The Rotten Tomatoes scores for the four movies in The Matrix series are all over the place, but the critic and audience scores for The Matrix: Resurrections achieved a rare anomaly not commonly seen on the Tomatometer. Despite the positive reception of the first Matrix movie, the sequels were far more controversial, leading to some interesting review scores in Rotten Tomatoes. As the newest Matrix movie, released over a decade and a half after The Matrix: Revolutions, The Matrix: Resurrections has the most interesting Rotten Tomatoes score.
Critics and audiences frequently disagree on movie scores in Rotten Tomatoes, particularly on big budget blockbusters, yet despite this trend, The Matrix: Resurrections has the exact same critic score and verified audience score, signifying a rare agreement between critics and audience scores. The rest of the Matrix movies surprisingly also see a fair amount of consistency between critics and audiences, but The Matrix: Resurrections is the only one with matching Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Why It Makes Sense That Matrix 4’s Critic & Audience Score Is The Same
Ironically the verified audience score is only available for Resurrections, since the other movies were released before the verified audience system was implemented. The 43 percent unverified audience score for resurrections is more comparable to the other Matrix movies. Ironically, the average critic score is 65 percent and using the unverified audience score, the four movies also have an average audience score of 65 percent. So, while it’s hardly an apples to apples comparison, the fact that The Matrix: Resurrections has the same critic score and unverified audience score seems even more fitting in that context.
Does Matrix Resurrections Deserve The Rotten Tomatoes Score It Has?
The original Matrix is the highest rated Matrix movie on Rotten Tomatoes with an 88 percent critic score, but every Matrix sequel has a much more polarized reaction from audiences and critics. The Matrix: Resurrections is the third-highest Rotten Tomatoes rating in the series, coming in ahead of The Matrix: Reloaded (73 percent) and The Matrix: Revolutions (35 percent). Meanwhile The Matrix: Resurrections has the franchise’s lowest unverified audience score at 43 percent, below The Matrix: Revolutions at 60 percent, The Matrix: Reloaded at 72 percent, and The Matrix at 85 percent.
Reviews are all subjective, but the extreme gulf in the review score for The Matrix: Resurrections and the other movies, and the fact that its verified audience score is much higher, suggests online viewers were far harsher on the movie, and could even be evidence of a review bombing. Opinions on the first two Matrix sequels were far harsher after their release and have softened over time, so it’s entirely possible the negative Rotten Tomatoes audience score is more negative than the movie deserves, although only time will tell if the Rotten Tomatoes score will ever rise to a less harsh score to reflect that.