Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1453602
j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 2 c g w 5 He will rid them of Agent Smith in exchange for the safety of the free citizens of Zion. The series, and the story, ends in a brutal fight b tween Neo and Agent Smith and his replicants. Eventually Neo is worn down by the tireless Agent Smiths, who finish N o off — but in doing so, Agent Smith is purged from the Matrix. In a moving display, the machines carry Neo's lifeless body away into the distance, while peace falls on Zion. The end. Or was it? The answer, of course, is no, as Warner Bros. and one of the Wachowski directors, Lana, resurrected the characters and story 19 years later with The Matrix Resurrections, which picks up 60 years aer those final vents. In this film Neo and Trinity are back, as is Agent Smith (now played by Jonathan Groff), albeit in a new "shell" that allowed him to be hidden — all of whom survived that "end battle." Neo and Trinity were rebuilt and plugged into a new Matrix created by an evil machine program known as The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris). Now we find N o, again as Thomas An- derson, leading what appears to be normal life as a computer game developer, working on his latest title, "Binary," a follow-up to his successful "The Matrix" trilogy games based on his experiences from the fi st three Matrix films His business partner: Smith. Yes, that Smith. The two are now "bonded" — as Neo is suppressed, so, too, is Smith — just as The Analyst prefers it. Thomas, however, is troubled; he has fl eting recollections of his previous ex- periences, which his psychiatrist (creepily, The Analyst) has him believe are a result of "a previous mental breakdown and psychotic episodes." To suppress his memories of the Matrix that inspired his games, Thomas is pre- scribed blue pills by The Analyst. When presented with the red pill option once again, he declines but eventually acquiesces and reawakens from his hellish reality, as does Trinity — eventually. It seems that The Analyst witnessed Neo and Trinity die at the end of the Machine War and created resur- rection pods to study them when he rebuilt the Matrix.) Unfortunately, Smith also regains his memories and seeks to destroy Neo and The Analyst, who imprisoned him, and restore the Matrix to its former settings. Only this time, it is the powerful Trinity and Neo together who overcome these protagonists and set out to make the Matrix "as they see fi ." As you can see, the plots from the earlier trio of films as well as the latest one, are complex. So are the visual effects. The fi st film ave us "bullet time," wherein the action in a shot progresses in slow motion while the camera seems to move through the scene at a normal pace. The second moved us a step toward real-time simulation of virtual humans. The third film p esented us with a realistic face of Agent Smith during "the punch." So, what does this fourth install- ment give us? There's a new version of the Matrix since we last saw Neo and Trinity, but they are continuing the figh . Dan Glass, VFX supervisor