"Whoa.."

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 1999)

To quote Keanu Reeves would be an understatement when talking about this film. Even if the acting and storyline suffered severe "Holywood-ness" (which they didn't--well maybe a little) the special fx alone is worth seeing. A lot of work has been put into this film to make it one of the best, most inspiring sci-fi films of this decade. The actors had to go through 4-6 months of martial arts training to do these scenes WITHOUT stuntmen, which makes it so much more real and heart pounding (like Jackie Chan action films). There are fx in Matrix that have never been done before, or at least extensively used throughout the film. Such as, what the Wachowski brothers call "bullet-time photography", which provides dynamic camera movement around slow-motion events that approaches 12,000 frames per second, thus the super smooth slow-motion scenes seen occasionally in the film. This is also one of the first films I've seen that effectively recreates the "Anime" action feel. This is how John Gaeta, of Manex, describes it: "The Wachowskis are from the comic-book culture, and are therefore familiar with the Japanese animation style called anime, which we re-created with live actors for this movie. Anime takes advantage of 'the physics of decimation' Â– it breaks down action into its components and allows those elements to be meticulously controlled to build the most dramatic effect from dynamic movement." But if you're not a fanatic of incredible sfx and action sequences, you'll still be pulled into the plot like the Matrix pulls in its visitors. Don't cheat yourself from the most incredible cinematic experience of your life. Go see this film!