Jump to content
IGNORED

Movie Debate #63: The Matrix


Reed Rothchild

Rate it  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. Rate based on your own personal preferences, NOT historical significance

    • 10/10 - One of your very favorite movies of all time. Top 10.
    • 9/10 - Killer fucking movie. Everyone should watch it.
    • 8/10 - Great movie. You like to recommend it.
    • 7/10 - Very good movie, but not quite great.
    • 6/10 - Pretty good. You might enjoy the occasional watch, or tune in if you happen to catch it on cable.
    • 5/10 - It's okay, but maybe not something you'll go out of your way to watch.
    • 4/10 - Meh. There's plenty of better alternatives to this.
      0
    • 3/10 - Not very good.
      0
    • 2/10 - Not your cup of tea at all. Some people might like this, but you are not one of them.
      0
    • 1/10 - Horrible in every way.
      0
    • 0/10 - The Citizen Kane of painful experiences. You'd rather shove an icepick in your retinas than watch this.
      0
    • Never seen it, but you're interested.
    • Never seen it, never will.


Recommended Posts

  • The title was changed to Movie Debate #63: The Matrix

Watched the 4k disc a couple months ago.  Can confirm this holds up and is still awesome.

@RHActually they save the CG for stuff like the robots and don't overuse it or overexpose it.  There are lots of great practical effects that I don't think it gets credit for.

Edited by fox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9/10 easily. Could even be a 10/10 on the right day.

One of my all-time favorite films. I still vividly remember seeing it in theaters with my buds on opening night. What an experience. Right up there with seeing Spider-Man (2002) on opening night in a packed theater.

I still watch the original regularly...and pretend the 2nd and 3rd film never existed (I'm also a fan of the original Highlander and the Star Wars Trilogy, so I'm pretty good at ignoring sequels). As a self-contained story, it's excellent.

It's one of the first movies I bought on 4K, after hearing that the UHD restoration was a very quality one. It restores the original theatrical look by removing the horrible "green tinted filter" that was added in the Blu-Ray release.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, RH said:

6. Would have given it a 10 when I was 18, but looking back it's campy cyberpunk with good CG.

Exactly this -- and I'd probably rank it higher if they never made the sequels (which I thought just went off the rails and were disappointing as hell).

At the time of release, being in the target age group -- it was a big "10".

But it is pretty far from timeless, and unlike some 80's sci-fi that I can watch again-and-again, I'm not sure if I'll ever bother to rewatch the Matrix.  MAYBE when my kids are older... but I have a feeling it will be really embarrassing to explain why we thought it was "cool" at the time -- versus watching Blade Runner with my parents and being envious that they got to see it in theaters (and then being able to have the feeling of awe of seeing 2049 in theaters).  But I can't imagine being excited about another Matrix movie coming out at this point.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Exactly this -- and I'd probably rank it higher if they never made the sequels (which I thought just went off the rails and were disappointing as hell).

At the time of release, being in the target age group -- it was a big "10".

But it is pretty far from timeless, and unlike some 80's sci-fi that I can watch again-and-again, I'm not sure if I'll ever bother to rewatch the Matrix.  MAYBE when my kids are older... but I have a feeling it will be really embarrassing to explain why we thought it was "cool" at the time -- versus watching Blade Runner with my parents and being envious that they got to see it in theaters (and then being able to have the feeling of awe of seeing 2049 in theaters).  But I can't imagine being excited about another Matrix movie coming out at this point.

@arch_8ngel We're basically in the same camp, so I have a question for you.  Which is better-- Hackers or The Matrix?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Exactly this -- and I'd probably rank it higher if they never made the sequels (which I thought just went off the rails and were disappointing as hell).

At the time of release, being in the target age group -- it was a big "10".

But it is pretty far from timeless, and unlike some 80's sci-fi that I can watch again-and-again, I'm not sure if I'll ever bother to rewatch the Matrix.  MAYBE when my kids are older... but I have a feeling it will be really embarrassing to explain why we thought it was "cool" at the time -- versus watching Blade Runner with my parents and being envious that they got to see it in theaters (and then being able to have the feeling of awe of seeing 2049 in theaters).  But I can't imagine being excited about another Matrix movie coming out at this point.

Curious as to what makes it 'pretty far from timeless'. Even though it's only been a little over 20 years I think it still holds up pretty well in terms of story and special effects. I think it's on a similar level to a lot of 70s-80s sci-fi movies.

 

I also agree that 2 and 3 were completely unnecessary and I'll likely never rewatch them.

Edited by Andy_Bogomil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

Curious as to what makes it 'pretty far from timeless'. Even though it's only been a little over 20 years I think it still holds up pretty well in terms of story and special effects. I think it's on a similar level to a lot of 70s-80s sci-fi movies.

 

I also agree that 2 and 3 were completely unnecessary and I'll likely never rewatch them.

I don't think I could put it anywhere near the level of the best from the 80's.  There is a grittiness of good sci-fi from that era that very few things have captured since.

 

But in terms of the "timeless" comment -- Matrix went over-the-top trying manufacture "cool" in a way that is hyper-specific to the era and in an aesthetic that was way too easily made "uncool" by the fanbase trying to emulate it.  Put simply, they just look ridiculous in hindsight.

"Timeless" cyberpunk avoids that with styles that are "weird enough" or "world-specific-enough" that they aren't readily emulated so they stay as a "costume only" sort thing that only really exists in the movie-world where you saw it, versus thinking of the types of people that leaned hard into the black trenchcoats and diet-S&M gear.

 

 

EDIT:  but 10 years from now, maybe I'll rewatch it with my kids and change my opinion, who knows 😛

Edited by arch_8ngel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, RH said:

@arch_8ngel We're basically in the same camp, so I have a question for you.  Which is better-- Hackers or The Matrix?

Why would I pick either of those over Johnny Mnemonic? 😛 (which also benefits from being one of the few movies to skirt the line of plausibly being part of the Shadowrun universe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, mbd39 said:

The Matrix. I think that Hackers is almost unwatchable in its badness. War Games is still the best hacker movie.

 

 

As a kid, I felt it was so cringy, it almost hurt.  As an adult who can see it for what it is, it's so horrible it's great.  To be fair, I'm not saying The Matrix is "worse" than Hackers. What I'm saying is, The Matrix feels like a relic of it's time, as a teen, I was a target demo and I fell for it (gladly!) but now it just doesn't hold my attention or impress me.  Hackers is almost bad for the sake of bad, and is even better than Sharknado.  Actually, I need to see if there is a RiffTrax for it.  Please Lord, let there be a RiffTrax for Hackers.

14 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Why would I pick either of those over Johnny Mnemonic? 😛 (which also benefits from being one of the few movies to skirt the line of plausibly being part of the Shadowrun universe)

I've not seen that one, but I need too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Editorials Team · Posted
2 hours ago, AstralSoul said:

I'm sure I'll get a lot of flack for it but I've never seen the movie. I've wanted to, I know a lot about it from people talking about it and  pop culture references over the years, but I've just never gotten around to actually seeing it.

We await your update

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...