Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone. For this review, I’m going to do something a little different. It marks the triumphant return of the retrospective review. This one will focus on what is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s not just one of the best action movies for me (where something like Predator would be), but it really is one of the best movies period.
This year, this month, and today, in fact, marks the 20th Anniversary of a sci-fi classic, and that movie is known as The Matrix.
The story follows computer programmer Thomas A. Anderson, better known under his hacker persona, Neo, who discovers that the world he knows is not as real as it seems. Instead, it is part of the Matrix, a system created to resemble the world he’s familiar with. The question of “What is the Matrix?” leads him to meeting the man who has been searching for him his entire life: Morpheus, the leader of a human resistance waging a war against the machines*. Morpheus believes that Neo is “The One,” a savior that will free humanity and end the war once and for all.
What Worked: One thing that still hasn’t changed since the last time I did a retrospective review is that, with a few exceptions, the cast and performances are usually discussed first.
Keanu Reeves gives an excellent performance as Neo. His range as an actor really began to show throughout this movie alone. He goes from initially being soft-spoken and subdued to being in denial of the truth before then accepting and ultimately embracing it. That narrative arc is just one of many things here that are so satisfying.
Laurence Fishburne is great as Morpheus. He’s kind of like the “wise mentor” type of character, except only the “Zen” personality is all that’s needed with him. It’s evident in his voice and especially his dialogue. As a result, he gets some of the best lines in the movie because of how quotable, yet also insightful, they are.
Then we have Carrie-Anne Moss as the love interest, Trinity. This character basically made her career, and rightfully so, because she is awesome in this movie. The personality she gives Trinity makes her a great example of a strong female character in an action movie. She’s very committed to her cause, is very loyal to her fellow rebels, and will not let anything stand in her way. She will not hesitate to take people down, as shown in the opening scene. That along with her skills in combat earn Trinity the same iconic status in regards to strong movie heroines as Ellen Ripley in Aliens and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Next is the best villain of the 90s other than the T-1000: Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. He’s among the Agent programs in the Matrix, who are designed to protect it from anything they deem a threat to the system. To say that Agent Smith is intimidating would be an understatement. He is unrelenting and ruthless, and although he does have backup, it’s the scenes that mainly focus on him where he stands out. Plus, he has a clear motivation, which is dedicated to a completely different agenda outside of his duties, and I thought that was clever because it fleshed him out as a character more. On top of all that, Hugo Weaving’s voice is so unsettling, and that might be what led him to become one of the “go-to” actors for villains, particularly the voice of Megatron in the first three Transformers movies and the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger.
The supporting cast are really good as well, even if a majority of them don’t have much screentime. The biggest one to mention is Joe Pantoliano as Cypher, because he’s in the movie the most of all of them, going so far as getting the first line of dialogue. He’s similar to the character of Obadiah Stane in Iron Man, where you like him at first, and then something happens where you may end up feeling it was wrong to do so.
Although some of the cast have smaller roles, their characters certainly do leave an impact regardless. The highlights of the supporting characters for me were Tank (who’s probably my favorite), his brother Dozer, and Mouse. The other two, Apoc and Switch, are in it the least of the bunch, but they’re worth mentioning due to having a couple significant moments of their own. There’s one other character in this movie that’s part of a key plot point. However, since they’re present in the sequels as well, I’ll save mentioning them for those reviews for two reasons: 1: They’re more prominent in the sequels, particularly the third movie, and 2: Going into it now would be a bit of a spoiler.
This movie would not only make several actors more well known, but it would do the same for writers/directors The Wachowski Brothers**. Although they hadn’t done anything of this scale before, while watching it, you can’t really tell because of how amazing it looks. Despite not having more flashy and stylistic approaches to things such as cinematography or set design, within the context of the story, the bleak setting and occasional green tint make sense here. Their direction is great, but it’s the story and script that really shine. They managed to create a fascinating world to expand upon later, craft a very complex story around it, and incorporate equally thought-provoking themes.
