In a rebooted Matrix — literally — a resurrected Neo, now oblivious to the truth, must once again choose to take the red pill and free his mind, in order join the rebellion against the systems holding the humans prisoner inside of the Matrix.

The Matrix Resurrections picks up decades after the end of the third film, which was supposed to definitively conclude the series. This new sequel manages to suck you back into this marvelous sci-fi world with great visuals and world-building, but fails to justify its existence beyond being a cash-grab that relies way too much on reminding you that the first movie exists. The movie tries to be meta and self-aware about sequels and corporate greed but this commentary becomes laughable in ways that I wasn’t sure it was trying to be, and it ends up becoming the exact thing it attempted to mock and satirize. The irreverence and over-the-top nature this movie was going for that tried to mimic the original film just doesn’t work when at the same time taken this seriously. It’s nice to see Keanu Reeves back in action as Neo, but his performance somehow doesn’t manage to reach the heights of his turn in a more recently launched franchise, John Wick. Carrie-Anne Moss also returns as Trinity, and so does Jada Pinkett-Smith as Niobe from the previous sequels, but Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is here replacing Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, playing an alternate version of the character inside the Matrix. Wouldn’t have been much more rewarding to see Fishburne return as one of the most iconic movie members and have the talented Abdul-Mateen play a new key character? The only real standout performance-wise is Jessica Henwick, whose part feels like a mix between Morpheus and Trinity’s roles in the original but Henwick gives a lot of personality here, which is saying a lot for this movie. Some of the supporting performances, like Jonathan Groff and Neil Patrick Harris, felt weak as they seemed to be over-acting the whole movie.

Though the music, world-building, and concepts are great, as well as the ideas around AI, choice, and free will, it’s hard to give this movie credit for all that because it’s all derived from the original. This film also makes way too many on-the-nose references to the original, including showing scenes again and having visual nods to the point that the first act is almost the same as that from the 1999 film. As a huge fan of that first movie, it’s cool to see the visuals of that outside robot-infested world done today, speaking of which the CGI in the real world is amazing, but the nostalgia for Matrix fans is all the movie has going for it. What made the original work is the incredible action scenes as well as the simplicity of the story and ideas, and this one ditches all that. The fights within the Matrix have headache-inducing editing, and the cuts make it hard to follow. Also considering the conceptually similar Free Guy, which was partly inspired by the original, came out mere months ago, as well as us getting a CGI-filled blockbuster every couple of weeks, it’s hard for this movie to feel that special, besides Lana Wachowski’s evident ambition. There’s also so much exposition needed to explain the gap between The Matrix Revolutions and now, as well as the rules of the world and action of this movie. These explanations are so excessive, confusing and convoluted that it took my friends and I the ride home to truly grasp all the rules. It felt like the final act ditches any sort of logic to simply go for cool visuals and a safe story structure. If you’re a big fan of 1999’s The Matrix like me, and want to see those visuals and that world how it’d be made today, then that’s the only reason to go see this movie. Otherwise, this feels like a rehash of that magnificent first movie that only seeks to bank on our nostalgia and give us more from what we liked 20 years ago.