Bullet time was first used by a French director many years ago, Gaeta only improved upon the technology and made it 'look cool'. Seeing bullets in slow-mo has been used a number of times in movies, Blade, Shadow, just take a closer look. Back to 'bullet-time', Matrix didn't invent it, hell, Coolio had a video with bullet-time in it, Lost in Space had it (though there it was more CG).
The game Jedi Knight 2 has bullet time in it too, at certain times when you kill an enemy with your lightsaber the game goes into slow mo and the camera does a 360 of you killing your enemy. What was the point of that game? To make money. The same goes for Max Payne. The fact that the game had been in development for a couple of years before the Matrix came out is some hint at the fact that they weren't trying to 'emulate' bullet-time. That said 'emulate' is to imitate, for an imitation don't you think Max Payne did just a little bit too good?
If there are any direct influences or emulations it's of gritty Dark Horse comics and John Woo movies (ala Hong Kong action fests), just as
Tip said.
That good enough reasoning Ganguro?
