The Matrix

The Matrix (1999)

Runtime: 136 minutes

Directed by: Formerly the Wachowski Brothers, now known as the Wachowski Sisters

Starring: A quality cast

From: Warner Bros.

On another day I'll talk about what I saw on Friday night; for now, I finally got to see this theatrically: 

Now it is September 2019... would people believe that I STILL have never seen Reloaded or Revolutions?

I better explain: until last night I had never seen this on the big screen, and I enjoyed it at home although it was not a love. When the sequels came out in '03, I was in college at the time and I rarely went to movie theatres at the time; plus, when I heard all those bad things about Reloaded and especially Revolutions, I had no motivation to ever see them. For comedy's sake perhaps I should do that late in 2019 to see if it's aged poorly or not. I got to see this theatrically last night as this upcoming week if you have a Dolby Cinema at AMC near you, The Matrix is playing there.

I don't need to extol its virtues for paragraph after paragraph; I can say that perhaps it is me watching a few thousand movies between now and then, or maybe it's because Hollywood is worse now when it comes to quality in the 21st century, but this was better than I gave it credit for at the time. While the idea of our world being a simulation was not new even then (look at Fassbinder's World on a Wire) the idea was well-realized here; I had forgotten just how horrifying the “real world” was with the sun being blotted out of the sky and machines ruling the roost. It was great production design of how The Matrix looked compared to the grungy and dirty real world, down to food and dress. It was also interesting philosophically and was not a shallow look at such complex ideas. Of course there are still some corny moments (love saving the day at the end is a key example) but I was glad nothing took me out of the plot.

Another relief was that most of the effects still look fine 20 years later; it was only random things that reminded me of the late 90's that this was filmed in: the cell phones and the great moment in the first act where MiniDiscs were briefly seen. Those around the world may be surprised to hear this but those were never popular in the United States. Except for a few tracks, the soundtrack and score don't seem too terribly old. The Matrix also managed to be well-cast, even if-for example-they wanted Johnny Depp to be Neo. Keanu is great in the role; I agree with Will Smith that him turning down the role was right as he probably wouldn't have been mature enough for it. Of course, now Keanu as a big action star is not as absurd as it was back then. Much effort and months of training was done for the action scenes, and those still are a stand-out now.


I remember how old and hackneyed bullet-time became in the first few years after this came out between all the movies using it and it being parodied to death. In 2019, that suddenly seems fresh again as I haven't seen it be used in ages. Lana and Lily have never reached these heights again and wow have their subsequent movies received a mixed reception... that does not diminish how this surprisingly became a hit and quite influential. Now they said there will be a 4th one and I hope that isn't a cash-grab as Hollywood has fallen in love with in recent years. Again, that doesn't affect how I feel about the original film.