10 Times Hollywood Learned The Wrong Lesson From Movies

The Matrix is one of the most acclaimed and influential action films of all time, and while its ingenious mix of heady themes and innovative action could've welcomed an era of uncommonly thoughtful action tentpoles, it basically just gave filmmakers a new stylistic crutch to lean on.

In the years that followed the original Matrix, literally hundreds of movies aped its ground-breaking "bullet time" effect - that is, using VFX to slow the action down and explore the cinematic space in a deeply stylish way.

Theoretically, anyway.

Except, few action movies which utilised bullet time in the wake of The Matrix found much unique or interesting to do with it, causing the resulting action scenes to feel like lackluster Matrix off-cuts. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but in the case of the many post-Matrix knock-offs which followed, it was also the laziest.

Somewhat more satisfyingly, The Matrix's cutting-edge action did at least penetrate into the world of video games, too, giving us certified bangers like the Max Payne franchise. The Max Payne movie, though? Not so much.