Free your mind, and the rest will follow.....

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2001)

There is so much that's good about this movie, it's a shame that there's even a little that's bad about it- but there is. First of all, the bad: some of the performances and dialogue are a bit stilted. Not even the main characters are particularly developed beyond their central archtypes- Trinity and Neo's love story isn't the least bit believable because of this. The final scene is just silly. And the whole film has the Messiah Complex, which has been done and done and done...... Okay, enough haggling. Here's the good: everything else. The whole idea is cool. This just might be the launching film for a whole mythos, like 'A New Hope' and (hopefully) the first Lord of the Rings movie. There are metaphors and analogies here, a lot of them. The Wachowski brothers showed great promise with their very first flick, the terrific 'Bound', and continue to do so here. There are small things that intrigue me- things like the little robots that help with the human-harvesting and look like a cross between insects and surgical instruments. Visually, the movie is nothing short of an unprescedented marvel and has already proven to be one of the most seminal films made in the last couple of decades in that regard. Hugo Weaving is a true find- amazingly creepy as Agent Smith, he absolutely exudes menace and contempt for humanity. The story is rooted in our race's fear of our own creation- technology. Technology has been our salvation. It has allowed the human being- a physically inferior mammal with few natural characteristics to recommend it- to thrive. Cautionary tales that display our fear that it will also be our destruction abound- 'The Matrix' is one of the best. It will be interesting to see how the series develops. It could be as important to the action genre in terms of complete, complex story-telling as it already is visually. One can hope. With the Wachowskis at the helm, there's a good chance.