I went to see Spiderman when it came out here, and whilst I found the story
unsurprisingly predictable, I thought it interesting that I was becoming
bored in the action sequences - good guy hits bad guy, bad guy looks out of
it, recovers, nearly kills good guy (who always recovers straight away) who
then gets bad guy etc. etc. What did wake me up was the nod to the Matrix
in the final fight with the Green Goblin when he throws some weapon at
Spidey, who dodges them in slow motion aka Keanu Reeves' character.
In my opinion, what the Matrix did, aside from presenting interesting (for a
mainstream film) ideological / philosophical thoughts, was to really raise
the bar in terms of action sequences. Ok, Spiderman was never going to be a
cutting-edge film, but Matrix has become the benchmark of all action films.
Like all great films that bring something new to a formula or genre that
seemed exhausted, I believe that The Matrix has succeeded in modernising the
action genre and particular fight sequences to the extent that it seems
difficult to watch any action film without judging it against The Matrix.
That said, it'll be interesting to see what the next two are like compared
to the original...
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