The Matrix is 11 yrs old

The Matrix has Hooked Us

It was 1999 ... then it felt like connectedness and over the years, the enormity of the references in the Matrix has been revealed. It is a film of everything pathbending and has become the template of ambition (there is no bar to raise while working on the matrix - it is the bar).The movie took cyberfiction staples like those found in William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy — including his classic 1984 novel, Neuromancer, from which the internetworked concept of “the matrix” is taken — and mashed them together with anime, wire-fu, postmodernism, metaphysics, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations, and a torrent of other texts and contexts. The film also juggles religious (hinduism, buddhism, christianity )and philosophical premises

Filmed mostly in Sydney, Australia, and anchored by a hacker named Neo and his battle-worn leader Morpheus , The Matrix follows a group of intrepid rebels as they rage against their machine overlords, which farm energy from a  humanity trapped in an immersive hyperreality. (Vikas spoke about the Chinese factorial analysis of the Super Sperm)

Featuring kinetic action sequences soundtracked to the industrial thump of acclaimed artists like Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry and others, the Wachowski brothers’ film attracted ecstatic praise from cinema auteurs like Darren Aronofsky, M. Night Shyamalan and Joss Whedon. The film also utterly captivated writer Gibson, who explained in the book The Art of the Matrix that “Neo is my favorite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely.”

Because the film reflected myriad influences on its own ubiquitous mirror shades, it was often criticized for its derivativeness and even accused of plagiarism. Famed comics writer Grant Morrison asserted, “The Wachowskis nicked The Invisibles, and everyone in the know is well aware of this fact, but of course they’re unlikely to come out and say it.” Other film critics, entranced by the film’s metaphysical explorations, were nevertheless put off by its reliance on visceral action, especially in the third act.

But, like postmodernism itself, the film is a gripping amalgam of its artistic and philosophical predecessors. Overtly remixing everything from Rene Descartes to the groundbreaking anime Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix is a blinding summation of all of its influences, rather than a copycat of any one, or 100, of them. Because of this, its stature has only grown in the decade since it exploded across the screen.

Visual signifiers and sequences from The Matrix quickly infiltrated every corner of popular culture. From TV shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy to similarly postmodernist films such as Scary Movie and Shrek, directors aped Neo or his bullet-time ballet.

The Matrix franchise quickly ballooned from one mind-blowing film to three, spawning comics, novels, console and online games, as well as the stunning animated shorts of The Animatrix. By the time it was all over, the Wachowski brothers — who had only directed one feature film prior to The Matrix — were firmly ensconced as pop-culture visionaries.