I love how focused it is. Like, every line is in support of the theme. Every moment of the movie serves to build towards it's conclusion. Nothing is superfluous, and that is, to me, an incredible achievement
I essentially agree but at the same time, there's a part of me that's somewhat bored during rewatches of the second half of it (kind of). The mystery building of the first half is what makes the film to me.
I highly recommend a reaction to Dark City, released a year before The Matrix. It has some similar themes, the world is definitely not as it originally seems, and the protagonist struggles to work out what is real, and what is actually going on. IMHO it is a somewhat forgotten classic.
Totally, but watch the Director's Cut. The differences are minor, just no spoilery narration at the start and a few extra scenes, but it's definitely the better version. Absolutely brilliant movie, I love it more than the Matrix to be honest.
Me: You can learn any skill to help in the task of overthrowing the machine overlords. What skill do you choose? Shanelle: I want to be able to play any instrument I pick up. Me: I don't think you're The One.
what if it's a magic instument ?only she can play with Certain notes played a certain way , makes you capable of doing anything you want... Controlling programs controlling people controlling objects ..Just a strange thought
Hate that line. "We had a war with AI, and now they've put all humans into pods to use them as energy. We who have escaped can infiltrate their system and basically fuck them up as well as we can. If you doubt it, you literally was spit out from a pod right now and know it's true." There. Was that so hard?
I'd say that Morpheus is more like John the Baptist...finding and preparing the way for the chosen one. And technically, the Oracle never said he wasn't the one...she just said, in essence, that he was holding back and "waiting for something".
@@ShanelleRiccio The dialogue in this film has been WAY over-analyzed and it's very specific. She says he IS not The One with the very specific follow-up statement that he's "waiting for something". "Your next life, maybe." Then Neo gets shot and dies and only comes back after Trinity tells him that she loves him and believes he is The One, which allows him to believe it as well and finally become The One, able to reject the reality forced upon him completely.
@@TheAbstruseOne which is on par with what happened last. He mentally died. Trinity forced his body to take a breath, by stealing his when she kissed him, therein forcing his body to send the signal to his brain that he was not actually dead. His special coding made him see that he could control the settings between both worlds. He woke himself up and believed. He saw it with new eyes.
@@TheAbstruseOne all good except she never says 'it'. He says "I'm not the One", and she says "sorry kid, you got the gift...."
3 года назад
@@TheAbstruseOne what you just said in your first sentence is law for all three films, there are no abstracts, no hidden messages, all is given pretty literal and straightforward on the screen.
Re: the gloves. It keeps your hands from getting too cold while typing, as the blood tends to not get out to your hands in that position. Cut off the fingertips so you can still feel the keys.
I remember having white gloves with the fingertips cut off for marching band for similar reasons. Your hands get cold playing outside, but you need your fingertips to be able to play, particularly if you're playing certain woodwind instruments like flutes and clarinets.
This is very true. You need the tactile feel of fingertips on keys to type properly and, even if you can cover yourself in blankets and wear a big thick comfy robe when it gets cold, your hands still have to stick out. Also, fingerless gloves look cool. And for acting specifically, if you're playing a hacker character, there's going to be a lot of close-ups of your hands typing on keyboards. You can get a manicure to fix your nails, but there's only so much else that can be done to the rest of the hand to cover any imperfections, bruises, splotches, dry skin, etc. Gloves help cover them up.
I love that you mentioned Plato's cave. Clearly The Matrix is an intellectual descendant of his allegory. Not to mention it's Plato's second best allegory right behind the one crazy people think is a real place. 😉
I believe this was the theme the writer of the original story was going for. When the Wachowskis went on to write the sequels on their own, without a story to steal from, you can see such a huge difference.
Back in the day after it was released on the head of my creative team decided that the whole group needed to take a break and we took a day off from our "real work" to watch the film. Then spent the rest of the day researching and discussing the imagery and underlying meanings and messages of the film. We really got into analyzing everything. It was a great day at work.
When this movie first came out people had little to no context about this film. Theaters were packed and filled with eager fans that literally had no idea what to expect. So that scene with Neo waking up in the pod was INSANE to witness for the first time. It’s kind of a shame that the plot of the film is so well known now it really kills the effectiveness of some of the scenes. Which kinda explains why it wasn’t as bad of a mind fuck for you, because you expected most of it.
I agree as well. The surprise element of this movie was a huge asset. The first time I saw it in the theater was truly amazing. When it ended, I just stayed in my chair, and watched it again.
