The Matrix Resurrections
Warner Bros. | Release Date: December 22, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 57 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
19
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellDec 22, 2021
It’s a film of maddening contradictions, missed opportunities and half-taken risks, but it’s destined to be one of the year’s most polarizing and talked-about releases regardless. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 22, 2021
The actors’ sincerity and effortlessly synced performances have always been this series’ greatest special effects, and watching them slip back into their old roles is a pleasure. The movie they’re in is still as beholden to the same old guns and poses as the earlier ones, the same dubious ideas about what constitutes coolness, the same box-office-friendly annihilating violence. But it’s still nice to dream of an escape with them. Read full review
60
Time OutOlly RichardsDec 21, 2021
Wachowski is still full of ideas, even if she doesn’t always wrangle them into a strong plot, and there is much to enjoy in this revisit to one of cinema’s most original worlds. Read full review
60
EmpireAlex GodfreyDec 21, 2021
Resurrections suffers from an identity crisis, going from being supremely fun and knowing to weirdly pedestrian. It’s a slippery mish-mash— entertaining in big bursts but ultimately a little hollow. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 21, 2021
Essentially a greatest hits concert and a cover version rolled into one (complete with flashback clips to high points from past installments), the new movie is slick but considerably less ambitious in scope than the two previous sequels. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiDec 21, 2021
While it's heavily nostalgic, The Matrix Resurrections does have something to say about living in the past and the difficulties of moving forward. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeDec 21, 2021
Where Resurrections really disappoints is in the staging of the action. The Hong Kong-influenced long shots that made The Matrix so revolutionary are all but absent, replaced by rapid cuts that render the fight choreography less legible than in previous installments. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 3, 2022
The action and the effects, so gleamingly creative in the original trilogy, are now C.G.I. commonplaces and “John Wick” retreads—and are approached as such. The duels and battles are whipped up with a sense of obligation and filmed with little verve. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesDec 22, 2021
The net effect of all this techno-philosophic yackety-yak is the not altogether pleasant feeling that you are simultaneously watching a movie while being trapped in an elevator with someone desperate to explain what it’s all about and why you should like it. Read full review
50
Original-CinKim HughesDec 22, 2021
The Matrix Resurrections is an incoherent, narratively sloppy mess. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 21, 2021
Wachowski seems to be at war with her audience, rewarding them with deep-cut callbacks one moment only to roll her eyes at the entire enterprise the next. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyDec 21, 2021
Anyone much over the age of 15 who saw the earlier movies knew they were silly. That didn’t matter. What mattered is that they didn’t feel silly. “Resurrections” does. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 21, 2021
The new "Matrix" tries to reprogram a beloved piece of cinema. However, it’s quite a few fixes short of a full upgrade. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 21, 2021
It will quench the thirst of die-hard fans who always want more. But does that thirst justify “The Matrix Resurrections?” Maybe. But it can’t make it a great movie. And despite Reeves’ willingness to jump back in, neither can anything else. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 21, 2021
In Lana Wachowski’s defence, much of Resurrections does play like a sincere conversation with herself. She and her sister invented this extraordinary world, and they have the right to analyse and deconstruct it. But she is a victim of her own early success. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 21, 2021
Eighteen years after The Matrix Revolutions, Lana Wachowski goes back down the rabbit hole, only to get lost in a sequel that lacks the visionary flair and zeitgeist-y profundity that once made this franchise such a game-changer for blockbuster cinema. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 21, 2021
There are snatches of fun to be had early on, before the teasing gimmickry about reality and fakery expires. But the second half is just a slavish rehash of all the series’ best-known tropes. Unlike Alice in Wonderland, crossing through this looking glass, we may simply wind up less and less curious. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 21, 2021
This is a heavy-footed reboot which doesn’t offer a compelling reason for its existence other than to gouge a fourth income stream from Matrix fans, submissively hooked up for new content, and it doesn’t have anything approaching the breathtaking “bullet time” action sequences that made the original film famous. Read full review
40
IGNAmelia EmberwingDec 21, 2021
The Matrix Resurrections is a bunch of really good ideas stacked together to make a bad — and sometimes ugly — film. Read full review
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