Now here’s what really defines this movie. The visual effects are so outstanding and would prove to be legendary, especially by 1999 standards (and for good reason). It made such an impact on the entertainment industry as a whole that it became both a landmark on how far we had come with visual effects at that time and a turning point for how further we could take them in the future. The main thing in regards to the effects is called “bullet time,” where a particular scene is in slow motion, but the camera moves normally at the same time. For a movie that’s now 20 years old, the effects still hold up remarkably well. To put all of that into perspective, all of the effort that went into these effects earned all of the recognition it received. It was nominated for four Oscars, and won every single one, even Best Visual Effects.
The action is just as revolutionary even today, because it’s incredible how action sequences and effects as phenomenal as these, which you’d think by now we’d have just been able to perfect, we were somehow able to accomplish in 1999. There are so many action scenes that stand out, but there are two that this movie is mostly known for. There’s the rooftop scene with Neo and Trinity fighting off Agents, which includes that shot of Neo dodging the bullets that was famously used in the trailer and parodied numerous times since. Then there’s the most well known one, which is the lobby shootout sequence leading up to that. It’s easy to see why, because for one thing, the buildup to that is great: Neo and Trinity get “Guns. Lots of guns.”, arm themselves, and make their entrance. Then the scene really kicks into high gear when they both look at each other before facing their enemies, and the moment they do, Propellerheads’s “Spybreak!” starts playing. The song fits the scene really well, so the excitement you feel from watching it is enhanced even more. That, and it’s one of several awesome songs on the soundtrack.
Speaking of the soundtrack, you also get songs from artists such as Rammstein, Rob Zombie, The Prodigy, and Rob Dougan. It most notably features Rage Against the Machine and Marilyn Manson as well. Their songs might be the two best ones for me, although I do like the Propellerheads and Rob Dougan songs, too. This was during the time when it was common for certain movies to have popular artists featured on the soundtrack, but this is one of the best examples of a soundtrack being used to fit the scenes in question.
Don Davis’s score, however, accompanies the movie perfectly. The best track comes after Morpheus tells Neo, “Welcome to the real world.” Right after that, the track of the same name starts playing, and how it flows throughout the scene is fantastic. It’s also great in the action scenes, and especially by the end of the movie.
Overall: The Matrix is a sci-fi classic that came ahead of its time, yet at the right time. You’d think at first glance that it looks like something we’d be more easily capable of pulling off now, with the look, the effects, the action, and everything in between, and that the technology we had then was not advanced enough for that. Then you watch it, and you come to realize it also came at the time when we were starting to use our technology more. It’s the best of both worlds: Smart sci-fi and exciting action at their finest.
It’s an experience that will blow you away with everything that went into it. Even now, it’s still astounding how it was done. From the outside, no one knew the cultural phenomenon it would become, let alone the legacy it would have, until they saw it. Without this movie, we wouldn’t have this decade’s version in the form of Inception, nor would we have its version of a Keanu Reeves action franchise in the form of John Wick, or the underrated sci-fi action movie known as Equilibrium.
As Morpheus would say, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” Even the marketing was done right. They used the “What is the Matrix?” scene, and then concluded with that quote in the trailer, making it look like he’s speaking to the audience when he’s actually speaking to Neo, and that is brilliant. It garnered hype for the movie, people wanted to know what it was, they saw it, and it lived up to the hype by delivering an awesome movie where the overall experience is very satisfying from start to finish.
Not only is it a sci-fi classic, it’s also an action classic. However, as a movie in general, The Matrix is a cinematic masterpiece. Although I described what it is in the movie as vaguely as I could, this is something that you really do have to see for yourself.
For those that somehow still haven’t seen it, instead of saying “What are you doing? Go out and watch it!”, I’m going to do a different version of it for you:
You take the blue pill, you miss out on something incredible, unlike anything that you’ve ever seen before.
You take the red pill, you get to witness it, and I guarantee you’ll be glad you did.
Where we go from there… is a choice I leave to you.
*No, not that one. This is much different from that, and I’ll get to that franchise later.
**Yes, I know that they use a different directorial credit now compared to this Trilogy and everything associated with it, but I’m using it as listed in the credits for consistency purposes, and because the reason for the difference is complicated for me to go into, although it was important that I at least acknowledge it.