Re-Examining The Matrix 20 Years Later
When The Matrix released in March 1999, it warped pop culture and the blockbuster film industry around its presence. Its blend of science fiction, technology, and philosophy would go on to have lasting impacts, despite the disappointing attempts of writer/director siblings The Wachowskis to recapture lighting in the subsequent bottles of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
The gravity of the sequels pulls conversations about the series in a very particular direction, which I hope to ignore(as much as possible) to focus on the self-contained narrative of The Matrix, with its dominating themes of reality, self, and technology.
What stands out most after first returning to the world of The Matrix is the amount of attention devoted to its aesthetic. The film clearly wants to convey sleek and cool, even to a fault — characters and relationships take a backseat to special effects and world-building. The mirroring effect on spoons and sunglasses still impresses, but does nothing to enhance the interactions or conflicts. The wire work and fight sequences fundamentally shifted audiences’ expectations for action. Much of the dialogue still feels quotable through its delivery, if a bit anemic in its content. With its intertwined use of meta-settings (the artificial world and the real), The Matrix rightly directs more-than-average attention to its…
