"You Have To See It For Yourself..."

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2005)

A mind blowing movie experience for 2/3 of the film, then it breaks down into a shoot 'em up action film, but by then, The Matrix had already won me over. A different look at reality in the age of computers, the Wachowski brothers bring about a world where no one knows for sure what is real, what is fantasy, and who can be trusted. Sometime in the future, humans made machines to do most of their work, and at some point, the machines took over the world, using humans as power for their work. What kind of work does a machine need to do, I'm not really sure, and something that should have been examined further. To keep humans in the dark, a computer program was produced to keep the human mind thinking they were alive. What is real and what isn't is difficult to define at times in the Matrix and is the source of the most intellectual genius of the movie. The other achievement of the movie is the special effects. Any movie that can make Keanu Reeves look good has to have something special with it. Anyone who has seen any movie since 1999 knows the 360 degree camera pan around an actor, perfected by The Matrix. Reeves plays Neo, a computer programmer at some nameless company who has an underground cult following for his skill. This leads him to Morpheous (Lawrence Fishburn), a man looking for prophet, and he thinks he found it in Neo. Carrie-Anne Moss plays Trinity, a nod in the direction of Christianity, as she is a follower of the prophecy of Neo who happens to do her best work in catwoman-type leather. A refreshing change of pace in the beginning of the movie, as most of the physical challenges involved the martial arts, not running around with things that go "boom," but we knew that could not last forever, and the final part of the movie has guns, lots of guns. Hugo Weaving plays the unemotional, almost too perfect "Agent" who chases Neo down on several occasions during the film, and is the movie's most interesting character. We'll have to wait until the following movies in the Matrix Trilogy to get more in depth when it comes to Agent Smith, and that's too bad. While we are blowing away our minds, I wish The Matrix would have gone all of the way, and make it so we don't trust ANYTHING anymore. Instead, an interesting premise is established, and only most of it is followed through.