Look, I realise you don't really need me to tell you that The Matrix is quite a good movie. I'm not going to cover its plotline or praise its cast redundantly. In some ways, this article is just to remind you that if you're finding yourself lost browsing the many, many options among the best Netflix movies – you can just always choose The Matrix and have a fantastic time.
However, I am informed by men wearing black suits who've inexplicably turned up at the TechRadar office that an article needs more than just one paragraph, so I'll talk about some of the impressive parts of the movie that tend to get overlooked in the face of the awesome action and drama.
The cinematography, by the great Bill Pope, is absolutely astounding. There are so many shots written indelibly into my mind, and I can tell you from stills not only what part of the movie that is, but what comes just before and just after. That's partly because they're all so distinct and well-realized as individual pieces, but also due to the second thing I want to mention: the fantastic combination of script, visuals and editing that gives the movie a better flow than basically anything else.
The Matrix is fantastic at moving you from one scene to the next, or between locations in the same scene. It rarely needs establishing shots of locations, because the dialog from the end of one scene makes it so clear what's coming next that you can just cut to something kicking off – or the sound bleeds from one moment to the next, tying together that these things are linked, even if something has been skipped in the middle. There's no sense of 'How did we get here? Who's that guy?' You understand that you've skipped the shoe leather, you can conclude in half a second who that guy is based on context; The Matrix is all killer, no filler.
In the latest 4K HDR versions with Dolby Atmos, it's a fantastic showpiece for the best TVs and the best soundbars – you've got a swelling score, gunshots and explosions, pouring rain, strange sci-fi sounds, and the forever-effective swoosh of bullet time. If you've upgraded your home theater tech recently and haven't put The Matrix on since you did so, give a go, because it'll really show off what your new system can do.
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