# The Matrix came out 15 years ago today. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041 "2014-04-01T01:48:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/41 "2014-04-02T09:31:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s on my DVD, and I am pretty sure I bought that in 1999 or 2000. It wasn’t in the original run of the US version at least, is all I can tell you. It might have been added sooner than I thought, but IMDB confirms it wasn’t in the original run (which I have a copy of). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/42 "2014-04-02T14:30:58Z")
I’m pretty sure there were two tints intentionally used in The Matrix. The world inside the matrix was green-tinted, and the real world on the Nebuchadnezzar was blue-tinted. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/43 "2014-04-02T14:45:08Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > If you watch the original release, there’s no “sickly green cast” to the movie. Unfortunately, they added it in the re-releases following the sequels, unfortunately. Had the green look when I saw it in 1999. Do you have a cite for them adding later? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/44 "2014-04-02T16:24:58Z")
[This article](http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/the-matrix-visual-comparison.html) has comparison shots showing the picture changes made for the 2004 DVD release that brought it into better visual alignment with the sequels. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/45 "2014-04-02T16:47:49Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > [This article](http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/the-matrix-visual-comparison.html) has comparison shots showing the picture changes made for the 2004 DVD release that brought it into better visual alignment with the sequels. Looks to me like there was always a faint green tint, and they just cranked it up to eleven for the DVD re-release. Look at Carrie-Anne Moss in the first set of pics. In the first two, she looks faintly sea sick. In the third, she looks like a lizard person. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/46 "2014-04-02T16:57:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Had the green look when I saw it in 1999. Do you have a cite for them adding later? > [@](#): > > Most later DVD versions have had color-filtering applied, giving the real-world scenes a blue tint and scenes within the Matrix a green tint. > **[The Matrix (1999) - Alternate versions - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/alternateversions/)** > > The Matrix (1999) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... > [@](#): > > The retroactive color processing that was done for the initial trilogy release – to make the scenes inside the Matrix look more green and the ones in the real world more blue, in keeping with the style of the later films – remains true to the directors’ vision and earlier problems with color bleed or patchiness in the SD version are non-existent. > **[The Matrix 10th Anniversary Blu-ray Review - IGN](https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/08/the-matrix-10th-anniversary-blu-ray-review)** > > It may be hard now to isolate The Matrix from its two lesser sequels (not to mention all the spoofs, parodies and knockoffs that have come along since), but this original mind-bending film was the very definition of cool when it came out back in... So it seems the tint may have existed originally, but was made more pronounced in the rereleases ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/47 "2014-04-03T04:30:21Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > 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. Same here. I actually liked Reloaded. Taken on its own merits, it’s a first rate action flick, but I think it gets dragged down in a lot of people’s minds because of hard Revolutions sucked. If Revolutions had delivered on some of the more interesting ideas brought up in Reloaded and hadn’t tried tying up everything in such a perfunctory manner, I believe Reloaded would be held in a lot higher esteem. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/48 "2014-04-03T14:13:23Z")
I loved the first Matrix movie, held and continue to hold it as one of my favorite movies and I rewatch it every few months. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/49 "2014-04-03T19:08:35Z")
I’m surprised at the negative reaction to _The Matrix_, and especially to the “Loved it at first, but hate it now” ones. I still love the film. If you didn’t know anything about it, the whole sequence after the “blue pill or red pill” is the sort of Universe Opening Up/Sense of Wonder thing that’s so rare in science fiction, comparable to the opening of the door in Dr. Morbius’ study into the Krel laboratory in **Forbidden Planet** or the change of scale at the end of each of the Lensman books – in each case you’re suddenly exposed to a world that is much bigger and stranger, with many more possibilities, a world that is very different from what you’ve supposed reality to be. The “humans as batteries” explanation was absurd, of course, but I’ll forgive it, because it allows the rest of the film to proceed. I wasn’t that fond of the sequels, but I must admit that I liked the intro to the second, the Burly Brawl (with the infinite Agent Smiths), despite its failings, and the entire section from the entry into the Merovingian’s club until the Truck Crash is one extremely long, wonderfully done action sequence that almost makes up for the overly long and boring Zion scenes. ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/50 "2014-04-03T20:45:49Z")
All this talk of “jacking in” and “netrunning” have me pining for a Neuromancer movie (I just twitched sadly at the thought of Johnny Mnemonic… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/51 "2014-04-03T21:25:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m surprised at the negative reaction to _The Matrix_, and especially to the “Loved it at first, but hate it now” ones. I still love the film. If you didn’t know anything about it, the whole sequence after the “blue pill or red pill” is the sort of Universe Opening Up/Sense of Wonder thing that’s so rare in science fiction, comparable to the opening of the door in Dr. Morbius’ study into the Krel laboratory in **Forbidden Planet** or the change of scale at the end of each of the Lensman books – in each case you’re suddenly exposed to a world that is much bigger and stranger, with many more possibilities, a world that is very different from what you’ve supposed reality to be. This. I don’t know why I knew nothing about the movie going in - usually I know way too much - but I saw _The Matrix_ cold and was blown away when Neo woke up in reality. When I heard there was a sequel, I wrote a long speculation about how they’d discover that the “real world” was yet another Matrix, expanding on Smith’s speech that humans can’t be happy so there’s a series a grungier worlds for the malcontents; you can’t cut it in post-Apocalyptic Zion? Here’s an irradiated wasteland with giant insects - happy now? No, how about…? With