The Matrix - Legacy

Legacy

The Matrix has had a strong effect on action film-making in Hollywood. It set a new standard for cinematic fight scenes by hiring acclaimed choreographers (such as Yuen Woo-ping) from the Hong Kong action cinema scene, well known for its production of martial arts films. The success of The Matrix put those choreographers and their techniques in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication: for example, wire work was employed in X-Men (2000), and Yuen Woo-ping's brother Yuen Cheung-Yan was choreographer on Daredevil (2003).

Following The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera dollying around them. The ability to slow down time enough to distinguish the motion of bullets was used as a central gameplay mechanic of several video games, including Max Payne, in which the feature was explicitly referred to as "bullet time" (although the game went into production before the film was released). The Matrix's signature special effect has also been parodied numerous times, in comedy films such as Scary Movie, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Shrek and Kung Pow! Enter the Fist; in animated TV series such as The Simpsons, Fairly Oddparents and Family Guy; in the OVA series FLCL; and in video games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day, along with a more elaborate parody called Marx Reloaded, in which the central relationship between Neo and Morpheus is represented as an imaginary encounter between Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky.