I’m going to start off this review with something that might lead me to receiving countless hate mail: I don’t care for The Matrix movies. I was only five years old when the first one came out, and I never saw the original trilogy until this year, in preparation for The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth film and first installment in 18 years. I envy those who got to experience the original films when they came out because it’s obvious how much the three films have influenced cinema (and pop culture) since then. But seeing the films for the first time now, the groundbreaking aspects didn’t feel as impactful. I appreciated the lofty themes from writer/directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski, packaged into a Hollywood blockbuster. Though endlessly interesting, the films felt too cold for me to care about anything that was happening.

Yet I was still excited for Resurrections because its initial trailer was so good, and because I’m a huge fan of The Wachowskis’s other works (yes, including Speed Racer). As someone who thought the original Matrix films were just fine, I think Resurrections is the best one.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are back as Thomas Anderson/Neo and Trinity, respectively, even though their characters died at the end of the last film. The hows and whys they’re back, I won’t say, but along for the ride are a bunch of new and fun characters, including Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) as Bugs, the captain of a ragtag group in search of Neo; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman) as Morpheus, though not the Morpheus you may be familiar with; Jonathan Groff (Frozen) as the head of a video game company; and Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl) as a psychiatrist.

Jonathan Groff stars in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’

It would be a crime to spoil the details of Resurrections and I won’t do that here, not because the film is packed with surprising cameos or callbacks meant to service fans or hold for applause (cough, cough, unlike other major franchises out there), but because it subverts the rules and expectations of what a Matrix film can be.

The first act of Resurrections is a surprisingly meta (and funny) take on the franchise (and I love meta humor), which is sure to turn off a huge chunk of Matrix diehards. It pokes fun at today’s film culture, the demand for nostalgia, and appetite for more of the same (“We need a new bullet time,” a character says), and it critiques the studio system that rewards such behavior. There’s even a hilarious joke that makes fun of Warner Bros.’s attempts to make a fourth Matrix film with or without The Wachowskis. Thankfully, this did not come to pass, because one half of The Wachowskis, Lana, did come back, and the film—and franchise—is all the better for it.

The Matrix films can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, and over the last 20 years these interpretations have varied widely. It’s a trans allegory, it’s an alt-right touchstone, it’s about free will vs. choice, etc. In Resurrections, gone are the philosophical ramblings from the original trilogy (again, this may turn off a lot of fans). Instead, Wachowski reclaims The Matrix for herself by providing something less subtle and far simpler, though still just as fascinating—an unabashed love story between Neo and Trinity.

The Wachowskis have famously rejected the idea of any more Matrix films despite years of pleading from Warner Bros. But Lana Wachowski came back to the idea as a way of coping with her parents’ deaths. It was “about [her] working with [her] grief.” You can see glimmers of this in Resurrections (not just in its title). Beloved characters are resurrected. They choose love over everything. Co-written by Wachowski, novelist David Mitchell (“Cloud Atlas”), and author Aleksandar Hemon (“The Lazarus Project”), Resurrections is not a cold and pessimistic film like its predecessors, it’s one that believes in the power of love amidst all the chaos and nonsensical world. This is an idea that feels radical, but shouldn’t, because it’s so rare to see a modern-day blockbuster wear its heart on its sleeve.

Neil Patrick Harris stars as Thomas Anderson’s psychiatrist

It makes sense that Resurrections would be my favorite Matrix film, considering the previous works by The Wachowskis that spoke to me (pretty much everything that came out after The Matrix Trilogy). I’m a huge fan of their wildly ambitious film Cloud Atlas and Netflix series Sense8 (fans of Sense8 are in for a treat in this film!), both of which exude hope, optimism, and the beauty of human connection. This humanistic approach is present in Resurrections, allowing me to care about Neo and Trinity for the first time.

When early reactions to Resurrections first came out, it was polarizing (and it still is). That excited me! I think movies that are universally acclaimed are overrated. Give me something controversial, something to fight over, something challenging! Sometimes the best films are ones not everyone loves, and that’s okay. And that’s exactly what kind of film this is, one that’s sure to disappoint in its attempts to do something different. And not everything completely works! While the cinematography is warmer and uses more natural light, the action sequences are frenetic and surprisingly forgettable. The new characters, while effortlessly cool (especially Henwick and Abdul-Mateen II), don’t feel as important here (and Henwick’s blue hair unfortunately perpetuates a familiar Asian trope).

Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)

We live in a time where nostalgia reigns supreme, where it’s not just enough to “reboot” popular IP but to also bring back the original actors. We’ve seen recent sequels and rebootquels like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Halloween; revivals like Fuller House, Saved by the Bell, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls; and reunion specials for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, and Harry Potter. “Nothing comforts anxiety like a little nostalgia,” a character proclaims in Resurrections. Heck, we just saw a film break records (during a pandemic!) by featuring beloved characters from previous iterations, and we’re about to see it again next year in the upcoming The Flash movie when Michael Keaton returns as his late ‘80s Batman. Using nostalgia can feel cheap and hollow when not done right. The biggest mistake many projects make when reviving a franchise is not justifying its existence.

The Matrix Resurrections justifies its existence by innovating, taking big swings, and eschewing formula instead of retreading familiar themes. The film is the closest thing to Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, another deeply personal film set within one of the most well-known franchises in the world (it’s also a divisive film that pissed off a lot of fans). Like The Last Jedi, Resurrections is a rare blockbuster with a personality and singular voice from a visionary director. It reignites a dying franchise by not giving us what we want, but by giving us what we didn’t know we needed. It may not be as influential as the original Matrix film had on cinema, but it deserves credit for trying to save blockbuster cinema from itself.