20 Movies That Took HUGE Risks (And NAILED It)
15. Inventing A New Visual Language - The Matrix
The Matrix is basically a wall-to-wall carousel of extremely bold creative risks, particularly with regard to how the Wachowskis effectively reinvented the visual language of modern action storytelling.
The sci-fi action masterpiece's central stylistic conceit, of course, is Bullet Time, where select heightened moments unfold in slow motion while the camera continues to move through the scene.
Bullet Time required a highly inventive solution from the film's VFX team, with 120 strategically placed still cameras being triggered consecutively to capture a full range of motion around a subject, before being stitched together in post.
On paper it could've gone so horribly wrong, and the Wachowskis' murky explanation of the tech is precisely why Will Smith turned down their invitation to star as Neo.
The duo were ultimately vindicated of course, with the film winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and influencing an entire era of action cinema, the reverberations of which are still felt to this very day.