The longest, most expensive GAP commercial ever made!

Rating: 4/10 (14 August 2000)

Okay, I know a lot of heat is going to come my way for saying this, but I'm ready. So, here goes: I did NOT like this movie! I'm not saying that it's terrible, just that it didn't move me the way that it seems to have touched some people's lives. The perpetually perplexed Keanu Reeves is Thomas aka Neo, an office grunt/computer hacker who is recruited by the mysterious Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne)to free humanity from enslavement by machines. It seems that the world that we are living in is all an illusion provided by free-thinking computers who are using people as batteries (Can I be an ENERGIZER? They last longer). The only thing standing between humanity and totally servitude are the Agents, led by the soulless Agent Smith (played by Hugo Weaving in a good performance). Agents are the only ones who seem to have the ability to alter the reality around them, making them able to do fantastic things like dodge bullets and the like. Neo is shown that he, too, can alter the world around him when Morpheus jumps from one roof to another a block away (to which Keanu gives his signature line: "Whoa!"). He is then trained in hand-to-hand combat, spaceship-piloting and the use of high-calibre automatic firearms. This seems to provide the film with its strong suit: Dazzling stunts and special effects. However, I found the story to be just a little too pretentious. I realize that there is a lot of symbolism within the story (most of it cribbed from the New Testament), but, while watching the movie and getting the messages of the movie, I half expected to see signposts appear saying CAUTION! METAPHORS AHEAD! I did get a kick, however, out of the street intersections mentioned in the film where all of the "exits" were: They are actually streets in Chicago, the Wachowski brothers' (and my) hometown. As I said before, the special effects and stuntwork are fabulous. In fact, I thought the film should have received Oscar nominations for its Art Direction and Costumes. Beyond that, I thought THE MATRIX was nothing more than the longest, most expensive GAP commercial ever made. For a better handling of this type of material, I suggest two films that could be combined to make a better MATRIX: THE LAST DRAGON (for it's metaphysical message and martial arts action) and DARK CITY (for it's handling of a scary fantasy city under siege). Okay, let the brickbats and/or bouquets fly . . . !