Matrix was a pretty common term for a VR world so I was just surprised that something so smart was made lol. I kept thinking "they don't make films like this." And my entire life was teaching martial arts, eastern philosophy, the goth/industrial subculture, computers, games, and the internet. So it was like the movie was made for me lol.
A movie made with love, and it's aged really well because of it. The perfect combination of practical and digital effects, and because the actors actually trained and did their own fight scenes, it's not cheapened by stunt double shots making it far more immersive. You won't recognise the city because it was shot in Sydney, it was cheaper to film in Australian so they could stretch the budget a lot further.
I was blown away when I saw this in 1999! I was 9 years old, my brother and sister took me to go see this and it's amazing!! It won 4 Oscars: Best Visual Effects Best Film Editing Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing.
I'd love to see your reaction to "2001: A Space Odyssey" if you haven't already seen it. If you have, my second choice would be "Forbidden Planet." Both have great plots that twist the viewer's mind and visuals. You would be my first choice for a reactor for these movies.
I've seen this movie so many times. When it came out I was 17 & was enthralled by it. My #1 movie of all time still. It awakened my desire to disect everything I thought I knew & think indepth. I think I still have the VHS in storage lol.
I was 26 when it came out and was so obsessed I literally saw it 11 times in the theater. LOL It was also the very first DVD I bought when I got my first DVD player and had the soundtrack on a loop for years. It is also my #1 favorite movie of all time still. Many movies have competed for that title, but The Matrix remains at the top of my list. It's just so damn good.
This is one of my favorite movies. It’s my Star Wars. By that I mean I remember everything about seeing it in the theater during its release, like so many people describe seeing the original Star Wars in the 70’s. It was one of the biggest movies of my life.
"Do you want to know what it is?" "I don't. Shanelle doesn't". - Oddly, horrifying as it is, the alternative is that we live in a reality that we have the power to change, but don't. I'm not sure which is more depressing.
True enough. This is what puts me into an existential crisis. Imagine what it was like when there were only millions of people in the world, now almost 8 billion, and still we feel helpless.
@@MarioCindric Not that I know of. He knew Bruce , they were friends , but they didn't work together because they were contracted to different studios. At least , that is what Mr. Yuen has said.
"How are you supposed to win against literal robot computers?" You're not. That's the point. The sequels are worth checking out, but they're not as shockingly revelatory as the first film was. They deal a lot with the notion of destiny, particularly the conflict of choice vs. fate. They also reveal more about the Matrix, Zion, and the greater machinations of the Machines (hehe). Before watching those, I would recommend watching The Animatrix series of shorts, as they provide a lot of background about how the war against the Machines began, introduces some new characters, and leads into the events of the sequels.
One of the big influences on the directors of this film was the animated Japanese movie "Ghost in the Shell" from 1995. Definitely worth watching if you want to see the similarities between the two.
Yes I love Ghost in the shell. The live action movie was beautifully shot but the story was shit and I didn’t like how they took so much from the Major’s character.
When my husband and I went to the movies to see The Matrix, we had LOTS to talk about on the way home. For some reason, we had to go about 1/2 hour away to see it (no idea why). When we were on our way home, my cell phone rang. This was early days of cell phone use and my cell phone NEVER RANG. Given the movie we had just seen, it totally freaked me out!
Besides the 2 sequels "The Matrix Reloaded" May 2003 and "The Matrix Revolutions" Nov. 2003 there's an animated prequel film "Animatrix" June 2003 which was produced by the Wachowskis (they also wrote 4 of the stories), it's a compilation of 9 animated short films based in the same world.
The entire film is a metaphor for being transgender. A person person who has the growing realization through exposure to others online that they're in an artificial reality that forces them to suppress their true selves until they take a red pill (the most common form of estrogen prescribed for gender dysphoria in the 90s was Premarin, a red pill) and realize the true nature of the construct and themselves while finding out that, by taking the red pill, they have unlocked their true potential as a person unteathered by their physical body in a literal rebirth all the while being chased by authority figures of said construct who demand they return to it all the while using their former name at every point so much so that the big third act point-of-no-return choice from the protagonist is telling the primary authority figure so set on deadnaming "My name...is NEO!" before promising defeating them for good and promising not only to continue being their authentic selves but to teach others to do the same. Yet people over twenty years later still refuse to admit it despite Lilly Wachowski literally confirming it in an interview a couple years ago.
Yeah, I read a few months(?) ago how they wanted to have one of the characters be one sex in the matrix, and then the opposite when out of the matrix, but that got axed. Also, as for the farms, they were originally meant to be so that we were all used to create a network, but seeing as how they felt that 'network' at the time was not a word the general public put much value to (as opposed to today) they dumbed it down to 'energy', that were were farmed for our energy, like batteries :/
It closely aligns to themes of adolescence (which a lot of people took away from this). The irony being the whole idea of "the world doesn't understand me" of teenage years mirrors the trans experience.
