The Matrix (series)

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The Matrix franchise comprises three science-fiction/adventure films written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers and produced by Joel Silver. The first film The Matrix was released in March, 1999. After the film's success, two sequels were greenlighted, titled The Matrix Reloaded (May, 2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (November, 2003). The characters and settings of the Matrix fictional universe are further explored in other media, including animation, comics, and video games.

The series depicts a complex science fiction story incorporating many philosophical elements. Other influences include cyberpunk, mythology, anime, Hong Kong action films (particularly "heroic bloodshed" and martial arts movies), simulated reality and philosophy of mind. Though not directly, key concepts of several beliefs are touched upon, including; Baha'ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Judaism, Jainism, Islam and Atheism.

Contents

[edit] The Matrix

Main article: The Matrix

The series began with 1999's The Matrix. The film, directed by the Wachowski brothers and produced by Joel Silver, was highly successful, earning $456 million worldwide and beating Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for the Academy Award for Visual Effects. In addition, by 2000, the DVD release of the film reached three million sales, the first DVD release in the United States to do so.[1]

[edit] Sequels

Main articles: The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, The Animatrix, and Enter the Matrix

The movie's mainstream success led to the greenlighting of the next two films of the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. It took a number of years and several iterations of scripts before the final films were approved. The two sequels, which tell a continuous story rather than being stand-alone episodes, were filmed simultaneously and released six months apart. The trilogy is known as The Matrix Trilogy.

In acknowledgment of the strong influence of Japanese anime on the Matrix series, The Animatrix was produced in 2003. This is a collection of nine animated short films intended to further flesh out the concepts, history, characters and setting of the series. The Animatrix project was overseen by the Wachowski brothers, but they wrote only four of the segments themselves and did not direct any of them. Many of the segments were produced by notable figures from the world of Japanese animation. Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website, one was shown in cinemas with Dreamcatcher, one was shown on MTV, MTV2, MTV3 and MTV4, and the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts shortly after the release of The Matrix Reloaded.

In May 2003, Enter the Matrix was released in the United States concurrently with The Matrix Reloaded. The first of three video games related to the films, it told a story running parallel to Reloaded and featured scenes shot during the filming of Reloaded and Revolutions, but intended specially for the game.

[edit] Box office performance


Film Release date Box office revenue Box office ranking Reference
United States Foreign Worldwide All time domestic All time worldwide
The Matrix March 31, 1999 $171,479,930 $288,900,000 $460,379,930 #125 #70
The Matrix Reloaded May 15, 2003 $281,576,461 $457,023,240 $738,599,701 #33 #27
The Matrix Revolutions November 5, 2003 $139,313,948 $285,674,263 $424,988,211 #191 #88
The Matrix film series 1999- 2003 $592,370,339 $1,031,597,503 $1,623,967,842 #10

[edit] Additional media

Over a year after the cinematic release of the final film, Revolutions, Warner Home Video released The Ultimate Matrix Collection, a 10-disc DVD set of the films. It included the three films, The Animatrix, and six discs of additional material. A Limited Edition of the collection encases the ten discs, as well as a resin bust of Neo, inside a Lucite box.

Two more Matrix video games were released in 2005. The MMORPG The Matrix Online continues the story beyond Revolutions, while The Matrix: Path of Neo allows players to control the series' protagonist Neo in scenes from the film trilogy.

In addition, several comics and short stories based on the series – one written by the Wachowskis, the others by guest writers – were released on the official website. Many of these have since been collected in two printed volumes of The Matrix Comics.

[edit] Reputation and influence

While the first movie was extremely successful, both critically and popularly, the quality of the sequels is still a matter of debate. Some fans and professional critics believe they exceed the quality and conceptual heights of the first film, while others found the later films disappointing.[2] The Matrix Reloaded was well received by critics, currently holding an average rating of 73% (Certified Fresh) on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the reaction of some fans to this sequel has been mixed. When The Matrix Revolutions was released, one complaint was that it did not give clear cut answers to the questions raised in Reloaded but rather raised new ones.[3]

The Matrix series has also inspired a new religious movement called Matrixism or The path of the One.[4][5][6][7][8] The religion was conceived by an anonymous group in mid-2004[9][10] and by May 2005 it claimed to have attracted upwards of 300 members.[6] Currently the religion's Geocities website claims "over nineteen hundred members". Even though Matrixism has received significant attention in the media[11][12][13] there is still debate as to whether or not Matrixists are serious about their beliefs.[4][10]

[edit] Books

[edit] Official

[edit] Unofficial

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Press release - August 1, 2000 - The Matrix DVD: The first to sell 3 million". URL retrieved 26 July 2006.
  2. ^ Rotten tomatoes review of Matrix Revolutions
  3. ^ New York Metro review of Matrix Revolutions
  4. ^ a b Jordison, Sam (2005). The Joy of Sects: An A-Z of Cults, Cranks and Religious Eccentrics: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sects But Were Afraid to Ask, pp 127-9, Robson Books. ISBN 1861059051
  5. ^ Bouma, Gary (2007). Australian Soul, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521673891
  6. ^ a b Morris, Linda (May 19 2005). They're all God Movies. NPR. Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
  7. ^ Moscaritolo, Maria (12 June 2006). Matter of faith. News Limited Australia. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
  8. ^ J. Gordon Melton (2007). "Perspective: New New Religions: Revisiting a Concept". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 10 (4): 103–112. The Regents of the University of California. doi:10.1525/nr.2007.10.4.103. ISSN 1092-6690. 
  9. ^ Possamai, Adam (2005). "Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament", Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISBN 90-5201-272-5 / US-ISBN 0-8204-6634-4 pb.
  10. ^ a b Jordison, Sam (April 8 2006). Everything you always wanted to know about sects. The Scotsman. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
  11. ^ Kasriel, Alex (2006). The joy of sects. The Sun. Retrieved on 2007-06-03.
  12. ^ "Nieuw geloof". Esquire Magazine Netherlands (24 May 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. “English translation: Because there is nothing more fun than discussing a film, 1400 fans of the film have set up a new religion, Matrixism (not to be confused with Marxism). Just like their hero Neo from The Matrix, they release themselves from The Matrix with a red pill.”
  13. ^ "Matrixism -"The Path of the One"" (January 19, 2007). Esquire Magazine UK. Zinio. “The 1,400 worldwide "Matrixists", or "Pathists", cite the three Matrix films as their religious texts. Like Matrix hero Neo, they choose to free themselves from the Matrix” 

[edit] External links


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The Matrix franchise
The Matrix • The Matrix Reloaded • The Matrix Revolutions
The Animatrix
Soundtracks
Video games
Characters
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