Matrix Review

What I liked: The Matrix was the movie during middle school. It’s pervasive influence has persisted ever since: you know we all took matrix pictures on the ironing boards in the MTC. Now that I’ve seen it I suddenly recognize many many more references to this film than I ever realized and I get them all. Not only that but this was the landmark film with the what is reality premise; Inception, Source Code, Minority Report, and Tron, all children of the Matrix. Matrix was also revolutionary in special effects and the dystopia which had been roughly the same since Planet of the Apes (given the current glut of dystopian films and fiction I don’t know if I actually appreciate this). I mention all of this because I have seen so many movies influenced by the Matrix that seeing their inspiration was pretty cool. For being almost 20 years old, the Matrix is a really good movie. The premise is cool, it would probably have been cooler if I didn’t already know from 20 years of spoilers what happens. The leather trench coat which was much much cooler in the 2000’s has aged well and is still pretty cool. The shootout and the helicopter both very cool. The evil spiders I could do without; monster trilobites are things that I imagine much more at home in the Jurassic Park world than in the cool hovercraft world. The fight scenes were pretty good though I will say 20 years of expectations made me expect a little more from the bullet dodging scene.  

What I didn’t: Let’s start with the philosophical, why is it that in all the movies where villains get to create a reality that the people under their control encounter and accept from birth they always choose something approximating the real world? If they are starting with babies they don’t have to fool anyone. Do they really just have that little imagination? Next some practical questions. If the bad guys are essentially computer code, how do they pose a threat to people not inside a computer? Heat seeking missiles, threat; tracking my avatar’s IP address, not a threat. Also how does a tracker planted on someone’s avatar have any influence on finding the physical version of them? It’s just that this is a big world and we have this tiny little code, I just don’t know how well this plan was thought through. If everyone one in the resistance goes to visit the Oracle it seems like the best plan would be to set up a sting outside her apartment. Just sit there all sneaky like and then pop out like the men in black. Yeah, who decided that the bad guys always look like the men in black? They would be much sneakier if they did some cool shape shifting action liquid terminator style. Every time a dude turns into someone from the men in black, I think huh that’s not inconspicuous. Also who decided that the only phones that work to get in and out of the computer are landlines? If that’s true why doesn’t the computer just eliminate all land lines? Or is that the reason that now people only have cell phones? If you are trying to escape the matrix now good luck, You will have to run to the next city to find another land line. Finally, some notes on the film. Most of the characters were pretty flat and the love story was blah. The CG hasn’t aged well it has that blue tinge that the early CG gets. It’s not terrible but certainly dates it. I was very disappointed in the soundtrack. In my mind it should have been as cool as the movie, maybe with some cool techno computery sounds. It wasn’t. The only passable part was probably the shoot out scene but it still wasn’t great.

Who should watch this: I should have about 15 years ago. It’s a solid SciFi action movie with some pretty good thinking elements. There is some strong language, not worse than Top Gun, but noticeable.

Would I watch it again: Yep, glad I watched it and I wouldn’t mind watching it again but if I want to watch evil giant spiders and the end of the world I might do Edge of Tomorrow instead.