The Matrix a Visual Treat, But Not Much Else

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 1999)

What if the world in which we live wasn't real? This is the scenario that the writing/directing team of Larry and Andy Wachowski (Bound) take on in their ultra-paranoid new sci-fi flic, The Matrix. The film takes place in the near future, where Paul Anderson, a hacker who goes by the name of Neo (Keanu Reeves), stumbles upon an immense computer program, The Matrix, about which nothing is known. Neo quickly gets intrigued by the mystery of The Matrix, and in his quest to find out what it is he meets Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), another hacker who claims that he can reveal the secret of The Matrix to Neo. The catch: once Neo finds out what The Matrix is, his life will never be the same again.
And so begins the adventure for Neo, who must put aside his own disbelief in order to defeat the Gatekeepers and the traitor Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) save Morpheus' life, all while falling in love with Morpheus' second-in-command, Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss). Not bad for a lowly software programmer. Admittedly, the plot for The Matrix sounds a little weak and the dialogue is pretty cheesy (we're given lines like `Hold on Dorothy, 혩cause Kansas is going bye-bye.'), but the film is able to pull it off, mostly with the help of some brilliant special effects. And they are brilliant. Mass.Illusions, LLC, the same parent company that achieved technical wizardry with What Dreams May Come, once again shines through here with some impressive freeze-frame motion special effects. Keanu Reeves (Speed, Johnny Mnemonic) still can't act, but, Bill and Ted's aside, this is probably the least horrible of all his performances. Luckily, his stone-cold serious character is given little to do besides blow things up and utter one-word exclamations such as `Whoa!' and `Cool!' It was almost as if Neo was written with Reeves' limited talent in mind. Unfortunately, however, none of the other actors are given too much to do either. For all of his talent, Laurence Fishburne (Just Cause, Hoodlum) is only given so much to do, to the point where he is neither a plus or a minus in the film. The same holds true for Carrie-Ann Moss (Sabotage, The Secret Life of Algernon), who seems too preoccupied with her love for Neo and so comes off as being an extremely one-dimensional character. Even the film's most interesting character, Agent Smith, as the leader of the Gatekeepers, is overdone too the point of being annoying. This is a shame because the dry, cynical way in which Australian actor Hugo Weaving(The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Reckless Kelly) portrays him is for the most part a welcome deviation from the robot-like interpretations of every other character in the movie. The bottom line is that The Matrix is worth seeing if for no other reason than to be blown away by some really cool visual effects. Because, honestly, there is really not a whole lot more than that. One wonders just how good The Matrix could have been, if only the script could have been revised just a few more times, and the cast had been chosen just a little more carefully.