Neo - being the one - working thru various fake realities until he really does find the real world, which is one giant machine-run megalopolis, and the machines/AIs aren’t bad or evil or even using us for power, but rather using the Matrix to evolve us away from the violent, selfish beings we were to the benevolent wise beings we created them to be. Then I saw the actual sequels… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/52 "2014-04-03T21:51:55Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > This. I don’t know why I knew nothing about the movie going in - usually I know way too much - but I saw _The Matrix_ cold and was blown away when Neo woke up in reality. I saw it the same way. I don’t remember hearing about it at all prior to when it actually hit theatres, I think we actually ended up going to see it because we arrived late for the movie we’d planned to see. Maybe the hype-vortex surrounding Episode One’s release a month later swamped all available hype-delivery avenues. (also, glancing at wikipedia’s “1999 in film” page to recall what month the Matrix was released, 1999 was kind of a crazy good year for movies. I don’t think there’s been a year since that has had as many good, innovative films released.) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/53 "2014-04-03T22:40:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m surprised at the negative reaction to _The Matrix_, and especially to the “Loved it at first, but hate it now” ones. I think I’m a bit more in a “liked it a fair bit, now am somewhat indifferent to it” category. But I really think it is a bit less the film itself, than the effect of the sequels which I just never liked much at all. I’m kind of like those former **Lost** fans that can’t re-watch the series because of the ending. And oddly enough, I am _not_ that kind of **Lost** fan :D. I dunno overexposure + sequels have made it lose its allure for me. I still think it is an _objectively_ good film and I own it on DVD, I just don’t really bother re-watching it on cable when I run across it channel-surfing. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/54 "2014-04-03T23:58:48Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > This. I don’t know why I knew nothing about the movie going in - usually I know way too much - but I saw _The Matrix_ cold and was blown away when Neo woke up in reality. When I heard there was a sequel, I wrote a long speculation about how they’d discover that the “real world” was yet another Matrix, expanding on Smith’s speech that humans can’t be happy so there’s a series a grungier worlds for the malcontents; you can’t cut it in post-Apocalyptic Zion? Here’s an irradiated wasteland with giant insects - happy now? No, how about…? With Neo - being the one - working thru various fake realities until he really does find the real world, which is one giant machine-run megalopolis, and the machines/AIs aren’t bad or evil or even using us for power, but rather using the Matrix to evolve us away from the violent, selfish beings we were to the benevolent wise beings we created them to be. > > Then I saw the actual sequels… :smack: This is very nearly my reaction. The movie was so good and innovative in so many ways, and then saddled with this utterly ridiculous “batteries” idea, that I was sure that at the end of the movie there would be a twist in which that whole thing was a lie and in fact the machines were keeping the humans in the matrix for SOME other, more interesting, more plausible reason. And then there was no such twist, so I was sure there would be one in the sequels. And then, well, you can guess the rest. It’s rare that my enjoyment of a film could be so vastly improved by about 5 lines of changed dialog. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/55 "2014-04-04T00:26:40Z")
I saw it for the first time as a blurry VCD bootleg and a few times after that as a decent quality DVD but forgot about it for a decade until I had the chance recently to see it performed with a live symphony orchestra. Everyone’s right about a lot of it not holding up and some of it being extremely stupid but, in the end, it doesn’t matter. After seeing it recently, I remember thinking that the movie it most reminds me of recently is Pacific Rim. What makes it such a great movie after all this time is that, for all it’s dark brooding philosophizing, it’s not afraid to just have fun and pull out majorly cool set pieces. That scene in the lobby with the dozen soldiers? Awesome. The dojo fight? Awesome. “Dodge this”? Awesome. The film managed to be a major cultural touchstone for a generation of people. Watching it with my friends in a massive orchestral hall filled with people inspired by that movie to pursue the path they are on today was a profound experience. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/56 "2014-04-04T01:32:47Z")
I was suprised at how bad it was given the hype. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/57 "2014-04-04T01:45:35Z")
I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I would have liked more of the living oblivious in an illusion vs. choosing reality theme and less of the “I’m the one” messiah. And Keanu was not the right person for the part. Too much stupid left over from Bill and Ted. ---
**Author:** ![Marks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@Marks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marks)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/58 "2014-04-04T19:27:18Z")
I enjoyed movie The Matrix, and I still enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/59 "2014-04-04T19:30:59Z")
For having such a horribly stupid premise (possibly the worst science fiction concept ever), it was pretty damn entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041/60 "2014-04-04T19:42:31Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > For having such a horribly stupid premise (possibly the worst science fiction concept ever), it was pretty damn entertaining. Which premise do you mean? If you’re referring to “humans as batteries” then I definitely agree. Most of the rest of the premise is reasonably solid, though. Personally, I’ve mentally rewritten the script so that people are not used as batteries, they’re used as “non-logic units” in the computers. The computers can’t solve all of their problems via silicon and AI. So people in the Matrix perceive that they are just living their lives, but even the drone flipping burgers at McDonald’s is actually part of a distributed creative process, such as building a new prototype machine or programming a new sunset. (It’s like how the modern SETI at home program looks like a screen-saver, but is actually searching for ET.) Or, my backup alternative explanation is that machines were forced to reconcile two conflict imperatives. One imperative said “Conquer the humans” and the other imperative said “Serve the humans.” So they conquered us and then put us in a Matrix environment so that we wouldn’t mind being conquered. Win-win, except for those pesky Neo types who figure it out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix-came-out-15-years-ago-today/685041.md?page=4)