@@chefskiss6179 Yes, specifically Switch was meant to be female in the Matrix and male in the "real world" because her residual self image ie her "true self" was a woman despite being in a male body.
@@TheAbstruseOne Switch, yes, that's the one. Thank you. Fascinating how forward thinking this movie was considered... and how much more forward it actually was but couldn't be because, well, their ideas were too forward.
Are you sure you "Got" it? The line that made the coin drop for me was when Morpheus says "You think that is air you're breathing?" because, that applies to the kung fu they are doing, too. Neo is a hacker, the fighting is actually the characters writing code, that is the only way to change a virtual simulation.
One really weird coincidence I noticed in this movie is that Neo's real name is "Tom Anderson." A few years after this movie came out, Myspace came out and became the most popular digital social network of the time, and it was created by Tom Anderson.
That was a great addition when they came out with the box set. It also shows the story of how Kid got freed. When you hear Neo tell him, "You freed yourself Kid," and then you see the cartoon short, and you're like, "Oh shit, he's right, Kid got a case of outta heres and freed himself!" lol
"Is he bad?" Wasn't there a scene showing that he was absolutely bad before then, when he talked to the agent in a restaurant about giving up the location of Morpheus?
The color palette green was chosen to differentiate scenes where they are inside the matrix (where it is green/cool) or if they are in the real world. Love that touch of detail.
Oh yes you need to watch the sequels to get the full story. Yes I loved this movie when it came out, it still holds up today, it was so good. I always loved it when Morpheus asked Neo "You think that's air you're breathing?"Love your Reaction & Commentary btw!
Love all three Matrix movies. Can't wait for Resurrections. The Wachowskis have said that the first movie is Birth, the second is Life, and the third is Death. (Which makes the title for the 4th make perfect sense.)
I feel like the movie is a lot more understandable since the inception of the smart phones. The Matrix released just before Computers were easily accessible
While the action, set design, cinematography etc are all amazing, what really sets this apart from other action movies and movies in general; is the insane amount of philosophy intertwined throughout the story. In fact in order to get the roles, apart from all the firearms and martial arts training, the actors also had a list of philosophical texts and books to read. There are old interviews on youtube where the cast talks all about prepping for the movie, that are pretty interesting. If you decide to continue on with the series, I recommend watching the Animatrix before jumping into Reloaded. The Animatrix is a collection of animated shorts by different studios, directors and artists all with their own animation style, that provides a bunch of backstory and history for the Matrix, introduces several characters either in the sequels or referenced in them; and sets up the storyline and events for the sequel.
I definitely recommend The Animatrix before getting into the sequels. It explains the history of the machines a bit more and introduces a character you meet in the second film.
There’s part of the script that alludes to why Cypher wants to be reinserted to The Matrix & why he’s lost faith in Morpheus. Sadly the scene was trimmed down for the theatrical cut, but the missing dialogue is below. CYPHER: I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. Now don't tell him I told you this, but this ain't the first time Morpheus thought he found The One. Neo: Really? Cypher: You bet your ass. It keeps him going. Maybe it keeps all of us going. NEO: How many were there? CYPHER: Five. Since I've been here. NEO: What happened to them? CYPHER: Dead. All dead. Neo: How? CYPHER: Honestly. Morpheus. He got them all amped up believing in bullshit. I watched each of them take on an Agent and I watched each of them die. Little piece of advice: you see an Agent, you do what we do; run. Run your ass off. Also, isn’t it ironic that there had been five failed attempts to find the chosen one before Morpheus found Neo. There were also five version of the matrix & Neo is the sixth anomaly. There are five bent spoons on the floor in front of spoon boy & he hands Neo the sixth spoon. There’s also two animated shorts ‘The Second Renaissance Pt 1&2’ that further explain the war with the machines. City-wise, it’s not stated where it is; but that doesn’t matter, as the city doesn’t exist. The Matrix was however filmed at Fox Studios & at various locations around Sydney.
I'd like to throw in my vote in the camp of watching 2 & 3. It's certainly divisive and there are a lot of haters, but I think it's a natural, logical progression of the story and something I like to credit the sequels for is that they really lean hard into Neo's unlocked abilities after the first movie. Too often, movies get cold feet about exploring a character's full potential or you only get a glimpse at the very tail end of a movie/series for a short period or they pull back and soft reset their new found abilities in sequels; The Matrix sequels do not.
