• SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I still can’t believe The Matrix is from '99. The themes and the effects hold up incredibly well, it feels far more modern.

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I strongly disagree, Matrix was very much a product of its time, if it had released a decade before or a decade after it would not have had the same impact.

      In the 80s as a general rule people didn’t know of the internet nor were they very computer savvy.

      In the late 00s cellphones started to be ubiquitous and people were using broadband almost exclusively.

      So there was only a small period of time when people were familiar with the idea of telephone lines carrying data, which is a core concept of the movie (exiting the Matrix through your cellphone or laptop is a lot less cool and less prone to plot hooks).

      Not to mention that the 90s were extremely gothic and grimdark about the future. I don’t think a movie that the base premise is in the future humans are enslaved to machines and hooked to a large simulation to keep them from realizing they’re slaves would work in any time period besides the 90s.

      • SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
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        3 minutes ago

        It’s for sure a product of its time, but it really doesn’t feel like a 1999 movie. Around that time we had

        • Sixth sense
        • American beauty
        • Eyes wide shut
        • Being John Malkovich
        • Fight Club

        Matrix has such a stark level of visual and thematic modernity compared to those. Maybe Fight Club comes near, but the other movies look like they’re from a different decade.