Does "The Matrix" still hold up for you?

Actually, it does, even if what was original cutting-edge is now sort of nostalgically campy. DVDBeaver recently reviewed the 4K version, and concludes as follows: "this is one of the finest 4K UHDtransfers that we have yet seen, especially with regards to the Dolby Vision option."

The Matrix 4K UHD - Keanu Reeves

 

I have only seen the first one and THEY HIT IT SPOT ON!!!!!!

 

The first two were on cable earlier this year, which led to me watching the entirety of 3 (Revolutions) on streaming. Hadn't seen any of them since the height of "Matrix Madness" back around the early 00's.

The first one is still a great and intriguing movie, and would be a classic on its own with or without the trilogy.

The second is a wonky mess, all table-setting for the finale. A lot is going on through the whole thing, but not much actually happens.

The third is actually a lot better than I remembered it. It becomes far less about Neo and more about the resistance. Also very ahead of its time with the representation of some strong (and vulnerable) female characters.

The Matrix 10/10
The Matrix Reloaded 6/10
The Matrix Revolutions 8/10

I think the Wachowskis should definitely do one at least more film, and I hear Keanu Reeves is game for it.

 

I still like The Matrix and the second one. They both hold up well imho.

 

Terrific movie plagued by a major plot hole (imho)

The movie clearly shows that you need an operator to enter and exit the Matrix, and there's always somebody else that inserts/takes out the head jack (by the way, didn't anybody think that the jack is ridiculously long? Do they have such big holes in their brains?), yet in one scene we see the Joe Pantoliano character talking with the Agent, at a restaurant, planning the betrayal and the murder of Morpheus' crew.

How did he get there... all alone? Isn't there anybody else on the Nebuchadnezzar following where he is, what he's doing and who's with him, and of course doing that phone ringing trick from the Nebuchadnezzar to let him out of the Matrix? Were all they sleeping when he was lying on one of those folding cots and inside the Matrix with the head jack plugged in? And how possibly the head jack was plugged in and plugged out???

And someway he must have contacted Agent Smith before...

 

I think you're right, but there were other albums that had added tracks and whatnot and they weren't viewed as "must own CDs" ala "BiA".

It was the clean sound that sold people on "BiA" mainly. It was an album that people used to show off their CD players - I'll bet the vast majority of the audio stores used that one in heavy rotation for years!

 

My High School friend was big into these types of movies and we went to see it in the theater right when it came out (my friend was pretty hip to this stuff, and we saw Dark City early on in the theater as well, which was a bit of a thematic precursor to the original Matrix). We were both high as hell of course. This was before the movie was very well known and had become the cultural phenom it became. I thought it was a very interesting film, big on concept and style. Some of it (the gunplay, etc and the techno score especially) I thought was a bit juvenile. My friend was blown away by the implications of the story. Like someone else said upthread, if you weren't around back then, it's hard to overstate just what a seismic movie this was at the time (it certainly made The Phantom Menace look like a middling piece of crap later that year).

I remember people were so hyped for the sequels, and I saw both in the theater. By the 3rd, the bloom had certainly come off the rose, and I remember people's reaction to it being very mixed to "Meh". I wonder if the Wachoskis had had more time to develop the sequels they could've been better. Yes, the world they created was very derivative of PK Dick and Gibson, and put in a blender with religious stories, but it was still a fascinating one, and they had a great eye for directing.

Also, for better or worse, I think it took the Matrix trilogy for Hollywood to realize that they finally had the means to adapt superhero movies properly as well as an audience that would show up for them, as in its wake we got Spider-Man, X-Men, a rebooted Batman, and another take on Superman.

 

Liked The Matrix.
The Animatrix was really good to....specifially the
"The Second Renaissance Part I & II would have made a great movie prequel

 

I liked the first, and thought the visual effects were fantastic.
I was so turned off by the second film that I've never seen the third.

 

The Matrix is one of those films that I can still remember seeing in the theater and how exciting it was. By the time the sequels rolled around I’d moved on and I didn’t even catch the third one until well after it came to DVD.

I had been working in a video rental store when the first one came out and Bound had been a very popular rental for quite a while and people were excited to see what the Wachowski’s did next. Of their later efforts, I like Speed Racer the most, but I think they’d be better off if they had less budget and had to rely on stories instead of special effects.

I still have my laserdisc of the original, which lacks any of the green tinting that was applied to the first DVD.

 

I still enjoy the first film. It’s clever, well written (for the most part) with some particularly stunning choreography (for the time). I do dislike the revisionist color grading of the film though. The second one was a waste of time, the third had some nice moments but the crazy dancing scenes were embarrassing to watch-like a bad rave on acid.

 

I never got that either. And that is a massive plot hole, considering the second half of the film doesn't play out the way it does without his actions. I still enjoy the film a lot, but that is a moment I have to grimace about for a second and then forget about.

 

It's simply a great film. Everything in it works.
The sequels seem to try their best to tear apart the magic of the original.

I am glad we at least finally got a new transfer for the 4K release without the forced green of the 2004 DVD master.

 

Oh how I wish we got a prequel, instead of those horrible sequels.

The Matrix is still one of my favourite movies. I watch it every year or so, (I never watch the sequels though).

 

Somebody claims that, in the scene where Cypher offers Neo a drink, he's writing a software that allows him to enter and exit the Matrix without an operator (of course Neo -formerly a formidable hacker- can't understand anything and doesn't suspect anything )

Even if that was possible, Cypher should be lying on one of those folding cots while connected to the Matrix, and everyone on the Nebuchadnezzar could see him.

I'm sure somebody at WB noticed (it's not something subtle or a minor mistake) it but decided to let it go. Take it, or rewrite and reshoot some scenes.

I like to think that the "ignorance is bliss" line by Cypher at the restaurant, after eating the steak, was a little joke added to the script by the Watchowskis about that plot hole.

 

I'm still happily living in the Matrix to this day

 

Funny, I really liked the Matrix, but the sequels were so bad, convoluted and self reverential it turned me off to all of it !

 

That might help.

 

first one was great, never got along with the sequels. fun, but i can't watch them a second or third time.

 

Cypher probably told the kid who wrote the “lady in red” program to plug him in for a date in the “staging area”, but in fact he plugged in to the matrix.

 

It's best not to analyze any movie or else there will be holes.

Regardless, contacting an agent would be easy as they're just programs. You can plant seeds with info that you want to get re-assimilated or whatever and set up a meeting place and time that way. You can then set up a time-delayed automated command or function to bring you in and take you out of the Matrix.

Tada.

I believe he was coordinating the setup while others were on a mission, therefore unavailable to monitor him. Except Tank. He's never been in the matrix because he didn't have the implants so no idea where he could've been for Pantoliano's character to be able to pull this off without raising his suspicions.

 

The first is the only one they needed to do..... Said everything and is excellent!!

I have it on VHS copied from a rental tape years ago........

 

Here's a good place to ask this question:
Who's the girl that looks like Micheal Jackson, on the TV, in the second one?

 

Never seen this one before.
Luckily my local in Leeds is showing (hopefully) the new 4k remaster.
Gonna catch it tonight as there seems to be only 1 showing.

 

I need to get the 4K version. I'm consistently blown away by 4K content.