Tom Foolery, But Excellent, excellent

Rating: Null/10 (18 April 2000)

With a great opening sequence (although not as high tempo as the fantastic curtain raiser to 'Blade')I knew i was in for something special. There was nothing new about the special effects (first seen in those annoying GAP ads) but the style and grace in which they were executed was terribly impressive. They way the action sequences were used to serve the plot-line and not upstage it also impressed. This film was a lesson in continuity from the off.It set out it's stall at the start and did'nt change what it was selling. It did'nt sacrifice acting talent for muscle-bound muppets with bad accents by using well respected thesps like Hugo Weaving, Larry Fishburne and Joey Pants (underused). Keanu Reeves was excellent. His character spends most of the film looking dopey and confused and not understanding what is happening to him. Reeves can look dopey with the best of them! Carrie-Anne Moss was highly believeable as the strong female character. Weaving being the most entertaining. This film oozed cool. The clothes (well if u could choose ure wardrobe from a computer database, u'd look that good too... the props: the car, phones,weaponry etc. The script was wooden in places but on the whole it had enough mystery and religious references to keep us wondering, it was also very cheeky.The irony of a computer program (Weaving) saying "God damn it" was not lost on me Wachowskis! The music used was A1. Each tune suited it scene perfectly. My favourite been the street scene (woman in red)
I think was was the most impressive aspect of this film was that all the effects and CGI did'nt undermine it's reality features. Everything in the film looked like it was possible, if u know what I mean.
Films like the Mummy,Misson to MARS, Star Wars Episode 1 etc had a cartoonish feel, blatantly computerised. The Matrix gave enough for people to wonder: 'what if...'
At the end of the day it was a good story very well told. looking forward to the secod and third instalments......8/10