The Matrix and The Fellowship of the Ring seem to be complete polar opposites on paper. However, I will discuss with you, the reader, how you are very wrong. It is my duty as a film lover to express to you how both of these films, released only two years apart, changed the very way films will affect pop culture and society from then on. This isn’t just in the view of pop culture references but also in how films will be produced.

The Matrix directed by the now Wachowski siblings came out of no where it seems. Back in 1999, the year of it’s release, most science fiction movies dealt with the idea of space and the future of technology; no films asked the question of if we were the technology and stuck in a simulation. “The Wachowskis’ vivid imagination has stuffed the movie with multiple layers of both Eastern and Western philosophy, numerous allusions to Judeo-Christian themes, Japanimation, and kung fu action sequences..” states Society and Culture Magazine. This was a major risk to be taken by two basically unknown directors and the studios who financed the film. The pay off was fantastic and with word the mouth The Matrix was quickly on everyone’s lips and parodied by every program. Everyone asked “the red pill or blue pill?”. Two years later, after buzz about the production, the first of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released. Directed by Peter Jackson and produced by New Line Cinema, a new face of fantasy epic had emerged in Hollywood. The Lord of the Rings tale isn’t anything new, in fact many adaptions have been made before, one even by famed animator Ralph Bakshi. Once upon a time there was even the talks of the Beatles being in a film adaption of the tale in the 1960s. Jackson’s trouble wasn’t properly communicating a new idea, but doing justice to a well beloved story.

The Fellowship of the Ring (FOTR) along with The Matrix were massive commercial successes and effortlessly became part of pop culture. This could easily be granted to their use of CGI in the most unique of ways. What Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon did before with it’s fight scenes, The Matrix took quite a big further with pausing in air and dodging bullets. What Braveheart did before with it’s battle scenes, FOTR took it a step further with the add ins of creatures and magic. “The Fellowship of the Ring, Episode One in Peter Jackson’s three-part screen version of the massive tome that is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, really gets those pages dancing.” stated a writer for Rollingstone Magazine.  Both were the start of something bigger than the film itself.  The images on screen were burned into the minds of the viewers for what they were watching was shiny and new.

Both films have very little plot holes if any; though they have been picked on before (just fly the eagles Frodo), overall, they tell extremely complex tales with complex characters. The Matrix wasn’t originally supposed to be a trilogy but the Wachowski siblings thought for sure more of the story needed to be told. Jackson knew he had to make three separate movies for each of the three books so for him the flow of the story is quite simply divine. He continuously filmed the trilogy over an 18 month period when The Matrix, which lacks a real flow, was filmed on and off for a couple of years. This is how Jackson had one up on the Wachowski; he had something to work with when they themselves had to work from scratch. It happens to show with the reviews of the second and third act which weren’t as well received as the first. However, Return of the King is known for being the better of Lord of the Rings series and it has the largest sweep in Academy Awards history, by winning all 11 awards nominated for. One thing The Matrix has over FOTR is how unique it truly is. By being a complete from scratch story the Wachowski siblings were able to do with it as they pleased. This means complete control over the story they were telling and the overall feel of the film. Jackson couldn’t change much to the story without it being no longer the same tale. He had a strict area of what he could and couldn’t do. Because of this The Matrix is something of a directors playground. You can tell they were having a blast creating this new material, the fight scenes are bold and the sets are a techie’s wet dream.

The two biggest feats of both films though was their films antagonist. The machines in The Matrix are fast moving, highly detailed, technological machines that go about destroying humans. To make these look terrifying and not just comical tons of man hour went into making these CGI beings look actually real. “In “Matrix,” on the other hand, there aren’t flesh-and-blood creatures behind the illusion–only a computer program that can think, and learn. The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward–but an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.” quotes Roger Ebert If this illusion failed, The Matrix would have failed. FOTR has multiple enemies our protagonist face but one of the most challenging ones is the Balrog. Considered to be a fiery demon, the Balrog is a gigantic creature whose main purpose is also destruction. The Balrog could have been written out if deemed impossible but the challenge was there for Jackson to bring it to life. Like the machines in The Matrix; if this didn’t translate well to screen it would have been a disaster.

Both films created the new trend of “bigger the better”; but luckily for our films it worked. These films aren’t like others before since they tell one continuous story of one goal; defeat their form of evil. Though both forms of evil are in different forms they are stories of a chosen one being brought a single purpose in life. This will be used for decades after but their magic could never be matched.  “Before The Fellowship of the Ring, fantasy films were few and far between; despite a smattering of genre successes, such as Jim Henson’s cult classic Labyrinth, there had been little in the way of major fantasy epics, but since The Fellowship, a rebirth in the genre has occurred, no doubt brought on by the exceptional success of Peter Jackson’s film in igniting audience’s imagination for fantasy on a big scale.” film critic Alan Laidlaw in his article about FOTR being the greatest fantasy film ever made.