The Matrix Resurrections appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not stunning, this became a largely positive presentation.
At all times, sharpness looked terrific. I noticed no signs of softness or tentative visuals here, as the movie was consistently tight and well-defined.
Moiré effects and jagged edges remained absent. I failed to discern any edge haloes, artifacts or print flaws in this smooth image.
Whereas the original trilogy films leaned toward hard/fast color schemes, Resurrections opened up matters more. While it came with some of the usual blue and green, it leaned more natural at times, and it delved into other stylized tones beyond what the prior flicks involved. Whatever the choices, the hues felt full and well-rendered.
Blacks were deep and dense, though they could veer a little crushed in some interiors. Shadows offered good delineation nonetheless. Overall, I felt pretty happy with the image.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, you’ll find many positives from the engulfing Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Resurrections. With a lot of action scenes at its disposal, the movie boasted many opportunities for immersive action, and it made the most of these.
From vehicles to explosions to gunfire, a variety of action elements filled the room and created a great sense of place. The elements seemed well-placed and blended together in a clean way to occupy all the front and rear channels with lots of engaging information.
I also felt the quality of the audio satisfied. Speech was distinctive and crisp, without harshness or other concerns.
Music appeared vivid and full, while effects came across as dynamic and bold. We got plenty of tight, deep bass response in this consistently strong soundtrack.
The disc boasts a mix of video features, and No One Can Be Told What The Matrix Is goes for eight minutes, 52 seconds. It brings comments from actors Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Daniel Bernhardt, Brian J. Smith, Chad Stahelski, Jada Pinkett Smith, Toby Onwumere, and Lambert Wilson.
The cast members attempt to offer a recap of the first three Matrix movies. It seems more cute than efficient, so if you want a solid summary, look elsewhere.
Resurrecting The Matrix spans 30 minutes, 44 seconds and involves Reeves, Moss, Henwick, Groff, Abdul-Mateen, Harris, Pinkett Smith, Wilson, Smith, director Lana Wachowski, writers David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, production designers Hugh Bateupm and Peter Walpole, producer James McTeigue, VFX supervisor Dan Glass, director of photography Daniele Massccesi, martial arts coach Tiger Chen Lu, stunt choreographer Joshua Grothe, stuntwoman Jade-Eleena Dregorius, and composer Tom Tykwer.
“Resurrecting” looks at the roots/development of the sequel as well as story/screenplay, design choices and photography, stunts and action, and music.
Despite its relatively brief running time, “Resurrecting” packs a pretty good level of information. At times it leans too heavily toward happy talk, but we still get a lot of useful notes.
The San Fran Jump fills seven minutes, 56 seconds with info from Wachowski, Reeves, Moss, McTeigue, stunt coordinators Keir Beck and Scott Rogers, and executive producer Garrett Grant.
Here we learn about aspects of a big stunt sequence. Though we get more self-praise, we also find a nice investigation of the topic.
Next comes Return to The Matrix, an eight-minute, 16-second piece that involves Reeves and Moss. They talk about their relationship and various memories. Nothing fascinating emerges, but it’s nice to see them chat together.
Allies + Adversaries goes for eight minutes, 27 seconds and features Chopra Jonas, Reeves, Henwick, Smith, Abdul-Mateen, Glass, Onwumere, Harris, Groff, Mitchell, and actor Eréndira Ibarra,
This featurette looks at new characters and actors. A few decent insights occur, but a lot of this feels superficial.
After this comes Matrix 4 Life, a six-minute, 19-second segment that offers material from Moss, Reeves, Bateup, Stahelski, McTeigue, Wachowski, Chen Hu, and unit production manager Toby Pease,
“Life” discusses the reunion of cast/crew. It tends to lean toward “it’s so great to be back” without much substance.
I Still Know Kung Fu runs four minutes, 56 seconds and brings info from Moss, Reeves, Harris, Abdul-Mateen, Henwick, Stahelski, Chen Hu, Groff, and martial arts stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio.
Here we get a little about the fight scenes. This mostly praises those involved, so don’t expect much value.
Lastly, The Matrix Reactions gives us nine segments that occupy a total of 48 minutes, 38 seconds. In these, we hear from Reeves, Mitchell, Hemon, Wachowski, Bateup, Walpole, Eusebio, Henwick, Groff, Abdul-Mateen, Pinkett Smith, Chopra Jonas, Chen Wu, Glass, Smith, Rogers, Onwumere, Moss, Grant, Beck, costume designer Lindsay Pugh, editor Joseph Jett Sally, additional visual effects supervisor Tom Debenham, and actors Andrew Caldwell and Max Riemelt.
Each of the nine sequences digs into various movie scenes with moderate levels of depth. These mix the usual insights and happy talk, but they give us some good material overall.
18 years after the franchise apparently ended, The Matrix returned with a fourth chapter appropriately called Resurrections. While the movie maintains viewer interest, it feels unnecessary and fails to expand the series in a particularly inventive manner. The Blu-ray brings very good picture and audio as well as erratic but generally informative bonus materials. Resurrections doesn’t sully the Matrix series, but it also fails to revive the property in a particularly satisfying manner.