The Matrix (1999)

What if none of this is real? I don't mean that in a stoned, late-night, philosophical kind of way. I mean it genuinely. Scientists are seriously entertaining the idea that we might be living inside a simulation. String theory tells us that reality is, at some level, holographic. Quantum computing is advancing at a pace that would've seemed like science fiction twenty years ago. And sitting at the centre of all of it, at least in my head, is this film. No single movie has done more to feed my conspiracy theory brain than The Matrix. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if elements of it turned out to be closer to reality than we'd like to admit.

Anyway. The film itself.

This was only the second major Keanu Reeves film I ever saw, coming after Speed 2 of all things, which is quite the contrast. And honestly, he's brilliant here. There's something about his slightly detached, understated quality that works perfectly for a character who's been sleepwalking through a false existence. Another actor might have overdone it. Keanu just lets it land.

But let's talk about what really knocked me sideways in 1999: the effects. We're talking about a time when cutting-edge graphics meant PlayStation 1 polygons. Video games looked like animated Lego, and then The Matrix arrives with bullet-time sequences and action choreography that felt like it had been beamed in from another decade entirely. It was genuinely mindblowing. Yes, parts of it have aged a bit by today's standards, that's inevitable, but the honest answer is that it holds up far better than it has any right to. The craft behind those sequences was so considered that they don't feel like relics. They feel like choices.

The story, taken purely on its own terms and not dragged down by whatever the sequels do to it, is fantastically put together. It's lean, it's confident, and it trusts the audience to keep up. The world-building never feels like homework. You're dropped into something strange and the film just pulls you through it. The ideas are doing the heavy lifting, but the action never lets you forget you're watching something thrilling rather than a philosophy lecture with kung fu in it.

I'll be honest about the sequels: I've sat through The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), and the plotholes and bloat that creep in there are exactly why I think it's worth judging this first film entirely on its own. Because on its own, it's close to immaculate. The mythology gets murkier the further the franchise goes, and The Matrix Resurrections (2021) is its own conversation entirely. But none of that should be laid at the feet of what was achieved here in 1999.

This is one of those rare films you can revisit every few years and find it's still got you. The ideas haven't gone stale because, if anything, the world has caught up to them a little. Every time a new development in AI or quantum physics makes the headlines, I think about this film again. That's not a bad legacy for a blockbuster action movie from the last year of the twentieth century.

Four and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 1999  | Watched: 1999-11-03

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Lana Wachowski: The Matrix Revolutions (2003) · The Matrix Reloaded (2003) · The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
More with Keanu Reeves: The Matrix Revolutions (2003) · The Matrix Reloaded (2003) · The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
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More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)