Overall, a good time.

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 1999)

Let me break the bad news first. Keanu Reeves has no martial arts skills. He's stiff as a board and he obviously didn't practice enough before the filming. His attempts at trying to mimic the late and great Bruce Lee were very sad indeed. They should have cast Jet Li instead.
The fight scenes were an obvious attempt by the Wachowski brothers to grope Hong Kong martial arts films. And they were sorely lacking in comparison to the truly skilled martial artists of Hong Kong cinema.
Not only did the Wachowskis try to bite Hong Kong martial arts movies, they tried to imitate unsuccessfully John Woo's gunfights, two-handed pistol action and slow motion sequences. Poor Mr. Reeves pales in comparison to the likes of Chow Yun Fat.
Now, for the good news: overall -- despite all the wannabe Hong Kong cinema elements prevalent in "The Matrix," the movie was visually stunning and fun to watch. The special effects were top shelf, top of the line eye candy. If you can look past Mr. Reeves inadequacies when compared to the likes of Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat, the action was still top-notch. The action and visuals are well worth the price of admission.
Laurence Fishburne is great, as usual. He plays the role of Morpheus with the kind of level-headed cool we've all come to expect. The man commands respect whenever on the silver screen, and his performance in "The Matrix" is no exception.
On one level, "The Matrix" does what "Dark City" tried to do, but only better. The premise is somewhat similar, but I don't want to say too much, or else I'll spoil the film for all of you who haven't seen it yet.
Watching "The Matrix," I was hoping for a "Twilight Zone" type of ending that was lacking in "Dark City." That old television series was great in that the episodes would start off mind boggling, and end even more so because the endings weren't necessarily happy and quaint. But I was disappointed at the rosey ending of "The Matrix."
Nonetheless, "The Matrix" is a solid piece of entertainment, and is more than worthy of the price of admission. It gets the thumbs up from this moviegoer.