I know the sequels were not great, but the Wachowski brothers’ first Matrix movie was just great.
What were you thoughts when you first saw it?
I actually saw it 6 months after it came out, one of the latest theatrical viewings I ever had. I had to drive miles to find it. I’d avoided it because it sounded exactly the same as Dark City, a movie I’d seen and loved the year before.
While Dark City was great, I was wrong to avoid the Matrix. I have to admit, it’s a great movie and really was one of the best we’d had in years. I still consider it a major achievement. I don’t allow the sequels to drag it down, though I remember reading that Quentin Tarantino thought it was way more awesome until he saw the follow ups.
I thought it was pathetically bad with some of the worst lead acting ever seen. I laughed at it, it was so painfully dumb. It was terrible. I also am not a fan of bullet time.
I thought it was amazing, beautifully filmed, and clever. There were some absurd ideas, but nothing that took away from the experience. My one complaint is that the film’s blockbuster success caused the also-excellent The 13th Floor to be ignored.
The 13th Floor is one of my favorite movies ever. I think I have an under-appreciated movie thread somewhere about it. But I have a warm spot in my heart for The Matrix as well. Not the sequels, though.
Agreed, except that I didn’t think the ideas were absurd. I liked the way the film interfaced with much mystical philosophy, and the way they set up the situation, then explored it.
Above all (although I loved The 13th Floor* and Daniel F. Galouye’s novel it was based on, Simulacron-3), I love the way The Matrix did NOT get itself hung up on the “which level is reality” thing. Once Neo wakes up in the Real World, the only time there’s confusion is briefly in the “siumulation with the Woman in the Red Dress” scene.
*This is also true of the also-released-at-the-same-time David Cronenberg film eXistenZ
Completely underwhelmed. Given they hype, for some reason I thought it would be subtle, and I was mightily disapointed when it turned out to simply be yet another action flick.
Loved it. I saw it opening weekend on a whim and unspoiled. It really was a fantastically shot and thrilling flick. When I saw the fight scenes in Phantom Menace later that May, I realized Matrix’s fight scenes kind of ruined light saber duels for me for awhile. I mean, the sword work was so much better than the originals, but in light of all the kung fu and camera innovation of the Matrix: yawn.
I loved it. For me, the heroes jacking into the matrix captured the whole netrunning/cyberpunk feel that I hadn’t seen done really well in a movie before. I know its to dismiss bullet time these days, but to my recollection it was the first major usage of that effect that I recall.
It meets my ultimate test to an enjoyable movie - If I happen to find it playing on TV, will I stop and watch it. It’s a definite yes.
I must make a little guilty admission, I don’t mind the first sequel, that highway sequence is just outstanding. The second sequel not so much though.
I saw it with a friend on the opening afternoon. The theater was mostly empty at that time. We would often go to the movie theater without looking up the movies or start times, just show up and hope something good started soon. Neither of us had heard of this movie, but it looked ok based on the poster and it started a few minutes after we got there, so the Matrix was it. We were both blown away by it. We also got free popcorn and soda because another friend worked there and her boss was away, so that was a nice bonus. To this day it remains one of my favorite theater experiences.
I had mixed feelings, but it’s still one of my favorite movies.
There are some moments of pure awesome in the Matrix, especially the gunfight in the lobby of the agent’s building. There’s a sort of techno-mysticism that was an interesting take, and the casting/writing for the Oracle was inspired.
On the other hand, there’s the whole hacker mythos thing - other than tapping into some adolescent meme, it’s never really relevant that the characters are hackers. There’s some pretty weak acting. My personal tastes do not favor wushu martial arts bits, though it was less silly in the first movie than it became in the later ones.
Some other people have commented that the Matrix doesn’t hold up over time, and I’d definitely agree to that. The Matrix feels more dated to me than Star Wars does.
I saw it opening night. At one point, when the screen pans out to show the vast “fields” where humans were kept as “crops” I remember thinking that this was really a hard core science fiction movie, and I was thrilled.
Well, the snap-out cellphone Neo gets in the mail is kind of a tell, but since the inside-the-Matrix parts of the movie are ostensibly set specifically in 1999 (or what the machines seem to assume is a reasonably accurate simulation of western urban human society circa 1999), I can forgive it.
The later movies did the most to undermine any lasting impact Matrix had, I figure, by showing us what was behind the curtain and it not making a damn bit of sense.
At the end of movie two, when Neo somehow has powers, I was convinced that the computer had done a reality within a reality simulation. For those that didn’t want the paradise, there was something to struggle against. I was disappointed in what they did with it instead and felt the philosophy became too muddled for its own good.
However, back to the OP, I was blown away by the first movie when I saw it opening weekend in the theater. I can still watch it and will often go to the lobby scene or other action scenes on the DVD.
I still think its the best sci-fi action flick of all time. I still remember how blown away I was watching the first chase-scene with Trinity and the Agents.
There was some decent stuff in the sequels, but sadly they were surrounded by too much suck to be any good. I saw an outline of a fan-edit that got one good movie out of the two sequels, which seemed like it would be pretty good.
I distinctly remember “The Matrix” on the marquis of the theater that I waited outside for tickets for the Star Wars prequel. It really stole some thunder from Ep.1, but whatever, it’s actually much better. I don’t remember when or where I first saw it, but it’s one of my favorite movies. A real masterpiece, especially in the cinematography. How it didn’t even nominated in that category is beyond me.