10 Iconic Movies That Spawned A Thousand Imitators
3. The Matrix
A stone-cold classic of both the action and sci-fi genres, The Matrix was perhaps the single most influential movie released around the turn of the millennium. The groundbreaking visual effects and jaw-dropping action sequences turned out to be so popular that virtually every signature moment from the Wachowskis' blockbuster had been copied, pasted and even reduced to parody in no time at all.
In the blink of an eye, leather, sunglasses, bullet-time and gun-fu were everywhere, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an action movie that wasn't inspired by The Matrix at the dawn of the 20th Century. Equilibrium, Jet Li's The One, Charlie's Angels, Underworld, Max Payne, Wanted, X-Men all took either visual or aesthetic cues form The Matrix to wildly different degrees of success, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Obviously, the Wachowskis themselves were heavily inspired by Asian cinema, anime and sci-fi, but it seems doubtful they would have been expecting their own breakout feature to be getting imitated and parodied in every genre from big-budget blockbusters right down to gross-out comedies.