Oh boy, this is a personally exciting one: The Matrix is rip-roaring back into theaters to celebrate its 20th year of existence. AMC Theaters and Dolby Cinema have teamed up to announce this joyous occasion, which will start on August 30th and run for an entire week, up until September 7th.
Keanu Reeves’ first kung-fu fight debuted back in 1999 and the world was not at all ready for what it was about to witness. Lana and Lilly Wachowski, fresh off the queer neo-noir Bound, brought a decisively unique vision to the sci-fi genre. They implemented some of the best special effects ever seen and some of the cleanest hand-to-hand combat in Hollywood and wowed audiences with their ability to make a bunch of science mumbo jumbo actually kind of make sense.
Plus, the movie just oozed cool…for 1999, at least. Those sunglasses still don’t look too bad, but the all-black and trenchcoat thing is, uh, no good in this day and age.
Of course, The Matrix influenced the Hollywood landscape for years to come. The concept of “Bullet Time” turned into a household concept, ripped off again and again, and sci-fi became profitable and less stupid. Hacking, meanwhile, was, like, cool, and not cheesy as it was shown in Hackers. Seriously, do you think we’d have John Wick and his amazingness if it wasn’t for Neo? We’d certainly be short a few good memes.
Personally, I never got to see the movie on the big screen. My grandma though, against her better judgement, bought me the DVD from a clearance store on a whim when I was younger and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. As such, you can bet I’ll be heading out to theaters in a few weeks’ time to experience The Matrix all over again. The only question that remains is, will you?
