Nice effects and sound, average (STOLEN!) movie, 7

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2005)

I give this a seven because so many people (especially fan boys and star wars fanatics or the ordinary children) tend to grow up and see this as their new religion, as I happened to see up close and way too personal with people all around me.
This is not a great movie!!!!
Depth: If you think the matrix is the fulcrum of philosophy, I think you should never be allowed to read any other book than Bob the Builder builds a house. If any of you who have seen the Matrix, have also seen the totally superior Dark city or Ghost in the shell and understood the story, you will hopefully know what I mean. Those films posses depth, as every scene has a story to tell, a point to clear out. I leave the exploring of those 2 films (you have to watch them more than once) to you all. In the matrix this is not the case. The movie is base. It's simple storytelling ground is a bad soil for the pretense it gives by shrouding itself in mystery and greater questions of society/humanity. It's not a bad movie! Hell no, I enjoy it a lot, but it remains just an action flick with a nicer story than most action films, say Soldier, hehe. This is not a brilliantly designed film though. It is a great action film and it's IMDb score can only be justified in that sense, but never in a way in which people say that it is an intelligent movie. A film that has 50% of it's screen time having people fighting kung fu and shooting bullets has a really hard time to fill the other half with challenging matter, if you understand what I mean.
so, lets talk film:
Originality: Most of it is stolen, so less points for that originality thing anyway, but, better stolen right then created poorly. The plot: basic, but interesting with a nice open end, which is not put to good use as we all would find out later with the horribly flat and mind-degrading sequels The acting: Keanu defines cardboard pinnochio's on strings, no surprises there, Moss is not put to use, Fishburne is cool... his simple role requires him to have only 2 expressions (not his fault), Weaving is good for he is the only character with interesting lines and a little depth and puts that to good use. The graphics: Very good, great use of special effects some sets literally stolen from dark city. Check green intro in Ghost in the shell for more info on how to steal ideas as well. (No, the green alphabet is not an homage, trust me) The camera work: Apart from the new world shaking bullet time technique, actually quite basic. Some camera angles literally stolen from dark city. Nice use of the then still new digital camera filters.
Well, that's all actually. It's more just a call to the mostly teen audience (and the few elder retards) to see other (better) movies as well. If you just like action films I suggest you stick with those, no offence, I like action movies too, but don't confuse the films with depth with action movies with pretences.