resurrection of the franchise, but that would be frankly a little lazy and a bit on-the-nose. With advances in modern technology, the idea of living on through the seeming magic of cloning seems to be just beyond the metaphorical horizon. For anyone that holds the view that humanity is a cancer, the prospect of resurrection would only cement that idea.
There is even a snippet in The Matrix: Resurrections trailer in which Neo looks into a mirror and sees himself seemingly grow younger. It is not out of left field to think the movie could be tackling the ethics of artificially prolonged life, or even resurrection.
It is no secret that technology companies want to occupy people’s time as often as possible, or for their product to essentially act as an addiction. It is in their financial interests and in the interests of their advertisers to keep folks glued to their screens. The trailer for The Matrix: Resurrections shows a group of people in close proximity to one another, but the only activity going on in the group is the swiping of screens. This is a vicious, but not entirely original, critique of the modern technological landscape.
Then there is the ever-famous red pill and blue pill. In the first Matrix film, taking the blue pill changes nothing, and the ingester goes on living a relatively meaningless existence. However, consuming the red pill causes something of a revelation and allows the person to see the matrix (IE the real world) all around them.
In the trailer for the upcoming film, Neo eventually pours all of his blue pills down the drain. This signifies that the artificial world around him is like a drug that is inhibiting him from reaching his fullest potential. Taking a single red pill does what a thousand blue pills never could: it ‘cures’ him, and he need not take another pill ever again. This comes across as a rather blatant swipe at the pharmaceutical industry.
The trailer for The Matrix: Resurrections hits on many of the same beats as the first film. To enter the matrix is to essentially enter a sort of cyberspace. The first three films explored this concept to great lengths, and there is no reason to think the fourth installment will cease to do this.
Virtual reality has come a massively long way since 1999. There is little doubt that The Matrix: Resurrections will continue to explore the ever-thinning veil between reality and artificial reality.
The Matrix trilogy is so full of then-seemingly-futuristic features: unrecognizable killer robots, computer viruses that can take over systems and even people, pills that repaint the world in a myriad of metaphorical colors. Then there is the means of combat: guns.
Podcaster and historical narrator Dan Carlin has stated that World War One was the first time when human inventions had surpassed battlefield tactics. The Matrix’s fourth installment seems to swing wildly in the opposite direction. Men and women are fighting in a computer program with all of technology’s might at their fingertips, but they achieve their aims or are destroyed with… guns and powder, a 14th-century invention. It is all a bit regressive, perhaps hinting at the limitations of human imagination and a human obsession with violence. The Matrix: Resurrections is going to be a very highly anticipated release. Only time will tell what further themes and machinations Warner Brothers is concealing for the time being.
The Matrix: Resurrections releases in theaters on December 22nd, 2021.
Read Next
About The Author
[ad_2]
Source link