Matrix, The (1999)

Has it really been ten years?

The Matrix is something like my generation's Star Wars -- a myth-maker, a (pop-) cultural capital-"e" Event. It was the first movie I ever saw twice at the cinema. It was the first I wanted to see again right after walking out the first time. It was the first DVD I ever bought. I know most of the soundtrack by heart.

I've been suffering the hatred of overexposure for a few years now; it didn't help that I had to study it in a philosophy course at university (full circle: some years earlier it had been my first exposure to Descartes' evil demon and corresponding mindfuck). The hyper-cool novelties like "bullet time" have been integrated into modern Hollywood that they seem passé. And it starts Keanu "robot" Reeves.

I only put it on as a spectacular spectacular to test my new HDMI cable and as that it was more than competent. The score is clumsier than I remember, and the dreadful ending still irks me -- seriously, an explosion of green goop? -- but it really is thrilling. The fight scenes are extraordinary for a Western production and Weaving makes a superb villain.

It's funny that what dates it most is the mobile phones -- if it were made today, would Neo carry an iPhone?

Has it really been twenty years?

Nostalgia trips are a constant hazard in middle age, but everything about this film still speaks to everything I ever thought was cool. The soundtrack is like coming home. The combat is amazing.

I have to remind myself that this movie had no sequels or I'd even go back and watch those. Still so good.