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.

The Archive: Dark City (1998)

The Archive is going to be a regular feature here on Stacking The Deck, wherein I go through the numerous movies in my collection. These aren't new movies, so they're not listed under regular Reviews, but they're still all worth buying for a variety of different reasons. Some you may have heard of, some you may have not, but every movie I talk about in The Archive is worth buying, or at least watching repeatedly. 

Dark City is a loving, twisted homage to every noir trope in history, moody and bleak and oppressively creepy. Everything from the perpetual night to the ominous music, the familiar yet corrupt architecture, the tortured characters. Though not a horror movie, it certainly lays on the paranoia and the horrific imagery and concepts - hardly any gore, though, since as established, this is no low-brainpower slasher flick. You will need a brain to appreciate this movie, even though the opening narration holds massive spoilers thanks to some doofus at New Line; I strongly suggest you mute the narration or get the Director's Cut to fully appreciate the narrative that unfolds. I will avoid as many spoilers as possible in this review.