Boring cliched coming-of-age film with great special effects

Rating: 3/10 (10 September 2001)

I hadn't really expected a lot, but I was amazed at just how dull this film was. The effects are, quite rightly, considered great and are obviously influential in many ways. But other than a couple of action sequences at the beginning and end, you have nothing but dull lectures. Lawrence Fishburne is too good an actor to play a second-rate Yoda like this and the "philosophy" was the type of thing you outgrow in 10th grade ("How do we REALLY know reality?") presented in an ultraserious tone that makes the claptrap seem important. This type of thing has been done before and better, and the various plot holes and inconsistancies were just a sign of sloppy storytelling. The villains were quite probably the least interesting in the history of film, with tiresome mannerisms that made you want to go out and slap the director. And the cliches! Villains in suits and black sunglasses! A traitor in the heros' midst! Man redeemed due to love a woman! Can anyone really call these original?
The effects cannot be faulted, and there were a couple of good action sequences, but the film was poorly written and just plain dull. More action would have been better, or anything to spare the audience the puerile philosophizing.
Certainly one of the most overrated films of the decade.