A good video game commercial disguised as a terrible movie

Rating: 1/10 (14 April 1999)

I'm not sure why so many people were so impressed by this movie. Story? Perhaps if you've never thought about realistic virtual reality, or dreamed you were a butterfly and wondered if you were a butterfly dreaming you were a man. Then you might be blinded to the huge plot holes. But the script will fit wonderfully to its obvious destination: a video game surely on its way to stores right now.
Perhaps the action sequences, if you're the type who likes violence video games so much you'd be happy to sit and watch someone else play one... over and over and over. The camera tricks and effects were interesting once, but we've all seen them on TV already -- the commercial, in fact, is better than the movie.
Certainly it wasn't the characters. Only Morpheus had any kind of personality, which saved us from having to find out what the other actors might have been like if they'd been called on to act. Keanu got two scenes that required acting (the kiss of life, and the epiphany), but he missed on both and just laid or stood there. The rest of the movie, Neo was called The One, but he might have been The Zero -- other than a token reference to him having the trouble with authority figures all action heros are required by Hollywood Law to have (subtlely portrayed by having someone tell him "you have trouble with authority figures, don't you?") he had no character, making Keanu a great fit for him.
William Gibson, save us!