10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Matrix, 25 Years Later: People rightly think that The Matrix is one of the most important sci-fi action movies ever, but some things about it haven’t held up over time.
- The Matrix is still one of the most important sci-fi movies of all time, but some parts of it hold up better than others when watched again 25 years later.
- At its core, the Wachowskis’ mind-bending thriller is still a classic high-class action movie with scenes and plots that are better than many current blockbusters. Still, even though it has a lot of good points, there are times when it shows that no movie, no matter how important, is perfect.
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10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Matrix, 25 Years Later
- A great combination of high-concept sci-fi and amazing action made The Matrix a hit. Based on the idea that the world is just a dream, the movie follows the journey of hacker Thomas Anderson (a.k.a. Neo), who joins a group of rebels fighting against the Machines to free all of humanity.
- As Neo’s eyes open, he learns more about how humans are being enslaved and gets into a fight with the evil Agent Smith. Some of the most amazing and original action scenes and moments in movie history are set up in this story. But even with these strong points, The Matrix isn’t perfect.
10. Morpheus and his crew really are a threat to people.
Agent Smith says that the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar is a “terrorist” and “possibly the most dangerous man alive” before he even meets Neo and the viewers. Since Smith is the main bad guy and Morpheus’ job is to free people, it’s easy to think that this conversation is just Machine advertising.
But the truth is that Morpheus and his team are really dangerous to people, even though he means well. Since every person in the Matrix is connected, any injuries they get in the game show up on their bodies in the real world. Throughout the movie, Morpheus and his team kill dozens of people, even though they are just pawns for the Machines.
They do this without caring that they are part of a bigger fight. Of course, because of the Matrix’s ownership rules, all of them could be Agents. Even so, Morpheus spends a lot of the movie killing other humans, even though he acts like a fighter for humanity.
9. The CGI in The Matrix Doesn’t Look Good Now
When The Matrix came out in 1999, its visual effects were praised as being ahead of their time. However, some of the movie’s most impressive VFX shots don’t seem as impressive when compared to those in current blockbusters 25 years later.
Scenes like the helicopter crash, where the building’s windows bend in ways that don’t make sense, are the worst offenders. The fact that the movie’s practical effects still look great, like in the fight scene in the hallway, makes these parts feel even worse. They draw attention to problems in other areas.
8. Bullet Time isn’t as cool as it used to be
The Matrix’s famous fight scene, Neo’s bullet time sequence, doesn’t look as good as it used to. This is another example of bad effects. Some of the images are stylized on purpose, but the bullet trails and Neo’s frantic arm flailing don’t seem as impressive now as they did when the scene was first shown.
The bullet time scenes are still a unique part of the look of The Matrix. In spite of this, some parts of the result don’t seem as revolutionary as they did before.
7. Cypher’s story about the bad guy doesn’t make sense.
Hugo Weaving is great as the crazy Agent Smith, but Joe Pantoliano is great as Cypher, who is another great bad guy in The Matrix. However, Cypher’s plot doesn’t make much sense after thinking about it, even though Pantoliano gave a great performance.
He can’t seem to plug himself in without any help, which is the main problem with how his first meeting with Smith was supposed to happen at the steak restaurant. The fact that he told Smith to “remember nothing” means that he has no way of keeping his word. His story does put people in danger, but it doesn’t hold up when looked at more closely.
6. There are some big problems in the world of machines.
One of the most shocking parts of The Matrix is when Neo wakes up from his sleep and finds himself in the Machines’ “real” world. At the same time scary and amazing, this scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie right away.
But it also has some very big issues. It doesn’t make sense for him to be able to move around and look around right away since he has spent his whole life in partial suspended animation. Also, it’s still not clear why the spider-like Machine doesn’t kill him and all the other revived humans as soon as they wake up.
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5. People’s plan to stay alive was doomed to fail from the start.
Morpheus tells Neo that humanity’s plan to “scorch the sky” and cut off the Machines’ source of sun power during the Great War against AI didn’t work. At first glance, though, this idea seems to have a lot of problems. Some of the Machines may have depended on the sun, but so does every other living thing on Earth.
Because of this, turning off its light would have been just as bad for people as it was for the Machines. Also, since Earth has a lot of other energy sources, thinking that the Machines would stop right away without the sun seems, at best, hopeful.
4. The sequels threw away some great characters
The Matrix movies have a lot of things that let me down. One thing that is quickly clear when watching the original movie again is that replacing Tank after he seems to be alive was a bad idea. He acts like a rogue as an operator, which makes him instantly likable—much more so than Harold Perrineau’s Link in The Matrix Reloaded. While Apoc, Dozer, and Switch were all immature, it was a huge mistake that Tank wasn’t shown more in later Matrix movies.
3. The machine’s plan for the matrix doesn’t make sense.
The main idea behind The Matrix—that reality is a simulation—is definitely a clever story device. It becomes clear, though, that the Machine’s plan to take control is flawed after some light digging below the surface.
One problem is how clear the program seems to be. Anyone paying attention would see right away that something is wrong when Agents are around because they can enter and leave bodies at will. Also, it’s not completely clear why the Machines would need a Matrix in the first place. Since people are already trapped in their pods and can’t get out, making a shared artificial reality seems like too much.
2. Was Cypher Kind Of… Right?
It’s shocking and angry that Cypher betrayed the Nebuchadnezzar team. But now that I think about it, his plan isn’t completely bad. He is right when he says that life in the real world is pretty bad because there isn’t enough food, it’s dirty, and people are always scrounging to stay alive.
In the Matrix, on the other hand, there is a certain amount of freedom and the chance to live a truly happy life, even if it is a fake one. Even though it might not fit with the main idea of freedom and liberty in The Matrix, Cypher does make some strangely important points.
1. The Matrix Is One Of The Biggest Wasted Opportunities In Movie History
The most important thing to remember about a second viewing of The Matrix is that it is still a great science fiction movie. It’s really thought-provoking and fun, and the idea behind it is very complicated and socially tricky.
All of this makes the dull follow-ups to the movie even worse. By giving us a sneak peek of Neo’s flight at the end, The Matrix set the stage for what could have been one of the best movie series of all time. As it stands, The Matrix movies leave behind one great original work and three missed chances.
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