Where do I begin? This is a brand new 4K scan from the original negative of the movie with an added HDR10 & Dolby Vision HDR grading, which looks fantastic!

Picture Quality: 4.5/5
The Matrix was shot on 35MM film, so the film grain is more prevalent with the higher resolution. but there is much to be happy about with this new transfer, the uptick in resolution reveals fine details in the costuming, actor faces, and production design and with Dolby Vision HDR, The Colors are bolder and more vivid, more natural , contrast is impeccable, and the black levels are super inky. My jaw was on the floor the whole time...I couldn't believe I was watching a 19 year old movie. Although there were a few scenes with a touch of softness, the Picture quality was almost perfect, and it was in every which way, the best viewing of this movie that I had ever experienced. (I've owned the DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray sets before this)

Sound Quality: 5/5
This 4K set has a new Dolby Atmos mix that is reference quality and will be your go to disc, to demo off to your friends and family! Great use of overhead sounds. nice crisp, clear dialogue, everything just sounds so clean and dynamic. LFE levels are also impressive...you feel every gunshot and explosion with heart-pounding grunt.
(**WARNING Spoiler alert ahead.**) I damn near thought my sub woofer was going to knock my house off its foundation near the end when Agent Smith explodes and Neo is inside of him, sending that pulsating shock wave inside of the Matrix.

This 4K upgrade is worth every penny!

I can literally watch this movie over and over and over and over and over again. The subliminal messaging in it speaks so much truth about the world we live in. "It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to Blind you from the truth that you are a slave, you live in a prison that you cannot see smell taste or touch." Truer words have never been spoken.

This movie really holds up over time. It's almost 2 decades old (can you believe that?) but it still holds up. The tech stuff that Mr. Anderson does in the fake Matrix world doesn't get outdated because the writers were smart enough to keep it simple and non descript. (He gives a disc of unknown contents to someone after writing a script that does who knows what. They didn't have him using Quick Basic to code a virus for Lotus 1-2-3 or something that would have been quickly outdated and looked dumb 20 years later)

Then in the 'real world' all the ninja stuff Neo and Trinity do is still awesome action. Bullettime filming isn't innovative anymore but it still looks cool in an action movie.

The story holds up well. (On this one. The sequels didn't hold up long enough to get through the first screening the day they came out) As it's core this is still a story about the duality of consciousness and its just incredibly well put together. When Morpheus offers the red/blue pill choice...that scene still has a lot of depth to it on a psychological level.

Oh, and in HD the visuals in The Matrix just crush it. It is a whole different experience in HD. I remember getting this on DVD when it first came out and DVD players were all the rage. I couldn't believe how amazing this looked back then in 480i on a 30 inch screen with the digital DVD presentation. Not on a 60 inch 1080p screen this is visually jaw dropping.

I was nervous about rewatching this movie as it's one of my all time favorites and I haven't seen it in about 10 years. I was worried that it would seem totally cheesy now and it would ruin the memory of it. But that doesn't happen at all. It holds up very well.

Absolutely mindblowing transfer. I don't think much needs to be said about the film itself, so I will leave notes on the transfers here as it is important people understand what they are buying.

The new bluray transfer in here is garbage. It looks like they converted for 4K HDR and then did nothing about going back to SDR for the bluray in 1080p. It leaves the whole film looking overblown and weird. It's not something I would watch. The greenish filter that was recast on the previous bluray is gone on this release, so you might want to keep your old one just for the sake of a different color temperature. The old bluray looks better than the new bluray by far IMHO.

And then we have the UHD. It kicks the crap out of any previous release. Gone is the green filter, and in its place is a proper color temp that defines every area of the spectrum accurately for this film. It looks marvelous. Not too overblown and not too green. A very happy medium with tons of new details. It is shockingly good looking sometimes. You will probably never go back to any other release.

