[Excerpt From Our Theatrical Review]
It's time to free the mind again and step inside the real world of The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth film of the iconic franchise. Nearly 20 years after the last entry, The Matrix Resurrections tells a different story this time around while giving audiences a ton of nostalgic set pieces, characters, and even pieces of dialogue that everyone should recognize along the way. In certain sequences, this fourth installment, to quote a Monty Python film, "Tis a silly place", but in between those moments are some genuine fantastic, romantic, and thrilling story arcs that are highly entertaining and important to tell. The Matrix Resurrections pushes the entire story forward and can be a blast when it wants to. Other times, it can be sillier than a Naked Gun film.
How does one step inside the world of The Matrix again? Everyone witnessed Neo's (Keanu Reeves) deathly sacrifice nearly twenty years ago as he saved the last human city from murderous machines. Everybody also realized that Neo (the one) had gone through the entire story multiple times, meaning that this entire trilogy had really been played out hundreds of times before. The Wachowskis certainly opened up a brand new world with that first film where it became a milestone in cinema for various reasons, including camera techniques, actions sequences, and storytelling. The point being, what else could be said about Neo and his crew? Half of the Wachowski siblings - Lana in particular, got the band back together and set up this new film some twenty years later that hopefully brings on another trilogy with these older and wiser characters.
Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray
The Matrix Resurrections codes its way to 4K UHD through Warner Bros. with a Two-Disc set consisting of a 4K Disc + Blu-ray Disc + Digital code. The discs are housed inside a hard, black plastic case with a cardboard slipcover. The artwork is the same on both case and sleeve and features both Neo and Trinity with a blurry Matrix background. It's not the best-looking artwork. Inside is an insert for a digital code that is Movies Anywhere compatible, so it should redeem on all linked participating platforms.
The Matrix Resurrections comes with an utterly impressive 2160p UHD 4K transfer with Dolby Vision from Warner Bros. Like the previous trilogy that was released in 4K, everything about this image is astonishing. Back then, everything was shot on actual film, but with this new movie, it was done digitally and it looks mighty fantastic.
The color palette this time around is much different. When inside the Matrix, the colors do not have the green tint to them. Instead, everything is much more natural between the real world and the Matrix one. There are brighter primary colors in the city in neon signs and in the buildings. In certain action sequences, amber and golden lighting are used both naturally and with studio lights, giving the image some softer colors, rather than the cooler green and blue colors from the originals. The red lights on the sentinels are bright and nuanced with a great shade of blue and silver when inside the ship. The exquisite green text of the Matrix code pouring down the screen is wonderful as well and almost seems a notch brighter than in previous entries. The birthing of Neo scene once again looks amazing with that bright pink and red hue that accentuates the black color robots in the background. Other natural elements of the blue skies and brown buildings look simply amazing. Even the archival clips of the trilogy look brand new this time around.
The detail is vivid and sharp as well revealing every small detail in closeups from facial stubble, individual hairs, wrinkles, makeup effects, gory wounds, and amazing textures and stitching in the wardrobe. The slimy, gooey substance has that shiny icky texture that looks great on skin and the CGI effects never look soft, but rather blend realistically. Bumps in the skin and the metallic textures in guns and vehicles showcase all their imperfections as well. Black levels are deep and inky and the skin tones are natural this time around. The Dolby Vision really enhances those nuanced colors in both worlds in different lighting conditions, especially in the darker scenes. This is one of the best-looking transfers of recent memory. There are no issues with banding, aliasing, or video noise.
This release comes with an exquisite Dolby Atmos track and just brings down the house in those amazing action sequences.
There aren't as many action scenes this time around since everyone is about twenty years older, but when it's action time, the audio revs the engines and it sounds spectacular, like a symphony of crashes, kung-fu, and bullets. Every sound effect is robust and packs a punch when needed. Bullets come with a fiery band, and explosions are booming with a low end of bass that makes for a nice rumble. Every punch and kick that lands sound wonderful as well with a certain crunch and power to it.
Sentinels flying around and other bullets flying by come through nicely in the surrounds and rears with ferocity and quite often. The directionality in these moments is superb and has an easygoing transition from speaker to speaker. The height elements bring down rain, bullets, shell casing, and more ambient noises perfectly. The score always enhances the suspense and tone of these Matrix films and the dialogue is always clear, clean, and easy to follow along with free of any pops, cracks, or hiss. This is how a Dolby Atmos track should sound.
There are 127 minutes worth of bonus material included here. All of the extras are located on the Blu-ray Disc only. These are some truly fun, comical, and insightful examinations and explorations on how everyone made the movie. All of these are worth watching.
The Matrix Resurrections is a wonderful film and a good welcome back for the cast and crew that were responsible for a milestone in cinema with the original trilogy. while revisiting some key elements and creating new ones, this new film really outdid itself and after watching the bonus features, hits home in the way of how people and things change and transform over time for the better. The Dolby Vision 4K UHD transfer and the Dolby Atmos track are both incredible and the two hours' worth of extras are phenomenal. MUST-OWN.
