Essentials: The Matrix

Year: 1999 (USA)
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi Action
Directed: Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran
Production: Warner Bros.


There is a connection to be made between The Wachowski sibling’s stylishly heady Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Hear me out; the silly jokes and outlandish scenarios of Holy Grail has been repeated, referenced or emulated in multiple movies, television shows and among the viewing public for well over a generation. So much so that when I first watched Holy Grail in college I was not as amused as I should have been simply because everything looked and felt old hat to me.

The spirited youth of today probably get the same woebegone sense of déjà vu when sitting back to watch The Matrix (1999), a film so revolutionary for the sci-fi action genre that it’s techniques have been repeated ad nauseam. Bullet time, view morphing, digital rain, all used and popularized by The Matrix. the effects were so revolutionary in-fact that they won the film four technical awards at the year 2000 Oscar ceremony beating out the likes of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) which believe it or not was the odds on favorite.

You fucking serious?!

The story of Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a pretty straightforward hero’s tale. An office drone of little importance discovers a group of rebel hackers who think he’s their salvation against their enemy. Simple right? Their enemy…*spoilers*…is killer A.I. which has destroyed the world and cloned humans as part of an organic battery farm to power complex machines and robots. Those cloned sleep in a stasis, dreaming the same dream creating the world Neo thinks he knows, also known as the Matrix.

The Matrix isn’t just known for its special-effects and blockbuster sensibilities, its also known for contemplating theories about human consciousness and philosophical theory. These are weighty themes that the Wachowskis would return to in Cloud Atlas (2012) yet here the thought process is more cogent and even frightening to contemplate. Is the world truly what we perceive, taste and feel? Or is there something outside of ourselves, controlling us to serve sinister ends.

...nah!

Heaven, hell, allegory of the cave, it’s all in there in a diluted format and packaged for easy consumption. Yet even for all its kung fu and bullet dodging the movie didn’t make as big a splash as one would have hoped. It wasn’t until after it was released on VHS and the burgeoning DVD market that the film became a full-blown success worthy of lesser sequels.  And once people actually saw it; watch out! Not since the criminally underrated Dark City (1998) had people been exposed to such radical ideas in films. College courses started studying the film, fanboys raved and discussed the film at length, even a cottage industry of animes based on the films sprouted up (there is much contention as to whether The Matrix was a blatant rip-off or homage to Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995)).

Today The Matrix is considered a benchmark of science fiction films taking its place among Blade Runner (1982) and Star Wars (1977) as a flick worthy of intense analysis and debate and passionate fandom by those who enjoy such things. Will following generations continue to pay homage to it? Keep it in the pristine echelons of sci-fi greatness? Or will The Matrix and its sequels be relegated to almost-classics like Logan’s Run (1976) and Soylent Green (1973)? My sincere hope is people won’t decide to tune into something completely different.

Final Grade: A