kicks ass

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2006)

This was really really good, and well-done...in my opinion, a very important film for this generation. The Wachowski brothers' talent for packaging philosophy in a way that's accessible to the average Joe, really comes through in this stylish movie. The story of computer hacker Neo's realization that his world - the Matrix - is nonexistent and his subsequent filling of his role as the man who will set everybody free is loosely based on "Siddhartha" and Buddhist ideas pop up every now and then. It still is, however, primarily an action film - the symbolism of the Matrix is still comfortably at one remove from reality and thus the film is not as naked or troubling as, for example, My Dinner With Andre. The action sequences are never clichéd and sometimes funny (in a good way!) It's clearly a movie with an agenda - to get people to think - and I thought it accomplished this objective extremely well. Even though it's all symbolic, some parts (I'm thinking of Smith's early interrogation of Neo) are still very disturbing. I can't really think of anything to make this film better, except that the characters so far have been rather flat for the most part (Smith least of all, and Neo the most, although I'll refrain from bitching about Keanu Reeves' acting). I'm told Smith gets more interesting in the two sequels, but giving Neo a bit of a backstory and character would have helped this film immensely. It's still very good though, since the plot isn't very character-driven and thus can survive on its own. All in all, it was surprisingly addictive in a very kickass way.