By Seth Lukas Hynes
The Healesville Memorial Hall will screen the entire Matrix film series throughout April.
The Memo will screen The Matrix on Saturday April 2, The Matrix Reloaded on Saturday April 9, The Matrix Revolutions on Sunday April 10, and The Matrix Resurrections on Saturday April 23.
The Matrix is an iconic, groundbreaking film series, and I’m thrilled to see these films return to the Yarra Valley next month.
The Matrix (1999) follows Neo (Keanu Reeves), who discovers that his reality is a simulation called the Matrix, which is controlled by AI overlords known as the Machines. Neo’s nemesis is Agent Smith (the impeccably sinister Hugo Weaving), a Machine program tasked with policing the Matrix against the human Resistance.
Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix pioneered dynamic slow-motion effects – now known as “bullet-time” – and popularised cyberpunk, Hong Kong-style fight choreography and philosophical depth in Western blockbusters.
Reloaded is an over-the-top but stylish and compelling thrill-ride, with fantastic action, fun characters and an engaging narrative about control. Revolutions is an epic conclusion about choice, as Neo and the people of Zion, the last free human city, choose to stand against the overwhelming Machine army and the megalomaniacal, ultra-powerful Smith.
Neo and Smith’s subway fight in The Matrix is one of the best fight scenes ever filmed, with a three-act structure that tells a tense story in itself. The chateau swordfight in Reloaded is beautifully-choreographed, and Reloaded’s action has a (mostly) well-integrated note of physical comedy, epitomised by the “Burly Brawl” between Neo and dozens of Smith clones. Neo and Smith’s final fight in Revolutions is like an apocalyptic remake of their subway fight, and the climactic siege on Zion is still a staggering special effects spectacle with grand, even terrifying scale.
Much of the original trilogy was shot in Sydney and features a large number of Australian actors, including Weaving, Farscape actor Paul Goddard as Agent Brown, and Bruce Spence, who has a small but memorable role as the Trainman in Revolutions.
The Matrix Resurrections, directed by just Lana Wachowski, is a divisive and very self-referential entry in the series, but has touching themes of love, identity and freedom at its core, and sees the characters, cast and director explore the legacy of the Matrix series itself.
One of my fondest memories is of watching the first three Matrix films back-to-back with my father at the Memo in December 2003. I came in costume, wearing a black cloak I found at a church sale, and with red and blue jellybeans (as a reference to the red and blue pills from the first film) in my pocket.
With these April screenings (which, full disclosure, I helped organise), I’m excited to see the full Matrix series return, nearly twenty years later, to the Memo for old fans and new viewers alike to enjoy.
You can book your tickets through this link: https://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Experience/The-Arts/Cultural-venues/The-Memo-Healesville/Upcoming-events-at-The-Memo
