Took risks and proved a game changer

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2015)

I was one of the many people who went and saw this at the cinemas when it first came out. Unlike many of those people, I wasn't particularly blown away. While I found the ideas in the story interesting, I didn't find the way they were explored to be especially engaging. I really liked some of the effects, but thought mainly of how much I would like to see them used in a better movie. Then I left the theatre with my two friends, one a homosexual artist, the other a theology student, and they both talked and talked and talked about the impressive visuals, philosophical symbolism and deep ideas present in the film. After around 30 minutes in conversation I was asked for my opinion. Not wanting to lie, I was frank. "Guys, 90% of that movie was as cliché as hell (may not have been the exact word I used)" Silence is golden.
And cliché as hell is exactly what 90% of this film is. The long leather jackets date this instantly. The hero is a Jesus allegory and he is saved by the power of love. A very poorly fleshed out and unconvincing love at that. There are one liners in the middle of gun fights, clichéd fighting scenes, and truly boring colours and characters. This was every action movie you've ever seen, with some nice new tricks.
There are plenty of positives too. After watching Hugo Weaving give excellent performances in Aussie dramas like Bodyline and The Interview, it was great to see him given a big role in a Hollywood blockbuster, and nail it. Man being imprisoned by machines is not a new idea, but I thought they did a reasonable mash-up of the various popular apocalyptic futuristic sci-fi stories. The ideas in the film were interesting, I just didn't think they explored them very well. Like I said, I didn't hate it, I was just really surprised by the OMGZ!!!!11!!! reaction it received.
My feelings on the movie have mellowed since then, now that I have only seen it once or twice in the last decade, now that every church group doesn't have a weekly bible study looking at the philosophy and spiritual messages in the Matrix, and now that its impact can be fully measured. The Matrix was innovative, but inoffensive, and unquestionably, a game changer. It changed the way action films were made and it changed the way action films were written. Bullet time was a tremendous innovation that every action film used for a long time afterward. A technology that was built on and improved to the point that the effects used here barely look like a big deal. It was possible to make an intelligent action film with interesting ideas and have people pay money to watch it. Not that this one is especially endowed with intelligence. And while I've never heard someone give a testimony in church starting with (I'm imagining this being read with a deep southern accent) "I was a sinner, until one day a friend invited me to a bible study where they used The Matrix to lead me to Jesus..." the church certainly did get excited that this (admittedly unintentionally)had give them a mainstream evangelism tool, before they worked out in about 2007 that this wasn't all that mainstream any more.
I encourage anyone to watch this and also Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, two movies that came out within a couple of years of each other and changed the way action films were made. I really hope younger audiences will be blown away by this and have a great cinematic viewing experience, appreciating just how big an impact this had. But I'm not going to lie, it just didn't do it for me. Feel free to disagree with me.