Release Date: March 31, 1999
What's It About: Humans live in a virtual digital world built to enslave their minds while their bodies are held in employment by artificial intelligence. The story follows one man who is capable of freeing them from their mental and physical prisons.
The Good: This film changed the sci-fi and action film genres. It uses various cinematic techniques to enhance impact, as well as fast, dramatic cuts to hype scenes up. This film ushered in the use of CGI to augment action and bring it to surreal highs never seen before on film. The film takes place in a very richly-developed universe, on the level of anime in terms of scope, and for fans of world-building it cannot get better than this. There are also very heady philosophical themes at play, which is something you do not find often in modern Hollywood blockbusters. This film invites you to think as well as watch.
The Bad: In spite of the heavy themes, there isn't a very thick plot. I suppose there wasn't a whole lot to work with since the first hour of the film is world-building and setting, which was necessary to set the tone, leaving the key parts of the narrative to be dumped on the viewer as exposition. Keanu Reeves (Neo) isn't a very good actor, but this awkwardness works in the first half and grounds him as a normal guy reacting to abnormal situations. As Neo, this becomes less convincing.
Best Performance: Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. She fits into her role perfectly, blending a slightly off-kilter feminine charm with her badass prowess with guns and physical brute force.
Should I Watch It: If you are a fan of science-fiction, and particularly stories of artificial intelligence and machines, cyberpunk anime, or anything with heavy existential themes, then this is required viewing. If you enjoy Wuxia films and want something similar in an unconventional setting, then try this out. In terms of action films, even today, this is among the best you can get. I consider this film and its sequels to be the closest a live-action film has ever come to successfully adapting the Japanese anime look and feel.
Post-Credits Scene: No
Similar Films: Ghost in the Shell (1995), Akira (1988), Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), Terminator 1 and 2 (1984 and 1991)
Trailer:
One of my favourite movies! I'm 23 and it surprises me a lot that some 16-20 year olds don't know about the Matrix movie existense
It's true; I hope I can raise awareness of more great movies of the past!
Matrix! The Real Classic. It's a great illustration of how a computer system works. The actors were good...
Hugo Weaving as Agent smith(the virus). The movie is one of my all time great
Thank you all for the comments! I would also like to add as an addendum to this post that Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith character is also an utterly fantastic performance: His vile hatred of humanity is painted all over his face and every action he takes is in the pursuit of his desire to rid the world of humankind. Just thought I should add that!
I love this film. A technologically stunning movie that furthers the genre and features crowd-pleasing performances to go with the frequent scenes of gunplay and violence. A must-see among genre fans, especially guys in their teens and 20s, for whom the script's pretentious mumbo-jumbo of undergraduate mythology, religious mysticism and technobabble could even be a plus rather than a dramatic liability.
Thank you for sharing
Definitely a defining film of the genre, and honestly one of the few science fiction films that is ambitious and daring enough to respect the viewer's intelligence in the modern era
love it, but wait a moment, i have no reason for love this movie
but still i love it and watched so many times.
That lobby scene tho
Awesome movie i watch this movie many times!!
classic! one of my all time faves
this was my best movie that year waas so sweet i watch it over and over
Very good Film I like it :)
amazing films remain interesting to watch anytime even though it has been long produced.
This movie pretty much sums up the hypothesis of simulation theory. Since this movie countless scientific papers have been written on the subject and some physicists have come to the conclusion that the chances of us living in a simulation are probably higher than us not living in one.
One of my fav movies
I haven't watched it but I sure have heard a lot about it! I'll watch it sometime :)
Lately I've been watching this TV series called 'The Last Ship' and I really like it. I was doubtful when I watched the first two episodes of season 1 (since the plot is centred around a virus outbreak which causes world annihilation and I don't like such themes AT ALL) but then as it progressed I really liked it a lot as I got to see the life of Navy officers (well, all of it might not be real) and lots of really nice action and strategies. Looks like you are a movie connoisseur, check it out if you like TV series too:) Nice idea of an account, by the way 🙂
I like this post, you have my vote, by the way,
thank you for stopping by and voting on one of my post
really appreciate it.I started following you @mannyfig1956
One of my favourite movies. The original movie for testing 5.1 systems!
Congratulations @movieperminute! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPBest movie in history.
To bad that both directors went mad and turned them self's into women
Yes, it was a great film, one that changed the environment for action movies. Pure sci-fi, very well-made, with great effects. Personally, I found the plot very interesting: when considering all the plot point made in the first two films,
there is a ton of parallels and explanations that can be given about it. For me, it was like a metaphor for computer programming and bug-hunting! The 3rd film does not belong, was just cinematics from a video-game!
As for the best performance I have to say it was Hugo Weaving. His acting was perfectly suited to the peculiar character he played, and it helped to give the viewer that weird feeling whenever the antagonist (Agent Smith) showed up.
+1