So overrated it makes me sick

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2002)

I did not enjoy this film. Yes, I enjoyed the special effects, which were beyond superb, but it takes more than special effects to get me to enjoy a movie. When the Matrix was released, these effects were amazing, something brand new and outrageous, but now they are nothing unusual and when you take away that aspect of the film, you get nothing. You get a stupid, uninteresting plot and a cast of terrible actors, minus Laurence Fishburne. Not that the actors are terrible, just their acting in this movie is terrible. Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano both prove they can act in Memento, but here they just flop. And I can't believe that Keanu Reeves gets cast for any movies because he is just plain miserable, one of the worst actors ever to enter the business. Plot and acting are two things I look for ahead of special effects in a movie. I can enjoy a movie that has absolutely no special effects whatsoever and was filmed with an amateur home video camera, as long as the plot and acting are good. This movie, with a huge budget, wasted all of it on special effects and none of it on teaching the actors how to act or paying the Wachowski's to improve the script and to learn how to direct.
Such a stupid movie, and I can't figure out why it is so popular. Because it was the first to introduce such effects? Does that mean one must automatically love the original, just because it was the first? The Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland was the first roller coaster to introduce steel tubular track, but is it my favorite steel roller coaster? No. Coca-Cola was released before Pepsi-Cola, but is Coke my favorite soft drink? No. So why must this movie be everyone's favorite just because it was the first to introduce these visual effects? I don't know and won't know. The only answer I ever hear from people as to why they loved this movie is "Well didn't you see the special effects?" Screw the special effects. Give me Memento, a movie with virtually no special effects. Give me Field of Dreams. Philadelphia. Even My Dog Skip.
Matrix - 2/10 (for Fishburne, whose appearances were the only decent ones).