10 Flawed Elements In Otherwise Flawless Films
3. CG Robots - The Matrix
Combining philosophy, science fiction, insane action and a sublime metal soundtrack, The Matrix is as close to flawless as a movie can get without quite being there.
The Wachowskis take us on a trip down the rabbit hole to find that the world we know isn't the one that exists; rather, we inhabit a program known as the matrix that was designed to keep humanity complacent while machines rule the real world. Far from a utopia, planet Earth has fallen into darkness, with flying squid robot sentinels patrolling the surface and what's left of free humanity living quite literally underground.
The computer graphics of the non-matrix world were pretty decent for 1999, but the all-CG sentinels haven't aged nearly as well as the rest of the film, and while they are usually presented far enough away to blend into their scenes, a few close-ups highlight their flaws. Seeing The Matrix on the big screen again in the 2020s, especially in 4k, only calls more attention to the relevant inadequacy of some of the fully CG shots, which look blocky and decidedly previous generation. But all of this begs the question of how much filmmakers ought to mess with the dated visuals of their movies, lest they all become George Lucas...