Gauging the impact: is it fair to call the Wachowskis one-hit wonders?
In the grand scheme of things, there are only a minute number of filmmakers who single-handedly changed the course of cinema history, and that’s an achievement that will never be taken away from the Wachowskis.
The best way to gauge the impact of a single film in isolation is to view the complexion of the industry before and after its release to see just how far the impact spread. For mainstream Hollywood at the turn of the millennium, there’s a clear distinction between the landscape before The Matrix and the landscape afterwards.
One of the most influential blockbusters ever made, the melting pot of philosophical, spiritual, and existential ideas the sibling filmmakers tossed into an immersive sci-fi world made for a staggering experience, and it was almost laughable to see how desperately the rest of Tinseltown tried to emulate The Matrix without even trying to hide it.
However, does that make them one-hit wonders? Any director would struggle to follow up such game-changing success, and as much as nobody can doubt Lana and Lilly’s exhaustive approach to world-building, their visual daring, mastery of visual effects, and eye for action sequences, they’ve never been able to reach the same heights again.
Noir-tinged crime thriller Bound was a solid start as debuts go, and even though it was well-received, it still bombed at the box office. In terms of the Wachowskis’ filmography at large, it stands out as being their most grounded and realistic narrative endeavour by far, with the pair opting to remain in the sandbox of epic escapism once The Matrix strapped a rocket to their back and marked them about as potential generational talents.
The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions pushed the boat out in terms of scope, scale, spectacle, and even more advancements in the arena of visual effects, but neither of them could hold a candle to the original. The final chapter in the original trilogy was released just six months after its predecessor, but earnings dropped by over $30million, and it wouldn’t be too harsh to suggest the Wachowskis failed to stick the landing, leading to widespread disappointment.
Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending were feasts for the eyes and little else, and each of them ended up flopping in cinemas. They’re beautiful to look at, sure, but there was no sign of the depth, richness, and resonance that made The Matrix such a breath of fresh air, and there’s only so far aesthetics can go if there’s nothing of substance to back them up. Cloud Atlas indicated they’d lost none of their ambition or imagination, but the literary adaptation was both wildly polarising and commercially unsuccessful.
The ongoing downturn may explain why Lilly decided to fly solo and return to familiar territory with The Matrix Resurrections, which ended up as another significant money-loser. It was admirable for Wachowski to add a self-reflexive element that skewered Warner Bros for demanding another entry in the franchise and then using it as the backdrop for the story, but gently tapping on the fourth wall with a mischievous glint in its eye was hardly a return to form.
The filmography of the Wachowskis hardly makes for encouraging reading when of the eight features they’ve helmed either collectively or individually, five of them flopped, and one of them – Revolutions – was viewed as a fiscal disappointment. Each of their big screen credits has plenty of supporters and many detractors, but it’s impossible to say with any degree of certainty that any of them outside The Matrix and possibly Bound can be called inarguably top-tier works of cinema.
The fact those two are their first films speaks volumes, too, with a quarter of a century having passed since the Wachowskis came close to touching greatness. The Matrix remains a masterpiece, but unless something drastic changes in the future, they may well be remembered as one-hit wonders. On the plus side, what a hit it was.