The "Matrix" Franchise

[StevePulaski]

The Matrix (1999)
Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski

Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.

Rating: ★★★

If it had solely been for the special effects, similar to James Cameron's mega-hit Avatar, the Wachowski's Matrix would've went on to be viewed as nothing more than a relic for its time. Its revolutionary special effects, which combined slow-motion videography and point-of-view perspective of bullets that highlighted the split-second reactionary tactics of the characters when they were in danger, would have gone on to be nothing more than parody material and object of visual datedness years later. And certainly, the special effects and action sequences of The Matrix have been subjected to plenty of spoof material, but the film itself not only holds up seventeen years later, but still mesmerizes by way of its fascination with a world that may or may not exist, and even if it does, we may or may not ever know about it.

The perplexing qualities of The Matrix are still very much present in the current day; the Wachowski's didn't make a film that could easily be dissected nor would grow more obvious and discernible with age. This is why The Matrix has gone on to inspire a legion of fan-fiction pieces, graphic novels, and elaborate fan theories in order to piece together the world and the characters' experiences.

Inspired by such complex thinkpieces and essays that questioned reality and simulation such as Jean Baudrillard's "Simulation and Simulacra" and Plato's famous cave allegory, The Matrix concerns the idea that perceived reality by most human beings is actually an artificial reality known as "the Matrix," which is carefully orchestrated by sentient machines in order to maintain order on the human population, with the prime goal being the harvesting of energy. Body-heat and electrical activity summoned by large, hulking machines and computer code power this world and the entire thing looks as if it were birthed from a computer scientist's nightmare.

One day, while working on computer code, a man named "Neo" (Keanu Reeves) learns of the Matrix and is abducted by a team of specialists who are attempting to infiltrate and become conscious of this other-world, essentially leaving their "dream world" and their fictitiously created reality. Throughout all of this, Neo is instructed by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who, upon having his agents kidnap him, gives him the free-will to decide whether to swallow a red pill or a blue one. The red pill will allow him to plunge deeper into the world of the Matrix, whilst the blue one will return him to his old life with no recollection of any of these events. Neo bravely swallows the red one, only to wake up in a vat of liquid, encapsulated in a pod and hooked up to tubes that make him almost appear as a grown fetus.

Morpheus explains to Neo that at the dawn of the 21st century, humans and machines began to wage a war and not in the sense of artificial intelligence vs. humankind. When humans found a way to withhold machines' access to solar energy, the machines began harvesting the bioelectrical energy humans produce in order to power the world. In order to destroy these machines, one first has to recognize their existence, which Neo has done, in addition to find a way to puncture the simulation of the Matrix by infiltrating it and unplugging humans who are solely used for their energy.

This causes a grand divide between what is perceived as real and what is actually real, which is what The Matrix is all about. Neo and Morpheus also recruit Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), upon freeing her from enslavement from the machines in order to help with the brain-power to defeat the machines.

As with most complex, layered science-fiction films that test the weight of the genre by exploring the existential, there's only so far I'll go before I wave the white flag in either defeat or acceptance of fact or narrative. The nice thing about The Matrix is it kept me in-tuned long enough before I waved the metaphorical flag. This is a film that's incredibly interesting, even if its intricacies and complexities can get muddled in the midst of a lot of technological conversation. It's the kind of film you can lose yourself in if you're not careful.

The Wachowski's balance the level of conversation and the intricate elements of simulation with some more gripping, technologically subversive action sequences, making this almost unquestionable in why it continues to end up as one of the most praised and elaborate works of science-fiction of all-time. In addition, all three performers - Reeves, Fishburne, and Moss - give performances that are shockingly fun to watch despite how frequently monotone and straight-forward they can be.

The Matrix is that rare sci-fi film that's equal parts smart, enjoyable, and complex enough not only enough to warrant but almost demand multiple viewings. Its quick, almost out-of-the-blue inception and its lickety-split wrap-up four years later leads to my personal belief that the Wachowski's sat on this well-thought-out fever dream of a movie and knew exactly how they wanted to write it and introduce it to the world. It's the kind of film that inspires someone enough after seeing it to do something as crazy as this, like actually believe they're part of a simulated universe.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Ann Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski.

[StevePulaski]

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Reloaded.

Rating: ★★★

Making a sequel to The Matrix is one of the riskiest things you can do in the sense that it has the potential to either further captivate an audience that was left mesmerized by the original film or further confuse them and make them feel that one film was more than enough. The Wachowski's not only made a sequel, but made two within the same year, released six months apart in 2003, closing the books on one of the strangest, yet most contemplative works of contemporary science-fiction.

The Matrix Reloaded, the first sequel, released in May 2003, the more one thinks about it, was destined to be more of a blend of action and philosophical sentiment than its predecessor. While the original Matrix is known for its gravity-bending, slow-motion special effects, The Matrix Reloaded actually makes better and more prolific use of them. There is no subtraction of rich, confusing descriptions about the interworkings of the Matrix itself, but there is also no shortage of some seriously well-choreographed and slickly shot sequences involving car chases and logic-defying action, all of which reminding us why we even showed up for a Matrix sequel in the first place.

We return focus on the same characters we did from the first film, only this time, computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the rescued Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), meanwhile Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who has been the one to initiate and direct a great deal of operations in order to infiltrate the Matrix and rebel against machines that have been manipulating humans, receives word that an army of drones are tunneling towards Zion and will reach it within three days. Zion is the location where thousands of escaped humans have taken refuge from the sentinel army in order to avoid having their bodies be harvested as electricity. With all this about to occur, Commander Lock (Harry Lennix) instructs the teams many Zion ships to prepare for a potentially catastrophic invasion.

