There is little left for the premiere of ‘Matrix Resurrections’, the fourth part of the mythical film saga

The film saga Matrix, which was a small revolution for science fiction in the cinema, returns to the screens next week with a fourth chapter in which Neo “Resurrects” to live new adventures.

‘Matrix resurrections’ under the direction of one of the Wachowski sisters

Neo was the role that definitely launched the actor to stardom Keanu Reeves, At 57 years old, he dons his long black coat and sunglasses again.

The third part of the series, Revolutions, dates back 18 years. Neo died in the end, but in the universe of the “matrix”, anything is possible.

Expectations are so high among fans, which made the series one of the great movie hits of the 2000s. More than 1,600 million dollars of collection for the first three chapters, to date.

This new adventure, called Matrix Resurrections, it only has one director, Lana Wachowski. His sister Lilly chose to stay on the sidelines.

Almost everything around the Matrix It broke molds at the time the first episode appeared, in 1999: at that time the Wachowskis were two brothers, who years later changed their sex.

The Matrix created a sensation in the cinema by introducing notions such as the metaverse, or by its special effects, which managed to “slow down” time around the characters.

The saga it was a daring mix of timeless myths, like that of the hero predestined to save humanity, with unpublished theories, such as that of a non-existent reality, composed of endless computer codes.

Bullet time

The sequence of Neo atop a skyscraper, battling baddies, bent over in an unlikely way as bullets come slowly and graze his body, is one of the most famous from the first episode of Matrix, a visual feat that has later been imitated by other mega-productions.

The camera moved freely around immobile characters, a special effect known as “bullet time”, recalls Dominique Vidal, from the French special effects company Buf, who worked on three of the four episodes of the saga.

Before the Wachowskis, it was a French film director, Michel Gondry, who used this trick, albeit in a traditional way, for a video clip of the Rolling Stones (Like a Rolling Stone).

In Matrix, the then Wachowski brothers had the idea of ​​applying this new technique to combat scenes, an idea that required a waste of means, since the same scene had to be filmed simultaneously from dozens of different points of view.

A fictional reality

Matrix also introduced a science fiction theory that over the years would have unsuspected ramifications: the idea that the reality that surrounds us is simulated, a computer code that is created and recreated incessantly, with infinite millions of letters and numbers (fluorescent in the film) that only a few “chosen” are able to see.

That parallel universe, the “matrix” that gave the film its title, was originally inspired by “a menu of ramen (Japanese noodles) mixed with inverted figures”Dominique Vidal explained to AFP.

The Wachowski brothers were perfectionists. “We have up to 150 different versions of some shots” from the film ” remembers Vidal.

The metaverse

Matrix It told the story of a group of rebels who fight that matrix, controlled by artificial intelligence, to free human beings.

In this new chapter, Neo appears as a mild-mannered video game creator in California. His past seems buried, except for a few repetitive nightmares …

Beside Keanu Reeves His partner also appears in the first three films, Trinity, played by Carrie-Anne Moss.

According to his fans, Matrix he foreshadowed the 21st century, for example by describing the control of social relationships by giants like Facebook, which a few weeks ago announced that it was turning into the metaverse, a virtual universe where it hopes to draw millions of customers.

Matrix He also popularized terms such as cyberpunk, that is, the mixture of cybernetics and punk. And he updated the martial arts, with gestures and strokes in slow motion of great virtuosity. (I)