When I saw this in the theater and it got to the "true love's kiss" part, a guy in the back yelled out "Oh, fuck you!" and everybody started laughing...like, nobody was mad at him. He was right, it was really dumb and lazy writing in an otherwise very creative and original screenplay.
Little bit of Trivia: Switch was originally supposed to be transgendered, presenting as a woman in the Matrix but masculine in the real. The studio wouldn't let them, apparently.
We used to tap at the wall with a knuckle. With practice you can hear, and feel, the areas backed by a stud. Once you find one, knowing that they are typically 16" on center apart helps.
I still prefer the original version of the concept before the executives meddled. Originally humans weren't used for heat, but our subconscious was used as cloud processing for the Matrix and regulating the machine's fusion reactors. One thing you didn't mention is how the Oracle was 100% right. "You're waiting for something, maybe your next life." He had to choose. He chose to save Morpheus and he died because of it. But his death wasn't permanent, so he moved on to his next life as The One. Trinity's speech and kiss didn't bring him back so much as give him the stimulus to realize he wasn't actually dead. It allowed him to pierce the veil. There's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path. Neo knew the Matrix wasn't real, but there's a difference between knowing it's not really and fully accepting that it can't hurt you. I think when he realized he could still hear Trinity he internalized that there was no reason for him to die.
We're just here to see your reaction. All you really need for that is a personality. I don't think too many people are really worried about your decor.
The best bullet time spoof scene IMO is from that Kung Fu movie where the guy is fighting a cow. Then the cow shoots him with milk from his utters in "bullet time"
It's not just True Love's Kiss, Shanelle. Remember that she's the Trinity. When Neo exclaims "Jesus" or "God", she always responds. So of course her love brings The One (not really the chosen, but the choosing one) back from the dead. The Matrix is built upon a powerful mythos that only adds to its impact. Truly a landmark of cinema.
Even if you skip the 3rd one, I think the 2nd is a must see! There are some amazing sequences in it you can't miss. I don't remember much of the 3rd one since I rarely watch it. It was a bit of a let down. I usually watch the first two. You'll want to watch some of the behind the scenes, in particular the "freeway sequence."
Loved to see you react to this. The sequels are excellent movies and particularly the animation movie ANIMATRIX is an awesome piece of art that shows how the matrix was born.
Love your channel. I’m impressed with your observations on the movies you see for the first time. Can’t believe all of the movies you haven’t scene until recently.
11:49, if you look into Morpheus' glasses, there's someone pointing a gun at Neo. The glasses represent different projections of Neo in the matrix, in the left glass he dodged the bullet, in the right glass he stands in front of the gun. Something the Matrix's hadn't planned for is choice. "When you're ready, you won't have to"
From the moment Agent Smith shoots Neo in the chest to the moment that Neo says, "no," when the Agents hold up their guns, is exactly three minutes and thirty three seconds. TRINITY gave him the kiss and told him to GET. UP. That's some PRETTY solid Christian imagery right there. But yeah, real talk. Living in a fake reality where I'm trapped forever in 1999? Shit, frost my tips and log me on. I'll see you guys on AOL.
Yes it blew my mind. Saw it 2 week before general release as the end event to a 3d graphics festival. I had seen zero images or clips from it. It's in top 10 most mind blowing cinema experiences I have had so far. I still think this is a masterpiece.
Great reaction! You will have many telling to skip the sequels... don't... It's a full story, and it's a really great one. May I recommend that before you watch the Reloaded and Revolutions, that you check the anime series called The Animatrix (also directed by the Wachowskis). It gives a bit more depth on the story, as well as link part of the story of movie 1 and 2. As well as telling the story of how the machines took over the world.
This is not the first part, this was a standalone movie that was so popular they decided to make more. Zion was the narrative analogue of a matte painting, it's there to give depth to the world and not much more. You should definitely watch the sequels, know that they are not as groundbreaking (and therefore got a lot of negativity due to unfulfilled expectations), but they are still good movies. That said, before you do, watch the Animatrix. It isn't a direct sequel or direct prequel to the sequels (though there is a tiny bit of carryover), but it provides a WHOLE lot more depth to the world, showing other hovercraft crews, other parts of the matrix, etc. The Animatrix is a MUST WATCH and ideally before watching the formerly final two films. The Matrix is an absolutely amazing trans allegory. Having the "you" that you choose to show the world. Having Agent Smith continually deadname Neo.
