25 Years of bullet Time. I’m not sure what else I can say about The Matrix except to personalize this experience. I remember when this started to be a thing. It didn’t open big, it opened instead with an inquisitive opening that spread with word of mouth. Admittedly, my first viewing of The Matrix was at home. even worse, it was probably VHS. Yet, as soon as you hear Hugo weaving stretch out that Mr. Anderson, you realize it’s not so much how you finally reached The Matrix, it is that you chose the right pill and now your eyes are opened to The Matrix.

It’s a great movie. This was the image I had of Carrie Anne Moss before I saw her do some underrated exceptional work in Memento. This was me getting to watch someone perfectly understand what made Keanu Reeves appealing as a movie star. The poor guy had been in so many shitty movies, even during the 90’s, as people tried to figure out why he was a movie star. They weren’t all attempts to copy Speed either. Poor guy got stuck doing everything from Johnny Mnemonic to A Walk In The clouds. By the time The Matrix hit, he wasn’t a sure thing.

And then we have Laurence Fishburn as Morpheus, the epitome of cool. Swag before swag was a thing. You can see how much influence Fishburnee’s version had when you watch yaya Abdul Mateen try to replicate it in The Matrix Resurrections.

This was my first time watching The Matrix with audio description, and I thought it was damn good, all things considered. I did think that possibly bullet time could have had a deeper description, because it is so iconic, so cool, and there were shots in this film that no one else had ever pulled off before. The Wachowski’s really broke new ground.

I also took the opportunity to round out the rest of the franchise and watch all four films, all with audio description. The first film was done by The Media Access Group, narrated by Peter Hailing. The Matrix Reloaded is narrated by Miles Neff, The Matrix Revolutions was done by ITFC, and I tragically have no notes for the Matrix Resurrections. As far as the audio description winner, it has to be Miles Neff on Matrix Reloaded. There’s something about Miles’s narration that is so eager, so full of excitement for the medium that he’s describing, that he makes your experience feel great. He’s a turn that frown upside down type of person, and he’s so enthusiastic about The Matrix Reloaded, that I became excited to be watching it again. I felt like I had a friend who I was just exposing them to the film for the first time, and they were super excited for the experience.

Every film is fine, but Miles pushes them above the rest. I really only love the first film. Reloaded is OK, and has a pretty substantial car chase sequence that rocks, as well as a decent use of Trinity before she just becomes Neo’s girl. In revolutions, trinity just stands around a lot, the film is dark, and it struggles to make sense of this world. Resurrections has some cool ideas, but has no concept of how to make any of them land. the casting is also so weird, as neither Jonathan Groff or Neil Patrick Harris feel appropriate.

But I’m here because 25 years ago, Morpheus was on a quest to find The One, and that led him to John Anderson, a computer programmer all too eager to follow the white rabbit. That experience was great, still is great, and if we could go back and give retro Oscars, it would be much more lauded nowadays.

Final Grades:

The Matrix- A+

The Matrix Reloaded: B+

The Matrix Revolutions: C-

The Matrix Resurrections: C-