I can't put The Matrix quite that high. It's good and it's stylish, but has no real depth, in my opinion.
Plus, it's one of the rare movies where the sub-par sequel(s) actually ruin my view of the original because it undoes a lot of what the original movie built up.
Take the conversation with the old man when we learn that Neo is just the latest in a long line of messiahs who have gone up against the Matrix.
Or the fact that the only reason he succeeds where the others failed is because he magically develops superpowers in the real world, thereby destroying the underlying theme of all three movies that regular, plain-old humanity is strong, capable, resilient, and intelligent enough to conquer anything, even a computer prison that has enslaved us all.
Turns out, nope. Humans suck and have sucked every single time they've stood up to the Matrix and can only win when Neo finds life's cheat code (
).
Just ugh.