Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you couldn’t awaken? How would you know the difference between dream and reality? When a beautiful stranger (Moss) leads computer hacker Neo (Reeves) to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth – the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence. Neo joins legendary and dangerous rebel warrior Morpheus (Fishburne) in the battle to destroy the illusion enslaving humanity.
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When thinking back on iconic movies, The Matrix has to be in the conversation. Inventing the phrase “bullet-time,” this movie redefined what visual effects could do. But, more than 25 years after its release, would it still hold up? Or was this, like so many things, better back then?
Keanu Reeves takes the lead role in The Matrix. While viewers now know he can be a great action star (John Wick), back then the only action hit he had under his belt was Speed, which seemed to be just a flash in the pan (or the addition of Sandra Bullock), as his follow-ups, Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction, didn’t garner the same praise. Here, he is still transitioning from his character from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and the filmmakers use that, turning him from “Whoa” to legitimate action star. He’s still in the process of that here, so thankfully, he’s got some backup.
He’s backed up by a stellar cast, including Laurence Fishburne as the iconic Morpheus, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, Joe Pantoliano as Cypher and Hugo Weaving as the insidious Agent Smith. They all deliver head-turning performances in The Matrix, really bringing out the human emotion in this high-tech flick. Without them to support Reeves’ Neo, this film probably wouldn’t have struck the same nerve it did. They lead viewers “down the rabbit hole” – and the viewer is only too eager to follow.
While the special effects get most of the credit for the success behind The Matrix, there is a solid story here as well. With AI more involved in daily life, and computer games getting more and more complicated, the idea that AI could take over humanity like this becomes less fantastical each and every day. This idea, that humanity will create its own destruction, is a theme that is played out again and again in films, and this particular one just seems to worm its way into the viewer’s head. Heck, there are still forums of people that believe The Matrix is real – that’s how effective the story is.
Of course, what sticks in the viewer’s mind first and foremost when thinking about The Matrix has to be the visual effects. Creating the whole concept of “bullet time” is a big feather in the filmmakers cap, and watching agents dodge bullets in slow-motion is still just as exciting as ever. Then there’s the way the heroes (and agents) are able to bend the laws of nature to their advantage. From the first scene of Trinity running across a wall, then leaping an impossible distance and diving with precision through a tiny window, viewers know they are going to be in for a visual treat, and they aren’t disappointed. Even more than a quarter of a century later, these stand up as solid as when this first hit theaters.
With a stellar cast helping out a still learning Keanu Reeves, an engaging storyline, and mind-blowing special effects, it’s no wonder that viewers were big fans of this first film in the series. While later films may have dropped the ball, The Matrix is still a standout in dystopian sci-fi, and continues to impress, no matter if it’s the first viewing or the umpteenth.
