I remember sitting in a movie theater in April 1999 waiting for The Matrix to begin. I had my popcorn, soda and managed to sneak in a pastrami sandwich with hot sauce. I didn’t know much about the film other than it was supposed to have great effects and great action.
Then the movie began and Carrie Anne Moss jumped up as the cameras swirled around her in the now famous “bullet time”. As soon as I saw that sequence I was sold. Bullet time plus leather makes for a very happy 25 year old male. For the next two hours they could have showed me three episodes of Cop Rock and I would have been glued to the screen.
I still think The Matrix is a groundbreaking film and should be listed as a monumental achievement in film history. It’s up there with Bonnie & Clyde, Jaws and yes, even Citizen Kane as a film that altered how we make and how we approach movies. The film became THE story of 1999 in a year when Star Wars Episode 1 was supposed to be all anybody talked about. (I was still talking about making éclairs the national dessert of America, but I would sprinkle the conversation with mentions of The Matrix too.) The Matrix out sci-fied The Phantom Menace and deservedly so (and this comes from somebody who still walks around trying to use The Force to move inanimate objects and hums the opening music whenever he takes off his pants).
So what do you do if everyone calls you a genius and your film makes over $171 million dollars domestically? You make two sequels and demand no studio interference. The Wachowskis let their minds wander and came up with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Both films had awesome action and none of the story (or rather too much of the story) of the original film. (Who was that guy in the room with all the TVs? If I live in the matrix and I’m watching The Matrix will I eventually see myself?) While they both made a lot of money, they were confusing, indulgent, and not nearly as groundbreaking as the first film.
Due to the immense amount of money the Wachowskis have brought they can pretty much demand the green light for whatever project they feel like making. Now they have settled on Speed Racer based on the old cartoon.
The film looks like it has the visual flourish they brought to The Matrix and its sequels, but do people really care about the story? I’ve seen a few clips of the old cartoon but never really got too into it. It seems that people are more into the cartoon now because of the camp factor of watching bad Japanese animation. Will awesome visual effects but lack of a great story be enough to bring in a summer audience? I know summer films are all about bigger and better effects, and Speed Racer certainly looks like it provides that but in a summer landscape where every weekend has a Blockbuster opening you need to have a decent story to make sure you can make money in your second weekend too.
The film is sandwiched between Iron Man which is getting great reviews and the sequel to Narnia which has a built in audience. While the Wachowskis might be the most visually stunning directors out there, their most recent Matrix sequels proved that if left alone their story suffers greatly.
USA
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