A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to be invited to join Warner Brothers' Blu-Ray Elite program. Myself and small group of film writers were sent a handful of WB Blu-Rays for discussion and review. This series of posts will include thoughts on a film, its picture and sound quality on Blu-Ray, and its special features. I reviewed Contagion first. Next up is The Matrix. Enjoy!
It's a funny thing to watch a film from your childhood with a critical eye. From, say, 2000-2004, I must have watched The Wachowskis' The Matrix thirty times—maybe more. The sequels, unfortunately, soured me a bit on the product as a whole, and I don't think I've watched even the original (which, in my head, I still revere) since that time.
Some 600 film reviews later, I like to think my knowledge of the filmmaking process has matured. Ditto my appreciation for some of the subtleties my 13-year-old self might not have picked up on. Now, I've finally rewatched The Matrix, and is it a good film? Or just a nostalgic one?
It's good. No, it's great, amazing, wonderful—for all the reasons I thought a decade ago and so many more. The ahead-of-its-time action, of course, is the film's calling card—the "Neo in 'bullet time'" scene is both one of the most important and most parodied film moments in the last 20 years. What stuck out to 24-year-old me, though, is the film's first 30 minutes, which are taut, mysterious, and brilliantly constructed.
Observe Neo's attempted escape from his office and the conversation with Agent Smith while in custody. The obvious take away from this scene is that having your mouth disappear is maybe the only thing scarier than the mechanical bug that burrows through Neo's belly button, but during this ten-minute sequence, the film touches on some obvious Big Brother themes in totally original ways. Everything—from the mis en scene to the sickly green tint given this and every scene in the Matrix—builds our anticipation until this wonderfully climactic scene where Neo is delivered to Morpheus for the first time. The rain pours, the thunder rumbles, and our hero is offered two pills. Words don't even do it justice.
Sure, it's all a little cornball, and Reeves' stiffness is a distraction (even 13-year-old John noticed that). But there's something so satisfying about this whole story, which is equal parts comfortably familiar and daringly complex. That these little-known filmmakers got a major studio to greenlight a project of this nature is stunning (and something that's covered extensively in the Blu-Ray special features ... more on that below). At its core, however, The Matrix is about stepping up to a challenge and learning to be comfortable in one's own skin. That it surrounds these basic themes with heady sci-fi and reality/fantasy contemplations give the narrative the heft it needs to endure the onslaught of revisionists who've sought for ten years or more to minimize this film's impact in light of a hoard of rabid fans and two admittedly poor sequels.
Anyway, enough about the film. I think it's great, if you couldn't tell. The Blu-Ray package is exemplary—not just for the pristine picture and sound quality, but also the special features package, which is both exhaustive and a little exhausting. The highlight is a feature-length documentary titled "The Matrix Revisited", which delves deeply into the entire process of bringing the Wachowskis' vision to the screen. You can view the documentary on its own (it runs mostly chronologically through the filmmaking process). There's also something called the "In-Movie Experience", which is essentially a video commentary. Anyone as familiar with the film as I am might prefer this version, which plays PIP-style throughout the film.
This, of course, isn't the only featurette. The Blu-Ray includes 17 others, all of which range from two to fifteen minutes and dig more deeply into some of the film's trickier scenes or more unusual concepts. There's "The Music Revisited", which is ... well, I'm not exactly sure what it is besides a series of 41 seemingly random house tracks, none of which (at least as far as I could tell) play in the film. Also included are the film's teaser, trailer, and TV spots.
Looking for commentaries? The film has three—philosophers (Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber), critics (Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson), and cast and crew (Carrie-Anne Moss, editor Zach Staenberg, and VFX supervisor John Gaeta). There's also a music-only track with commentary from composer Don Davis. Maybe the only thing missing is a piece from the Wachowskis—oh, wait, there's a lengthy "written introduction" to the film by the pair of directors.
Even non-Matrix fans have to admit the film's an important one on a number of fronts. Technologically speaking, it's had a huge impact. Plus, its ideas still resonate, and it left a permanent fingerprint on pop culture. Fans of the film would do well to check out some of what this Blu-Ray has to offer. Of course, it's great just to be able to watch the film with high-quality picture and sound. But getting the chance to learn so much about one of my generation's landmark films is just pure cinephile joy.
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