It was beaten by a year by Dark City.

I saw both Dark City and The Matrix, in the theaters, when they were released. I liked both, and I have talked up Dark City for years to people who only saw the Matrix.

Recently rewatched Dark City. It is nowhere near as good as the matrix. It’s still very cool, but it’s confusing and janky as hell and that’s not part of the charm.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t seen it, you should! It’s fun and you’ll see some cool shit. But don’t expect it to be better than Matrix.