The Matrixlaid the template for the gritty, gravity-defying, self-seriously cerebral modern blockbuster.
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This series originally ran in 2019.
We are republishing it asThe Matrix Resurrectionshits theaters and HBO Max.
The film opened on March 31, not traditionally a release date reserved for potential blockbusters.
(Also released that day:10 Things I Hate About You.)
But back to 1999.
Even the Wachowskis had their doubts.
Instead, it was Hollywood that reevaluated everything.
Then theres the wayThe Matrixsingle-handedly revived the American action film, a once-muscular genre that had atrophied into self-parody.
(To a certain generation, McBain, onThe Simpsons,yelling, Mendozaaaaaa!
will never not be funny.)
It was obvious even in 1999 thatThe Matrixhad reinfused action movies with swagger.
Pre-Matrix,Hollywood had left the superhero genre for dead.
For Hollywood, the dilemma of the live-action superhero film had always been that it looks inherently ridiculous.
(Joel Schumacher later added nipples.)
This world conditioned us to believe in a fistfight between Tom Hiddleston and the Hulk.
Of course, the post-millennium superhero renaissance also has a lot to do with CGI.
Iron Man can soar in ways Superman and Lois Lane only dreamed about.
But thats another trickThe Matrixtaught Hollywood: CGI isnt the future; its right now.
Unlike kid-friendly hits such asIndependence DayandMen in Black, The Matrixarrived with an R rating.
It was intellectually ambitious and outrageously violent, and it tackled the kind of Whoa, dude!
questions familiar from bong-fueled dorm-room debates.
As it turned out, we liked our mayhem with a side dish of Baudrillard.
WithoutThe Matrix,you likely dont get the rise of Christopher Nolan.
We needed the bridge of Neo to get us from Burtons cartoonishBatmanto a Dark Knight who growls in caves.
Nolans subsequent hits, likeInceptionandInterstellar,dont just engage inMatrix-like philosophical musings, they revel in them.
These films and TV shows have become, in effect, the Matrix within which pop culture resides.
Pop music in the 90s was Britney Spears but also Nirvana; Hollywood wasForrest Gumpbut also Miramax.
It rose to merge two competing worlds.
Culturally speaking,The Matrixwas the One.
Let alone three times.
We want to be converted.
We want thrills that will make us think.
We want spectacle, but we also want visions.