So buy this for the UHD not the new bluray. You will need 4K to enjoy this, or if not watch your old green version as it still looks very good to me despite being different than the original color temp. The packaging comes with slipcover sealed by plastic so you always get a slipcover.

13 blasphemies. not sure why hollywood insists on blaspheming God, but it does. Jesus' Name is the only one you ever hear used as a cuss word. Hmmm, wonder why?

What a classic way ahead of its time in science fiction mixed with just cool ideas. It never seems dated even though its 20+ years old. Top 5 favorite movie and subsequent series.

The Matrix disc is 2.4 aspect ratio ONLY. It cannot be stretched to fill the screen. The ability to stretch or fill or zoom is based upon hardware AND the disc coding. The Matrix movie will Not fill the screen regardless of your hardware. It can be viewed in 2.4 ONLY.
Be warned, this is 2.4 aspect ONLY.
If you enjoy watching 1/3 of your big screen TV give you High Definition black bars then these movies are ok.

This FLAW is the result of improper conversion from DVD and or original material.
Since the original material was shot in 2.4 aspect ratio, then these movies "should" be allowed to zoom or stretch.
What happened is the product of faster easier cheaper.
It is faster easier cheaper to create a conversion that is 1080X1920 (16.9) from 2.4 if the video is ignored and the entire aspect of each frame is converted.
This literally places less computing stress on the CPU and all is done much faster.
The problem is.... instead of the black bar areas having NO VIDEO SIGNAL that appears as black bars, you now have black bars that ARE A VIDEO SIGNAL that is High Definition Black.
Because the entire screen is now filled with video (1/3 black bars) you cannot zoom or stretch the video to fit.
That is, an Improper Conversion.

The Matrix is a film classic, and it will continue to appreciate as we ascend into the technological advancements of today's world. It's incredibly odd watching this movie 20 years later now, and seeing how some of the assumptions about the internet, technology, and society were addressed here. All of that withheld, it's still a great piece of sci-fi action that has rarely been met with a competitor or similar style. A lot of the stylistic elements of The Matrix have been attempted in other films, but never used quite as successfully as it was here. Things such as "bullet time" have been overused since the release of this film, but exemplify the impact it had on movies and viewers.

The Wachowskis are particularly interesting to watch in Special Features, especially now that they are both women. They don't seem to have any highly technical background or understanding of film, but are making the movie they want to see and being particular where they as a viewer think it would count. I think this movie was the beginning of Keanu's highly popular career arc from the late 90s to the mid-2000s. Where he seemingly died off and has now been resurrected again by John Wick. Laurence Fishbourne is great as Morpheus and plays the master to Neo perfectly. Carrie Anne-Moss, where is she?! She's outstanding in this film, but probably no one is better than Hugo Weaving, who with little to say or do than glance makes such an impact on the film, and ultimately the story of this universe. This all looks fantastic in 4K!

This release is jam-packed with special features and FOUR audio commentaries, which I was incredibly excited to listen to. I can't say it shed any light on concepts or ideas that I haven't heard of before, but it's so interesting to hear intellectuals, philosophers, and psychologists talk about both what they like about the film and its depictions, as well as what they don't like. One of the commentaries is from film review writers that hated the film, and despite their critiques find a way to frame the film's importance in cinema. It's quite interesting, and it's prefaced by a letter from the Wachowskis on pitching this commentary to WB, which is hilarious. Imagine another movie that would have a review from people who didn't like it, just to give the viewer another perspective from which to absorb this wild ride.

At this point, I believe there's a trilogy release on 4K as well as a steelbook at other retailers. I'd recommend getting the whole package as it's likely cheaper, and I bought this when the other 2 weren't released yet and had to buy the last 2 movies separately. This movie is still phenomenal, and holds up just as well today if not better. It's incredible to see how this film has matured and become social commentary that's just as relevant now as it ever was. The Wachowskis have gone on to do some great films and some not so great, but hoping that the new M4TRIX (see what I did there) does to post-2020, what this film did for the early 2000s.