A visually stunning sci-fi film lacking credible acting

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 1999)

The Matrix is fundamentally about a messiah called 'the one' (Keanu Reeves) who is a hacker who discovers that everyone hooked up to a computer simulation (altough why I have no idea) and is brought to the real world by Morpheous (played by a very bored Laurence Fishburne) and his crack team of hackers/terrorists.
The plot has been overworked to an outer limits style, and it takes ages for the action and the film to actually kick in.
The film in itself is boring and slow, the actors don't seem committed to their characters, they all seem bored, and inconsequential to the film, what mattered was the plot, the hong kong styled filming and the visually stunning special effects.
The special effects appear to be very good, however the overuse of computer graphics on action setpieces (such as the helicopter sequence) leaves you feeling that you've been ripped off. I want to see real stunts, explosions - not computer cgi-crap - sure it looks good, but if you want to make an action sequence at least make it believable.
The way the film has been shot is likened to John Woo, with slowed down shooting sequences - graphically showing how the bullets fly off. Although this is beautifully shot, it does leave you wondering if you actually WANT to see a couple of people walking around in trenchcoats blowing people away (hang on, haven't I heard this somewhere before???).
Apart from the overuse of CGI, I liked the combination this film used of martial arts and Hong Kong styled directoring, but the martial arts did feel as good as it should have been. It leads me to ask if they wanted a good martial artist, why did they use the very stiff actor Keanu Reeves? Why not Chow Yun Fat or even Jet Li - at least they look good when they do martial arts, Reeves just looks out of place doing all the complex martial arts.
I hated the bad guys, they were deliberatly made with no remorse, no minds and no acting. They were boring, montonious, laborious pieces of cardboard. Whenever they were on screen I felt like going to sleep - there was no real credible bad guy or a big name playing the bad guy - this let the film down (mind you so does the gratious overuse of cgi and gunfighting), the half-hearted ending of Keanu blocking every move that the bad guy did was too quick for me - it should have been one long fight sequence.
At the end of the film, Reeves tells us he didn't want to tell us how this film ends - that's up to us - no it isn't, its up to the directors and producers who made this film and are planning the sequels.
If a sequel is planned - more effort needs to be made on credible action sequences, credible bad guys and credible acting.
Overall, the film is stunning to watch and if you ignore the complex plot you can enjoy a dark, cool attempt at a Hollywood made Hong Kong film with a lot of CGI. I'd personally give this film a 7 but I felt so annoyed at the bad guys and the less then realistic action sequences I'll give it a 6 instead.