The first chapter of the Matrix trilogy is still far and away the best.

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2005)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving "What is the Matrix?" The fundamental question that had moviegoers and critics across the world bedazzled in the year of 1999. Science fiction and action movies would never be the same after this blockbuster stormed the scene with its blazingly original visuals and bizarre yet detailed concepts.
Thomas Anderson, a.k.a. Neo (Reeves) is a software programmer who is living two lives. In one he is Thomas Anderson, a regular Joe who goes to work, goes to church, and "helps his landlady take out her garbage." In the other life, he is Neo, a computer hacker who is guilty of essentially every computer crime there is a law for. One night he's asleep at his computer, when his computer starts talking to him. Not literally, but flashing text across the screen. He follows the instructions his computer is giving him and goes to a club where he meets Trinity (Moss), another hacker, or at least that's what he thinks.
When he's at work the next day, a package from FedEx comes to him containing a cell phone. As soon as he gets the phone in his hand, it starts ringing, and Morpheus (Fishburne) is on the other end of the line with him, telling him that the FBI are here to get him. Neo stands up, and sure enough, the fibbies are over at the elevator, ready to come and arrest him. Morpheus gives Neo instructions on how to escape the feds and get to safety, but Neo can't muster the courage to go out on a ledge (literally) and take a scaffold to the roof, so he gets taken in by the feds.
After an interesting encounter with the FBI, Neo is contacted again by Morpheus, who tells him where he should go if he wants to meet. They meet, and Neo asks what the matrix is. In the words of Morpheus, "Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself." Neo has two options. Take the blue pill, and he continues his life how it has been going. Take the red pill, and enter a whole new world. Of course, he opts for the red pill, and he is released from the matrix and wakes up in the real world.
So what is the matrix then? In a nutshell, it's a computer driven simulation that keeps human minds busy so that machines can harvest our bodies for power. Morpheus freed Neo from the matrix because he believed that Neo was essentially the savior of mankind, foretold by the prophecies.
I think that's enough of a summary of the gist of the movie. The rest of it you just have to see for yourself. It's truly an amazing action movie with some of the coolest and craziest visuals you could possibly imagine. It's just one of those things that you have to see for yourself to actually believe.
Bottom Line: 4 out of 4 (own this movie)