A cool fantasy

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2008)

This is a movie that combines style with substance. It's basically a riff on the age old philosophy of Scepticism-a philosophy that holds that we can know nothing of the world we live in as it is all an illusion. The hero of this movie, Neo, finds himself in just such a predicament. He is told that the world he lives in is just an illusion, controlled by inhuman monsters. He is given a choice: accept the illusion, or break out of the illusion.
You can't really say that the events in the movie are philosophically coherent or satisfying, but on a visceral and emotional level, it gives a tremendous thrill ride.
The movie plays like every small boy,s fantasy-a chance to play a god-like being against other all powerful beings. The music adds to this macho, gun-toting, martial art practising fantasy. For example, a variation on Led Zeppelin's classic guitar riff song "Kashmir" is used to great effect later on in the movie.
This is a marvellously executed boys' own adventure. It was one of several entertaining movies from Hollywood in this period which dealt engagingly with profound philosophical issues. Rest assured, this is not a movie for the intellect only-it uses this old philosophical chest-nut in order to create an exciting, but scary world where apocalyptic battles are fought.
Other movies of extreme interest from around this period include Dark City and The Thirteenth Floor. The latter is like The Matrix, but more so, if you get what my mean. The former deals with profound philosophical issues, but of a different sort.
In a different vein, is Gattaca. All of these movies could be described as science-fiction/fantasy movies. See them to see a different world imagined.
Lastly, The Matrix was so good, you would have hoped that it would have had sequels made. No such luck. Of course, it would have been so easy to make nothing sequels that reviewers would not want to acknowledge. Yup, the makers of The Matrix knew when to quit-after one movie. A monument.