The Matrix (1999) was the
equivalent of a small earthquake in for Hollywood movies. Nobody saw it coming
and yet despite a mind-bending plot it became a massive hit that influenced pop
culture for years to come. Following its release it became the standard for special
effects, with every new action movie boasting “it has the best special effects
since The Matrix”. Culturally it became a sort of expression to be used
whenever something so bizarre has happened that it must mean we are living
inside a computer simulation. In the early 2000s that was the election of
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor of California, because surely that is too
weird to be true. We were all pretty naïve back then.
Since the movie came out in a pre-Twitter world, I
first became aware of its existence in the summer of 1999 when its posters were
plastered everywhere. Given that all it shows are the main characters wearing
leather trench coats and sunglasses, it looked like just any other action
movie. Then things became serious when my 8th grade science teacher
in Peru gave a PowerPoint presentation titles “Are we in The Matrix?” to
discuss sensory perception and other deep themes. Finally, my brother and I got
the VHS tape for Christmas and embarked on our trip down the rabbit hole so to
speak.
In retrospect the Wachowskis sibling made a movie that
is pretty derivative from various sources such as the first Tron movie,
Japanese cyber-punk manga, and plenty of martial arts films. However, for
anyone not familiar with any of those inspirations, The Matrix felt
extremely ground-breaking. Here was a movie set in a world where the laws of
physics cease to apply, everything we think we know to be true is a lie, and a
messianic figure will set us free against our oppressors. No wonder this movie
has been co-opted by plenty of conspiracy theory groups.
Keanu Reeves was a wise casting choice as the
protagonist to lead the audience into this crazy world. Despite being able to
play action movie characters in his sleep, he also has the physique to play an
ordinary-looking person. His Thomas Anderson is initially an office drone who
lives alone, has few friends, pays his taxes, and even helps his landlady take
out her garbage. Unbeknownst to the world, by night he is also a criminal hacker
who goes by the name Neo. For plenty of other movies that would be the plot.
For The Matrix that is just scratching the surface.
Neo has quite a lot to digest. His reality is in fact
a simulation designed by machines to imprison humanity and determined FBI agent
Smith (Hugo Weaving, in one of his best roles) is not a human being but a
computer program designed to police this fake reality. Neo learns all this from
fellow hacker Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and her leader Morpheus (Lawrence
Fishburne), a resistance fighter who believes Neo will be the one to set humanity
free. In fact, he believes he is “The One”. Not the most original title for a
messiah, but it gets the message across.
Between this whopper of a plot, dialogue that sounds
as confusing as Chinese algebra, and some truly gruesome scenes of violence, it
is a wonder this movie ever got made. A key to its success is that it did not
take itself too seriously. Is there any reason why Morpheus and his allies all
dress in leather outfits and wear dark sunglasses when they are in the matrix?
The only reason I can think of is that it looks cool. Is it enormously cheesy when
Neo comes back from the dead after Trinity gives him the kiss of life and
saying she loves him? Absolutely. It is also incredibly badass when Neo then
proceeds to easily defeat Agent Smith and his fellow agents then flee in fear.
Sadly, the Wachowskis did not achieve the same
commercial and critical success with the movie’s two sequels, or with any of
their subsequent projects in the ensuing years. It is certainly not for lack of
trying. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions have
actions sequences that sometimes surpass ones from the original. However, the
novelty of the “bullet time” shooting style was starting to wear off and after
a while the plot just went all over the place. As for the Wachowskis’ other
projects, Jupiter Ascending is a cheesy sci-fi soap opera I enjoyed, but
it did not light up the box-office. Their Netflix show Sense8 is spectacular
and enormously entertaining, but ultimately it was too expensive to last more
than two seasons.
This year half of the Wachowskis are going back to the
source with The Matrix: Resurrections along with Reeves and Moss back
for another trip. As with most franchises coming back after laying dormant for
decades, the world will look brand new for anyone who wasn’t born when the
original movie came out. It remains to be seen if they will be able to win back
fans of the original or if they have anything new to add to the story. I’m
cautiously optimistic, but if it is even half as good as the original I know it
will be worth seeing on the biggest screen available.
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