THE MATRIX HAS YOU
Year is 1999, people are excited for the new millenium, biggest problem in the world is just a stupid computer bug. Some really think AI is gonna get us the moment we enter the 2000. Everyone has huge expectations from the new millenium. Beginning of a new year, a new century, a new millenium, e new era. We are leaving the 20th century, we will suddenly become future people in the year 2000. People were really hungry for technology and sci-fi in the late 90s. Internet is growing with a huge hype. Computer technologies are evolving faster than ever. Kids are playing new shiny 3D games with their new shiny graphic accelerator cards. The era of 2D is over, this is the era of 3D, era of Playstation and Nintendo 64. 90s were also the golden age of sci-fi. We got Terminator 2, Dark city, Gattaca, Ghost in the shell, Cowboy Bebop, Total Recall, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ and the neverending legend The Matrix. Came at the right time, right moment. Just when all the hype for sci-fi, technology and internet was at its peak. Just when people were really afraid of a stupid computer bug and didn't know shit about computers. Just when the terms "computer hacker" and "surfing on the web" were cooler than ever. What an ending for the 90s. A great era for sci-fi ends with the greatest sci-fi movie of all times. I was just a little kid when it came out, too young to remember anything.
I was a teenager, a middle schooler when I first watched the matrix. I did not understand the hype around it, did not understand the metaphore, the philosophy but I loved it. As a young teenager, give me a movie where people jump around and shoot each other while doing kung fu I couldn't care about anything else. And there was another thing that is really appealing about the movie. The vibe, that nostalgic feeling. That color grading, the visual effects, the music, costumes, the legendary Nokia 8110. Everything combined gives me a feeling that is hard to describe. Even though I watched the movie way after it came out, almost a decade later. It felt nostalgic even back then and definitely feels nostalgic today.
There are very few movies made the same impact The Matrix did. The Matrix is the prime example of cult films. The Matrix has a huge impact on popular culture. The metaphore of rabbit hole, the metaphore of red pill and the blue pill, metaphore of being a duracell battery. The philosophy behind is so vague it can be shown as an example for anything. It is not exactly vague but can be easliy misinterpreted. It is about the dogma vs skepticism, comfortable lies vs the harsh truth, being awake vs being high, the rigged system vs rebellion. Can be used by any group of people, any ideology. Because everyone thinks their reality is the only one that is true. Matrix is a movie that is appealing to almost everyone. Some love it because of the braindead action, some love it because of the nostalgia, some love it because of "muh redpill mindset" and philosophy, some love it because of the gun porn. I love it because it is The Matrix, have no idea why it makes me feel this way but i love it. Every line is so deep, every scene is full of details and art and all the action is a tribute to dozens of other movies. You can see details from many other sci-fi masterpieces. The Matrix so deeply infused into our culture you cannot spend a day without hearing a reference almost. It is the movie made the trenchcoats and sunglasses cool. A combination usually makes you look like a clown, but if you are Neo or Morpheus it is suddenly cool. The Matrix took whatever makes cyberpunk cool and combined them together. The floating green text from Ghost in the shell, the similarity between Trinity and the major, references of Neuromancer, even the name Matrix comes from the book, references of Akira, hacking the reality and other mindfuck, references of some other action movies etc. As the father of cyberpunk William Gibson says "The ultimate cyberpunk artifact."
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS
Two decades later, after the dream of new millenium has vanished and technology lost all of its magic, after the 9/11, after the Iraq war, after the birth of ISIS, dozens of global disasters and the covid, in the beginning of a new deacde another Matrix movie is on the way. I am not expecting the same old Matrix because we don't live in the same world anymore. 90s were relatively peaceful years in human history. Of course war, death, poverty still existed but there is no escape from those things. I don't remember the 90s, I was too young to remeber but this is what i see, after all the things happened in the 21st century I think people ived in the late 90s had their best times. And with the second and third movie Matrix kinda lost its magic anyways. I hope it is gonna be a good tribute to the old movie and at least gonna be an enjoyable one. I already know it is not gonna be the same movie without Morpheus, the real one. And i also know Hollywood is not the same Hollywood. 90s were the golden era of Hollywood to me. I grew up with 90s movies, i grew up with 90s cartoons and tv shows despite being a 2000s kid. My words are mostly biased but how can you objectively judge a movie anyways?
AN UPDATE FROM 19 JANUARY 2025
I was gonna write another post about Matrix but I decided to update this page instead. The matrix Resurrections, yes. How can I describe this abomination? I simply pretend it never came out. My expectations were low, but holy shit man, how can you fuck up this bad? Even all the CGI and action scenes were 10 times worse than the original Matrix. A movie came out in 1999 had better CGI, just how? I was expecting to get entertained and nothing else tbh, but watching the damn thing was a total misery.
First of all, the whole movie was total dogshit by design. It is obvious that Lana Wachowski just said "You want a new matrix movie? Alright, I am gonna make a movie that is so bad, people will stop asking for a new Matrix for many decades.". And she then pocketed that sweet sweet hollywood money. I can see why some people liked it, because the movie gave a middle finger to all that mass produced hollywood slop, by making a yet another mass produced, garbage hollywood slop. But I don't buy that. It was a slap in the face for the Matrix fans. It was a mockery of the whole franchise. And the worst of all, it made me lose some respect for the original movie. Maybe Lana Wachowski had no talent to begin with and she relied on his brother/sister or whatever.
The ending just sealed it all."We will make a new matrix and paint the whole sky into rainbow" or whatever the crap Trinity said. It just explains it all. Take the red pill, shove it up your ass. Give me my delicious blue pills and Benjamins, and I stop giving a shit about anything. Trinity being the chosen one, instead of Neo. The old programs from the Matrix coming back as shittier versions of themselves. Turning Morpheus into a clown faced pimp. And funny enough, the whole movie shows loads of blue pills Neo swallows and characters all wear blue, but not a single red pill is showed on screen. Yeah, that's what it is all about. Take your blue pilled hollywood slop and stop complaining.