My top films of all time do not
cover a huge range - mostly sci-fi, adventure, animation and back round to
sci-fi again and again. I thank my parents for that, TV and movie entertainment
included mostly Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, Farscape, Stargate, Andromeda,
and you can see where this list is going... So I guess it was only natural I
follow in those futuristic, space venturing footsteps!
So it should be no surprise that the first film to add to my Top Picks is one that has featured on many lists of greatest sci-fi films of all time and in 2012 was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for preservation - of which only 25 films per year are picked for their 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant' content.
Back in June 1999 (in the UK), The Matrix burst onto the screen with visual
effects so smooth and slick you almost slid right off your seat. I was 13 and I
was speechless. I wanted to be Trinity, I wanted to 'date' Neo and I wanted to
fight like Mr Smith and/or Morpheus. Hell, I wanted to live that life even as
messed up as it was.
To find out that the human race has become a battery pack for a
biomechanical species of intelligent creatures was intriguing. All seen through
the eyes of a computer hacker who ‘knew’ everything was not as it seemed, but
didn’t quite know the truth. Just as any teenager believes already. The red
pill or the blue pill? Decisions, decisions.
The film was smart, passionate and boldly visual – let’s be
honest, it was f*cking cool. Or “excellent”,
as Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan may have put it!
Whoa. Déjà vu
I was hooked start to finish, especially with that pounding
soundtrack which included the likes of Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, The Prodigy,
Rage Against the Machine and Rammstein. There are still certain songs that I
hear being played which take me straight back to that world and inevitably make
me want to watch it again.
The spectacular action scenes made my jaw drop over and over. The
use of relatively new ‘bullet time’ created surreal and powerful
eyeball-rocking visuals, and after the film was finished the buzz carried on. I
didn't want it to end, I wanted more. Four years later, more eventually came in
the form of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions disappointingly.
They don’t matter though, The Matrix is still a perfect stand-alone film.
He’s Beginning to Believe
Keanu Reeves (who may not be everyone’s favourite actor) shone as the unwitting hero of this dystopian future, awkward and not too excited about the prospect of living in this world that he had once been oblivious to but was curious about nevertheless. Hugo Weaving’s odd performance fell just right as the entity that didn’t want to be either human or machine, and was the perfect match for Reeves’ Neo. His telling monologues were Weaving’s centrepieces for his deliriously maniacal delivery.
“I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever
you want to call it, I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell, if there is
such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink and every time I
do, I fear that I've somehow been infected by it.”
What’s great is that 15 years later the effects, the story, the
impact still work well. They still make you wonder...
Being one of my Top Picks
means it’s one of the few films I could watch over and over and not get sick
of... Ever! Which reminds me, I think it’s time for another viewing and ponder
the meaning of life.
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