Morpheus winds up instructing one specific ship, lead by Oracle (Gloria Foster), to remain in the field during the invasion to try to initiate combat. When Neo discovers that Oracle is actually part of the Matrix and could potentially corrupt their own operation to take down the machines, the Oracle simply tells Neo that the choice of trust lies within his hands, the same way it did when he was tasked with either taking the red or blue pill in order to further pursue the world or forget it ever existed. Now, Neo must master martial arts in order to protect the sanctity and security of Zion, all while trying to defeat Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and avoid having his own body harvested.

There's so many layers not only to the philosophy of The Matrix, but to the characters and events as well, that one could spend days digging into this story, going as far as to read the spin-off graphic novels and watch other films and shorts outside of the Wachowski brothers trilogy in order to really get a full grasp on this world. A lot of The Matrix movies operates on mystique and complexities, most of which I'd rather simply accept than challenge. When digging to deep into this series, as with almost anything, you're bound to find things you either cannot bring yourself to grasp or the fact that deeply penetrating the series' continuity, chronology, and ideas leave you nothing but exhausted and frustrated. It's a lot of leg-work that I admittedly don't have the time and patience for.

I say this because maybe it is because I did or didn't dig further into the mythology of the original film or its sequel that I enjoy them both. The Matrix Reloaded winds up being a delicate, if complicated, balance between action and further illustrating the world. A lot of the specifics outside of the core plot were lost upon me, but I feel that that's part of this series charm. To understand everything or even most things in this film would make remove the remarkable quality from it and make it too clean and easy to follow. Even stepping back and embracing the film from a purely visual sense, I found myself really enthralled with a great deal of what The Matrix Reloaded was doing. It's the kind of film that manages to grab you and just take you along for a ride all while at least making you consider possibilities that you previously thought were in a completely different realm of your imagination.

The Matrix Reloaded is probably the best sequel any hardened or casual fan of The Matrix could've asked for, largely because it respects the series enough to further detail the mythology and layer the characters with depth but also continue to explore the ostensibly limitless boundaries and visual wonder of its premise. Few sequels themselves can pinpoint the one or more things that make their predecessors presumably so well-liked and successful enough to warrant a continuation, and while Reloaded may indeed take things too far, in a more complicated, dizzying route, I suppose that prevents it from being labeled a sequel that is either too similar or too simplistic from the likes of its predecessor.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Gloria Foster. Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski.

[StevePulaski]

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski

Rating: ★★

The Matrix's best compliment was its release date, coming out at the end of a long and prosperous decade where the technological renaissance in the coming years couldn't even be fathomed. Showing a dystopian world, essentially controlled and operated by highly intelligent machines seemed as if a 1980s Gary Numan song was coming to life, in style, sound, and context and showing us our dark, doomy future.

The series opened on a high-note and sucked us into a realm in which we couldn't foresee. In contrast to others, I also found The Matrix Reloaded did a fine job at continuing what the previous film had started. I found the film's attempts to further the mythology of the original film admirable, the special effects to, once again, compliment the ground-breaking edge the first film propelled, and the adventures of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus to be interesting once again.

The Matrix Revolutions, the final chapter in The Matrix trilogy, unfortunately stumbles in trying to illustrate just what made many of us embrace this eclectic franchise and anticipate it with a sort of doe-eyed hunger for more. The film takes the logical route by having it largely take place inside the fabled Machines, which seems like the best possible concept. After two films of dabbling into the interior of the towering Machman, it's almost required that we finally get a look inside them and see their makeup. Neo (Keanu Reeves) decides this is the only way the machines can be defeated and the enslavement of the human race can be stopped, especially after seeing the city of Zion at the mercy of machines and on the verge of completely crumbling.

Much of the same material we've seen from The Matrix still exists here; Neo is still taking some of his orders from the wise and experienced Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), he's still unsure of his feelings for Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), but he is confident than infiltrating the Matrix and confronting the elusive Smith (Hugo Weaving) will be the end-all-be-all of the machine rule on humans.

For such a high-stakes premise, it's shocking to note how much of The Matrix Revolutions inherently feels as if it's another low-stakes sequel. Much of the mythology and the further developments of The Matrix Reloaded should logically be turned in for epic battles, and maybe a final reminder of how much these characters meant to us by giving us some emotional relevance. Instead, however, much of this finale feels anticlimactic and stiff, and even Reeves and company feel as if they've had enough of the brain-boggling that's been taking place over the course of now three lengthy films.

The Matrix films are extremely cold in that there isn't a great deal of emotion to offset the sheer immensity of the premise nor copious amounts of character interests in contrast to the dark settings. None of that bothered me up until I realize how much this particular finale would've been better off writing in some of that to its premise; it would've been a truly subversive move in contrast to the rest of the series, and ultimately would've been enough to drive home some emotion and make us realize how closely we grew to these characters.

But The Matrix Revolutions tries to get by on the same coldness that has long been a staple of the series, and as a result, makes us realize that even if we go through an entire franchise learning little about the characters' personal lives, we need some reason to feel inclined to care or emotionally attached come the big conclusion. While the film may continue to tantalize us with its wicked special effects and use of slow-motion videography, this time around, much of it feels as if it's a coverup and an effort to kick dirt over the emptiness of the film's details. It's a weak end to a seriously compelling franchise to which modern action movies owe a great deal.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Ann Moss, and Hugo Weaving. Directed by: Andy and Larry Wachowski.