‘The Matrix Resurrections’: Lana Wachowski Navigates A Meta Minefield To Tell A Sci-Fi Love Story [The Playlist Podcast]

Little did Jessica Alba and Cash Warren know that the Fantastic Four would be more than just a job for them — it would be the starting point of their fairy tale love story.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

If you’ve watched The Matrix Resurrection, you might remember a scene where the character Smith (played by Jonathan Groff) takes a jab at Warner Bros possibly leaving Lana and Lilly Wachowski (the originators of The Matrix franchise) behind to direct another Matrix film. Well, turns out that’s not just hyperbole.In a recent interview with Collider, Resurrections producer James McTeigue admits that WB had plans to assign a different director.

Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s theatrical-day-and-date release of The Matrix Resurrections didn’t wow in its 5-day opening at the domestic box office with $22.5M, while in its HBO Max debut in homes fared OK, watched by 2.8 million smart TV U.S. households over the Wednesday-Sunday period.

The Matrix Resurrections (★★☆☆☆). The words feel directly aimed, in a very meta way, at the fourth installment of a series that back in 1999 sent cinemagoers into a frenzy and launched a thousand theories about the nature of reality.Unlike the first three films, Resurrections is helmed solo by Lana Wachowski without (clearly much-needed) assistance from sister Lilly.

“The Matrix Resurrections” is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, but it’s far from a straightforward sequel.

“The Matrix Resurrections.” The fourth film in the franchise, this time directed by a solo Lana Wachowski, enlisted Tom Tykwer and Johnny Klimek, longtime collaborators who have worked on Tykwer’s films as a director, usually with Reinhold Heil (everything from the pulsating “Run Lola Run” score to the sumptuously operatic “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”).

Note: The following contains spoilers for “The Matrix Resurrections”“The Matrix Resurrections” is here, and the gray hairs in Neo’s beard aren’t the only thing that’s different from the original trilogy.The fourth “Matrix” film – directed by Lana Wachowski, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon – both acknowledges what came before in the groundbreaking original trilogy, but also moves the franchise in a new direction.

Brass Against have put their signature, horn-driven spin on Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 classic ‘Wake Up’, which appears in the end credits of The Matrix Resurrections.The film was released yesterday (December 22) in US and UK cinemas, landing as the long-awaited fourth instalment in the Matrix franchise.

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Editor’s Note: Deadline is proud to launch Scene 2 Seen, a new podcast hosted by Associate Editor Valerie Complex. 

Lana Wachowski is reflecting on her career.

The Matrix, directed by Lana and Lily Wachowski, revolutionized the way we watch film, especially action cinema. How do you reinvent what you invented? This question is at the heart of The Matrix Resurrections. Lana Wachowski makes smart choices that to the naked eye might seem a bit nostalgic, but are more so intentional. It’s a way to introduce a new generation to the old Matrix films while ushering in a new narrative that course corrects some of the issues with the first three films. 

fourth movie of the needlessly prolonged franchise, coming 18 years after the horrendous “The Matrix Revolutions,” is “The Matrix Resurrections,” a descent not so much into Lana and Lily Wachowski’s ever-fascinating dystopian reality as our own madness.Beyond the initial satisfaction of seeing Keanu Reeves, whom we regularly watch in plenty of much better movies anyway, and Carrie-Anne Moss return as sunglasses-lovin’ power couple Neo and Trinity, “Resurrections” is aimless, vocabulary-filled,

There’s a scene in Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” her romantic, metatextual return to the franchise that made her and her sister Lilly stars, that encapsulates what sets this franchise apart from any other. Neo sits in reality contemplating whether he should re-enter the matrix to save Trinity: “I never believed I was the one.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss have teased what to expect from Neo and Trinity’s relationship in The Matrix Resurrections.Directed by Lana Wachowski, who helmed every previous film in the franchise alongside sister Lilly, The Matrix Resurrections picks up 20 years after events in 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions.Asked by NME about what makes the bond between Neo and Trinity so strong, Moss teased where their relationship heads in the sequel.

Denis Villeneuve, along with most people who got early access to watch the film, pleaded with folks to see “Dune” in theaters instead of HBO Max when it was released in October. It was an experience that required the biggest screen and the best sound system available.

Jonathan Groff, being a part of franchise is something he's been thinking about since he was a teenager.

San Francisco went green on Saturday evening as Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections made its U.S. premiere at the city’s historic Castro Theater.