Challenges your ability to follow a storyline. *** out of ****

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 1999)

Sometimes when a movie makes you think, I miss the factor and send a negative review across.
Does the movie make you think? Absolutely. It is a vary challenging feature. As a matter of fact, this is a good test for your movie understanding ability. It is not quite as confusing and plotless as "Dark City," but a lot more high tech then "Johnny Mnemonic." It is about the same as in the sense of lots happening on scene at one time as "Blade", but does not make you dizzy.
I Hesitate to recommend the film, however, and in reality, the day I screened the film my star rating was lower than it is today. In other words, my thumb would be jolted down on Friday, April 2, 1999, but today, it is pointed up, with a crutch helping it from plummeting down again.
Why did I change my mind to disliking "The Matrix" to liking it? Well, I thought about it, and BINGO, I thought about it. This movie is very tricky. Hard to follow? Certainly, if you get up to go to the bathroom for five minutes, you'll be lost for all the rest. Movies that threaten for you to pay attention are something to see. Making a thought-provoking film isn't easy, you know.
Irrelevant "The Matrix" is. I won't even get into explaining the film's plot, for it would be a mix-up, only to turn you off. There isn't a real story here, but there is a base to the movie. See the movie and you'll understand.
I liked the dazzling visual effects, which were about as good as "Dark City." The filmmakers do suffer from showing the audience a little too much on screen instead of letting us imagine things a bit, but they also make up for that by putting in sub-plots and bizarre camera effects.
Also to my liking is the performance by Fishburne and Pantoliano, hard to explain why, however. Laurence Fishburne acts that he is once again on a horror ride in the "Event Horizon," Joe Pantoliano provides some comic relief when the film gets too deep. Keanu Reeves is a bit too lost in his dialog and trying to understand what's going on to do much damage on screen.
"The Matrix" is not for anyone other than hard core science fiction movie fans. It is simply another addition to the mind numbing array of special effects movies that don't carry along a story with themselves. This is not a great movie, and when I think about it, I have a hard time calling it "good." But for an addition to this failing genre, it's a turning point.