There's something very familiar about all this.

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2004)

I've always called the first Matrix film a rip-off. It's a mix of many different films put together with component parts stolen from the Terminator (robots rule the future and have enslaved the remainder of humanity), Total Recall (futuristic 'Is it a dream or reality' sci-fi) and even Johnny Mnemonic (futuristic cyberpunk trash starring Keanu Reeves as a guy who can plug computers into his head and 'go into them'), plus various other works by William Gibson and a lot of Anime.
Thomas 'Neo' Anderson, is a computer programmer/hacker who meets with the mythical cyber-terrorist Morpheous, who asks Neo if he wishes to know the truth about the world or live a lie forever. Neo chooses truth and soon wakes in a gel-filled pod in a techno-hell future. His body, and billions of others, is nothing more than a battery to power the machines that rule the future (exactly what they do with this world that they now rule is not explored).
Convinced that Neo is 'The One', Morpheous trains him to be deadly digital warrior, but this set-up doesn't go beyond fighting a sentient program called Agent Smith. The war against the machines comes later.
There's no denying that the film, unfortunately, was massively influential for virtually every action film that followed. Gone was the 'Die Hard' formula where action was gritty, somewhat realistic, and with practical stuntwork. In it's place they all went for excessive CGI, green-tinted photography, impossible cameras, and impossible physics. The Matrix is semi-stylish with it, but it doesn't ever entertain or excite me.
It's the style of the Matrix that's more fondly cherished than the story. It won 4 technical Academy Awards, proving that all the Matrix is is eye-candy. Call that narrow-minded if you want but I believe this movie is no more than a very, very popular cult movie. A contradiction in terms yes, but still the most appropriate way of describing it.