The Matrix (1999)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1999
	Director: The Wachowski Brothers (Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending)
	Actors: Keanu Reeves (Speed, 47 Ronin), Laurence Fishburne (Contagion), Carrie-Anne Moss (Memento, Red Planet), Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 09.05.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Thomas Anderson (Reeves) is programmer during the day but a digital criminal at night under the pseudo Neo. He has the feeling of dreaming but can never wake up. He is looking for a certain Morpheus (Fishburne) would could maybe tell him what is the Matrix.
Review: This was such an instant cult movie that it is hard to review, but I hadn't seen it in five years actually which makes it easier. I remember the hype when it went out already fifteen years ago, and I can't remember what I felt when I saw it the first time in a theater. I think I had seen the trailer and was expecting something new and spectacular, and I was not disappointed. But when watching it again now I wonder how can one feel when watching it for the first time, ignoring the trailers: you probably have no idea at what is happening and what is being thrown at you until you dive into the real world together with Neo. Well, I had seen the trailer and was impressed nevertheless. I remember reading that after the first projection for the Studio executives, they said something like: "OK, great movie, but to make sure we understand: the bad guys are robots?".  The Matrix was indeed a movie targeted at the young audience of the computer generation, a movie they could maybe talk about without their parents understanding it. This is what created the whole phenomenon. I still loved to watch it although I am now less impressed by the then-innovative special effects like the famous bullet-time, and I find that the green tint of the images when in the Matrix is too present, degrading somehow the image quality. Last criticism: the music. It is the kind of movie that is often present in the lists: "Trailers better than the movie". Indeed I remember being disappointed by one of the highlight scenes in the federal building lobby, for which the music accompanying the trailer (chorus) was much more fitting that the one finally selected in the movie (trip-hop). Besides those few points, the movie was and still is incredibly innovative in terms of story, structure, classic characters (mentor, enemy, lover...) used in a futuristic environment, special effects and fights choreography. This last element is one of the most pleasant throughout the movie: The Wachowski Brothers managed to introduce amazing Kung-Fu fights seamlessly in a universe that could easily be imagined without. The fights were created by Hong-Kong legend Yuen Woo-ping and shot using cables and long takes, making them paradoxically very realistic and believable. I love the fight scenes in this movie. The Matrix was followed four years later by two sequels that disappointed many, and I have just realized that the movie can very well be watched in stand-alone, ignoring completely the events that follow and keeping them in your imagination. This is maybe the best way to keep on appreciating it.
Rating: 9 /10