The Matrix Resurrections Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

2. The Underwhelming Villains

Even in it weakest moments, the original Matrix trilogy benefitted so much from Hugo Weaving's deliriously entertaining performance as Agent Smith, and when Weaving was confirmed not to be returning for Resurrections, he left a massive void in his wake.

Still, casting Jonathan Groff as a new version of Smith seemed like a solid choice if nothing else, and while Groff is clearly having fun offering his own rebooted riff on the villain, he unsurprisingly can't measure up to Weaving's singular portrayal of the character.

Without getting into any spoilers, Smith isn't the only antagonist in the film, but none of the major villains are particularly well fleshed-out nor do they have especially compelling motives.

Smith's arc became a mess in the previous two films but Weaving held it all together with his brilliant performance. Here, the antagonists come off as half-baked necessities that simply fail to measure up to what came before.