The Matrix: 20th Anniversary

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The Matrix hit its 20th anniversary, originally released on 1999-03-31. This has always been, and continues to be, one of my favourite movies.

Things It Did Well

It hit the note on many elements of a good film:

  • Guns used stylistically as weapons, i.e. gun-fu
  • Kung-fu and choreographed fight scenes
  • Sci-fi with technological singularity and AI
  • Philosophical quandaries and thought provoking concepts that weren’t fed to the viewer
  • Leather and latex
  • Music

Many of these points already existed in Hong Kong cinema since the late 80’s, notably the action films directed by John Woo. The Matrix was one of the first North American films to bring this style to the mainstream.

Did It Age Well

I rewatched the film on Netflix and was very impressed. It has definitely aged well and would even be able to hold its own against films produced in recent years.

Special Effects

Nowadays you praise a film for using practical effects. This film came out in a time when CGI was still immature and you couldn’t just fix everything in post-production. This results in many practical effects and stages, which we know to age well. The fight scenes, the shoot-out scenes, etc.

There’s quite a bit of CGI in the film:

  • Sentinels
  • Bullet-time
  • Matrix “code”
  • Agents taking over bodies

I’m pleased to say these effects have held up very well. Like seriously well. The only instance where I saw early 2000’s-era CGI was when Agent Smith exploded. Every other use of CGI was minimal and blended very well into the scene. It’s as if they stayed well within their technological limits and made great use of what they had available.

If this movie were made today, it can certainly make use of more modern CGI techniques. But I think it would be gratuitous and not likely to have bearing on the final product. It’s very similar to how Jurassic Park is touted as having great effects and Spielberg knew how to work with constraints at the time.

Plot

Technology has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Yet, this film still manages not to seem too outdated.

  • They’re using sweet slide-out phones and it doesn’t seem very out of place with 2019.
  • The real world of 2099 is still futuristic
  • The computer hacking (albeit not accurate) is not outdated at well. The tropes seen could very well show up in a upcoming blockbuster.

Overall

I would whole-heartedly recommend this to any that have not yet seen it. And to rewatch for those that saw this years ago, it’s still a fun ride.