Thomas Anderson may be a celebrated game designer, but do his games really matter?
Image: Warner Bros. / Kotaku
Video games are both important and unimportant in The Matrix Resurrections. They’re mentioned a lot–they play a significant role in the life of Keanu Reeves’ character, Thomas Anderson–but at the same time, the film isn’t particularly interested in games as games. Rather, games serve as a metaphor, and a fascinating one at that. Initially, I thought the film was arguing against the notion that games can be truly meaningful or worthwhile. However, I quickly realized that this was a simplistic misreading, and that if you follow the metaphor through to its logical conclusion, the film is arguing that of course games can matter. Alas, this isn’t a metaphor I can explore much without discussing the film’s plot in some detail. So, if you haven’t seen Resurrections yet and want to go in knowing as little as possible, come back to this piece after you see the film. Everyone else, take your red pills and I’ll see you on the other side.
When we first meet Thomas Anderson in The Matrix Resurrections, he’s a successful game designer, the creator of a series of games referred to as The Matrix Trilogy. For all his achievements, however, Anderson seems both deeply dissatisfied with his life and somewhat dismissive of the adoration others shower upon his work, as if, in spite of its financial success and its legions of fans, it doesn’t actually mean much. When another character asks him what it’s like to be the creator of the famous game The Matrix, he responds self-effacingly, “Yeah, we kept some kids entertained.” It seems he doesn’t have much faith that his work as a game designer actually matters. This is driven home a bit later in a flashback scene, in which we see Reeves’ Anderson holding a Game Award he’s won for The Matrix at a rooftop celebration, a “What the fuck am I doing with my life?” look on his face, moments before he attempts to leap from that same rooftop.
The aforementioned “What the fuck am I doing with my life?” look, which even Geoff Keighley’s statue cannot quell.
Image: Warner Bros.
But it was a later scene that first led me to conclude that the film’s whole attitude toward games was somewhat …….
Source: https://kotaku.com/what-the-matrix-resurrections-really-says-about-video-g-1848276051