The Archive: The Matrix (1999)

I can't name a movie more 'nineteen-nineties' than The Matrix, so quintessentially ingrained in the culture, both the inspiration and the malaise, of the last years of that millennium. Few movies have been so inspirational to the action movie genre, with camera techniques, special effects, and aesthetics to push the boundaries of what the movie-consuming public expects of its Big Summer Blockbusters. Few movies have had as many philosophy majors writing books upon essays upon dissertations on the philosophical constructs within a movie about people with leather, vinyl, explosion and gun fetishes. Few movies can be summed up by the single word, "Whoa."

Though I doubt very highly by now that anyone's missed out on The Matrix, it's still a part of my Archive, and deserves every square millimeter of space on my shelf. If you didn't see it when it was new, or in the decade-plus since its release, you may either have been too young to remember its release, or you simply do not watch sci-fi action movies. This post will not be a review beyond a brief plot summary, since it is such an old and widely loved movie. This post will instead be about how well The Matrix stands up after more than a decade of over-analysis, of reference, of parody, and of inspiring newer movies to do better.

For those unaware of The Matrix's plot, it is the logical mix of Hackers, Equilibrium, and Dark City. Big-name hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) is picked by the mysterious Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to save the human race from AI; he learns that the world around him he took as real is in fact an elaborate simulation of the year 1999, the so-called peak of human civilization (a statement that only makes sense in 1999, and probably not even then). From there, it's mostly a series of excuses to get into gunfights in clothing far too tight to allow for such movements, and showing off cool set pieces like the 'mind fields' and Morpheus's hovercraft.

Naturally, fans of the movie, the aforementioned philosophers, desperately want there to be more to The Matrix than simply vinyl and violence. There are Buddhist underpinnings, Christian interpretations, discussions of choosing difficult freedom over simple slavery, and far more. Layers and layers of symbolism and implied character elements litter the screen and dialog at every given moment. Like a fine wine, you can get drunk off it, or you can delicately sample and savor its tastes; however, wine, when over-processed, turns to vinegar - and in the warped world where this analogy makes sense, the movie, when over-analyzed, starts to lose its simple, gun-kata in leather pants appeal. Did The Matrix need to be about Cyber-Jesus to have an impact on the movie-making industry or the populous? No. But does it enrich the experience if you know to look for the symbolism? Maybe.

I say 'Maybe' because the symbolism mostly deals with unanswerable philosophical questions that irritate me personally, and may irritate you. Gems like 'Can we fight fate?', 'What happens to us when we die?', 'What will you do for freedom?', 'What is truth and how can we discover it?', very fundamental questions of our existence, our purpose, crammed and shoehorned into a chase scene with gunfights against enemies with instant respawn times. The juxtaposition of heavy action and heavy philosophy mesh as two sets of gears, one from a watch and one from a clock tower - you can see how they could go together, but both the film and the viewer end up focusing on one or the other without much by way of smooth transition. There are hard walls between the philosophical parts and the action parts, and the lines where those two areas overlap are pretty glaring to say the least.

Which brings me to the 'love' story, which must exist in all movies by law. Normally I am ambivalent towards love interests - some are alright, but I can take the concept or leave it as appropriate to the story. Even if the entire plot hinges on two people getting together, if the chemistry is there, if the likability of the couple is there, if the story is made more enjoyable as a result, then it's totally fine. When your plot relies on The Power of Love to save the main character from death? In a world where straight-up magic isn't A Thing That Exists (at least until later in the series, which is a whole other post)? Yeah. I get that it's supposed to be touching, but the chemistry between Neo and butt-kicking heroine Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is in some other movie, in some other world. Of the glaring weirdness that peppers this otherwise amazing movie, the use of an old, as in older than rocks old, fairy tale trope of a true love kiss with magic curative powers has to be the most obnoxious.

I love The Matrix. I love it for its flaws in storytelling as much for its majesty of visual style. I love it for being one of the most influential movies ever, and one of the most over-thought movies ever. There are better action movies, and far better cyberpunk movies, but very few are so formative to both genres.

WATCH IF YOU LIKE: Lots of black leather/vinyl, some of the original revolutionary gun kata fights, high re-watch value based on the layers of the plot and setting

SKIP IF YOU DISLIKE: Cyber punk and by extension art major biology/computing (though this is the fault of studio execs, not the writers themselves), action movies that take themselves too seriously, a really ludicrous 'love' story

THE FINAL VERDICT: Buy. Even if you don't like The Matrix for its own sake, it's worth at least seeing so you can see where every action movie in the last decade got its ideas.

IMDB's page for The Matrix.