Tuesday


Labels: ,

The Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Ever

Last Thursday, Entertainment Weekly named, "The Matrix" as the best Sci-Fi film of the past 25 years. I would agree and I am not just saying that because it is my favorite movie, but the announcement had me thinking.

Several years prior, I had an elaborate argument with an inept Seattle Times film critic, I will call him "Barney".

This "Barney" published his list of top films of 1999. Conspicuously, the list was missing one key film - The Matrix. Naturally I responded and questioned his list and the absence of The Matrix. The critic responded that he did not particularly like Keanu Reeves and that he found the story completely unbelievable. WHAT?!

I don't know about you, but I usually don't believe that the movies that I watch are real..."Barney" was allowing his personal feelings for the star of the film as an excuse to leave a great movie off of his list. I fired back to "Barney" that The Matrix was by far the greatest Sci-Fi film of all time and raised the standard enormously in field of special effects with it's stunning imagery. "Barney" smacked that he thought Star Wars was THE best - yeah, back in 1977!

The Matrix created a whole new level of convergence between computer digital animation and film - No other movie had such a successful combination of several complex elements. This movie with it's deeply layered storyline and evolutionary, but flawed characters combined a masterpiece of intellect and visual eye candy.

The Matrix (Original) attempted to present a story of value to meaningful and real questions that we as humans constantly ask, "Who am I, Why am I here, What is my purpose, Is there something more?".

I had seen the movie in the theater with a former boyfriend when it was first released in 1999. We sat through the entire movie mesmerized to the point that we could not speak. I still remember the opening sequence of the movie with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) kicking butt - and thinking to myself, "What is this movie about?" and soon, "Wow - I've never seen anything like this...".

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Wookies, Ewoks, Skywalkers, and Robots but they are far less believable. The characters of Star Wars with all of the be-bops, boops, and growls reminded me of the stuffed animals I had as child - in a galaxy far, far away...

The best Sci-Fi movies are ALWAYS the ones that take place on Earth. We are curious to see what our state of being will be in the future, maybe it gives us hope or at least some artificial satisfaction for the questions that we are all asking ourselves. For this reason, The Matrix IS the greatest Sci-Fi movie of the past 25 years. Second place goes to Blade Runner (The classic).

Personally, I am quite fond of Keanu and am secretly lobbying the Wachowski brothers to make the "Prequel" for the big screen, but they appear to be too busy in pre-production on Speed Racer (Go Speed Racer, Go!).