I watched this opening night in theaters and honestly, it was mind-blowing. People should be reminded that the ad campaign leading up to this revealed NOTHING. It was basically "What is the Matrix" and besides seeing it was a goth-punk aesthetic, you saw like 2 or 3 seconds of Trinity doing her wall walk in the beginning. We all thought it was some dark superhero thing. When Neo waked up in his pod, people were gasping in the theater!
My thing about "The Matrix" is I'd already seen tons of sci-fi that dealt with alternate realities and not knowing which reality you're in. Star Trek, Twilight Zone, MST3k, lots more. So, yeah, Matrix did a good job of it, but nothing that exactly blew my mind.
We did a three and a half hour stage play parody of all three Matrix films at the Alley Theater in Louisville in late 2009 or early 2010. We had a full body white rabbit suit, so when the punks go to Neo's apartment and he's told to "Follow the White Rabbit," there's me, dressed as the rabbit, six feet tall, along with the rest of the punks. We also had the White Rabbit come back as one of the agents guarding Neo as he's imprisoned by the Agents. We used that rabbit suit in every play we could, because it was funny, but the Matrix was one of our two best uses of it.
It's not true love's kiss that brought him back. The oracle said that he "had the gift but it was like he was waiting for something (...) he's next life": Resurrection. Also, she said Trinity would fall for the one, so the kiss happened just because Trin was there, Neo would come back either way. The sequels add a lot of those philosophical metaphors, allegories and concepts. They also describe the Matrix better and conclude Neo's hero journey.
@@ShanelleRiccio I love Inception! I got it, first time. I love the distinct production design of each level of dreams. It definitely helped explain the complex idea visually. It's Tenet that I have yet to fully grasp! It doesn't have the luxury of the dream layers as the backward and forward happen in the same space. I understand it enough to love it and know the important plot points, but some of the little details are still taking a while to fully get.
Some friends and I went to see this in theatres in high school...unfortunately my bassist failed to tell any of us that he had dropped 3 hits of acid before hand. He didn't even make it through the credits before running out and spent the rest of the movie in the car doing God knows what.
It's supposed to be a timeless placeless nowheresville which adds to the uneasy feeling of the world. So it's got landlines and payphones and old timey cars while also being quite current with certain technology like the phone. Happily for me Warner Bros filmed quite a few films at Fox Studios in Sydney back in the day. Superman Returns also has very obvious Sydney locations. So you won't recognize most of it as it's filmed in Sydney not far from where I live. I can't recall which came first but Dark City used some of those sets and locations. It's a great film that was sadly overlooked at the time when The Matrix came out.
Frustrating to watch. You chitchat through key scenes. Gives the viewer the impression that you remain distant to the movie and its plot. Why not give us your analysis AFTER you've watched it?
While I understood the movie without issue when I first saw it, almost none of it is rational from the perspective of the machines, until you realize the actual theme of the whole series. You might guess it, but it's only confirmed in the second film, although many people missed it.
3 года назад
THANKS 🙏… YOU GOT IT, and without spoiling anything. I hate people bashing II & III, but yeah, because they didn't understand them in spite all the direct evidence as you just asserted right from part II.
ALL the matrix movies are worth it, i like to watch them back to back, the visuals are getting better and better :) but the 4th one is more like a nice little present for fans and has a different tone than the trilogy. but its still cool ^^
My username means I'm contractually obligated to mention that Neo's journey is also a transgender allegory. Both Wachowskis have transitioned MTF since the movie came out. There are plenty of little references, like the line "They are the gatekeepers," and more blatant hints like Morpheus's monologue about Neo feeling like there's something wrong with the world... but it's subtle enough that a lot of moviegoers never notice it and insist that it's not there. Originally the character of Switch was meant to be played by a male actor in the real world and a female actor in the Matrix, but the idea was dropped as potentially too confusing for the audience. This info wasn't in the draft scripts, so for a long time we only knew about the male/female concept from interviews with Switch's actor, Belinda McClory. However, Lilly Wachowski confirmed it in an interview last year. (Sorry if you saw all this in the trivia--I didn't hear it mentioned in your recap.) It's a shame the Switch idea was dropped, because it might have given audiences a hint about a few things. Then again, some people might say that ignorance is bliss...
this movie reminds me of when i watched a wrinkle in time when i was little and it absolutely blew my mind that there could be these alien beings that could understand and experience reality with senses that the human mind couldn't begin to comprehend. like, how much is there that we will never be able to see?
At the point you said "I don't know what city we're in." Our protagonist was sitting in a car in the same tunnel in L.A. that led to "Tune Town" in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" The tunnel is featured in several other movies if I'm not mistaken.
The Opening scene with Trinity actually saved the movie. The Studio was going to pull the plug until they saw the daily of that scene . It was a game changer
