The Matrix Resurrectionsarrived in 2021 and had a chance to expand on the world from the movies and show the real villains. Instead,it chose to tell a meta story that brought Neoand Trinity back into the VR world for a slight re-telling of the first movie. That was a disappointment for many fans.
It all resulted ina terrible box office take and lackluster reviews.What the film should have done was move beyond what was shown before, withthe man vs. machines storyline played out in the first three movies. Instead,The Matrix 4should have shown what the original films hinted at;the realMatrixvillains were the humans.
Why Humans Are The Real Villains Of The Matrix Trilogy
The Humans Don’t All Agree On Being ‘Freed’ From The Matrix
Humans are often the main villains in most horror, dystopian, and apocalyptic stories. Whilethe AI is seen as the main antagonistin many of these films, humans created the computer systems to do what is best to protect the world and humanity. This is true in movies likeThe TerminatorandThe Matrix.
In theTerminatorfranchise, the AI killed most humans because it realized they posed the biggest threat to the world than any other force of nature. InThe Matrix, it was similar, as the AI realized the world was being destroyed, and humans provided the batteries needed to keep the computers running to protect the world.
AI gave people the gift of a dream world to live in.
The difference is that, inThe Matrix,the computers enslaved the world rather than destroying humanity. AI gave people the gift of a dream world to live in with virtual reality. This gift was to allow humans to continue to “live” in happiness and peace, while the AI did the hard work of keeping the planet alive.
However, people likeMorpheus want to bring down computersand “free” humans, whether they want it or not, and this not only puts the planet back in danger again, but pulls many people unwillingly out of their happy lives inside the Matrix. There are two ideas for the villains of this story.
The first are humans likeCypher who want to stay in the Matrixand betray their friends to do so. In the first movie, he is shown as selfish because he likes living a good life, eating steak, wearing nice clothes, and not fighting for survival every day. But, is this selfish?
Is Cypher the real villain, or is it Morpheusfor trying to force people like Cypher to leave their lives of happiness? This was also touched upon inThe Animatrix,the anime short that tells side stories about the world from the movies.
This includes the trial for machine rights with B1-66ER, where humans tried to continue to exert control, despite their own shortcomings.The Matrix 4should have been a story about humans battling each otherover their right to choose, not another story about battling machines that really just wanted to save the planet.
Humans Should’ve Been The Main Villains Of The Matrix 4
The Matrix ResurrectionsRetold The Same Story As The First Movie
The best part about making humans the real villains of theMatrixfranchise is that it is in no way clear who the real villains are.People like Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus want to free all humanityfrom the grip of the machines to allow them the freedom to be who they want to be in the real world.
There is a big problem with that.As Cypher showed,there is a big reason why humans don’t want this freedom. The real world is hard, dangerous, and deadly. The chance to die in terrible ways is expanded tenfold when humans are freed from their cocoons and released into the damaged and devastated Earth.
Morpheus wants to use Neo to free humanity.
Why would anyone in their right mind want to leave the fantasy world where everything is normal and relatively safe to go into a world where even the environment could kill them? Morpheus wants to use Neo to free humanity, even if that is not what humanity wants.
To look at it from their point of view,Morpheus is the real villain in the first film,trying to impose his will on all of humanity, whether they want it or not. The humans need to be the main villains because that is a more complex and difficult story to tell.
The AI and machines as villains is easy because it is humans vs. machines, and that is a fear that goes back many decades in cinema history. However, what if the machines aren’t really the bad guys?
The franchise shows that the AI believes it is doing what is best to save Earth while also keeping humans relatively happy in their dream world. Many humans, such as Cypher, feel the same way. IfMorpheus and Neo force humansfrom their dream world and into the real world, how many of them would hate them for it?
How many would immediately rebel and try to get back into the Matrix, giving the computer the power back? That is the more interesting story to tell in the Matrix franchise, rather than just another battle with Mr. Smith and the sentient AI inside the Matrix.
The Matrix’s Next Movie Can’t Just Be Another Humans Vs. Machines Story
The Humans Present The More Interesting Story
The biggestproblem withThe Matrix Resurrectionswas that it told almost the same story as the first film. There were some creatively intriguing differences, including the meta text concerning Neo supposedly creating the Matrix video game series in that world. However, in the end,it was still Neo battling the AIin the Matrix, trying to gain freedom.
That story was told better in the first film, and seeing it here, even with the differences, didn’t pull the same weight. If there is a fifthMatrixmovie, it can’t just keep regurgitating the man vs. machines storyline because there is nothing new to farm from that angle. Instead, it has to be something bigger and better.
Many humans living in the fantasy world created by the AI like it there.
The AI is dangerous, and many humans want their freedom from the machine, but they are not the only people whose beliefs and wants matter. The machines saved the Earth at the expense of humanity, and many humans living in the fantasy world created by the AI like it there.
The real battle in the fifthMatrixmovie needs to expand on that if the franchise wants to continue to be the revolutionary series that the Wachowski siblings created so many years ago.
