Cooler visual effects than in Independence Day.

Rating: Null/10 (8 February 2002)

A cool hacker joins the mighty leader of cool hackers to fight evil computer program that enslaves humans by showing them dreams instead of letting them confront the harsh reality; the bad guys are surely on their way to let us down but their arse gets kicked by the cool hackers by employing supernatural abilities (errrm, was the last one a spoiler? I guess not, for it's so trivial anyway). This is so much for the plot.
Apart from the great visual effects everything in the movie is so obvious and utterly trivial from the very opening scene. There are no secrets to find, no puzzles to solve, no characters to analyze. All of the cool hackers are obviously good, except for one, who, to be frank, is not cool since he is obviously cunning and spoiled. The sunglassed agents in suits are obviously bad. No doubt. Everything is expressed in plain words and simple scenes. Spiced up with great visual effects, that is.
Well, I hoped that at least the mystic matrix itself would keep its secret for some time... Not. The cool hacker Morpheus uses his simplest words in the beginning of the movie to explain to us what the matrix is - I almost yawned if not for the visual effects, which were cool.
As for the acting, there is none; there is action, but no acting. Oddly enough, the soulless "simulated" sunglassed agents are more believable than ANY of the cool hacker personalities that we should care about. I couldn't help laughing through the scene with Morpheus being tortured, for his suffering was so utterly non-convincing I thought the guy was not paid enough... Or was it just poor direction?
Oh and I guess the evil agents could communicate to the matrix by phone (similarly to the cool hackers) to erase or, say, freeze the cool hackers' personalities right in the opening scene instead of hunting them down for 3 hours, couldn't they? Sorry, the inner voice tells me that wouldn't be the best way to spend the budget... HENCE THE MOVIE.
Ah, and did I say the visual effects are cool?

Rating: 2 of 10, +1 bonus for visual effects (for they were cool back in 1995).