Could this possibly have been any better?

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2009)

I base this on the Ultimate 10-Disc Set. An entire decade after this came out, it still holds up incredibly well. It simply has so much to offer... all that food for thought, different beliefs, tons of themes that are explored and such immense room for interpretation, with very little in this being certain or definite. The plot is excellent, develops well, and combines various interesting ideas(and no, they weren't original, they weren't meant to be... this puts a lot of fascinating concepts together, and presents them all for the mainstream audience). Granted, it spawned a ton of suddenly enlightened pocket philosophers with little doubt as to their own prowess, but with anything this influential, there are going to be some negative results. The pacing is spot-on, not a moment of this is too long or overly short. The action is astounding, exciting, fun, entertaining and awesome, and they manage to do amazing and memorable sequences. No, perhaps it does not dodge all of the clichés. The slow-motion(and bits clearly inspired by John Woo) and other tools appeared before this, yes, the point isn't that they were new... it's the way this uses them, and creates a unique style. Mixing Noir, Animé and countless allusions, and doing so with expert-like skill is an impressive feat. The Bullet-Time was invented for this, and it is fantastic. The martial arts, the choreography, the moves, magnificent. The effects are stunning and seamless, to this day. The cinematography and editing are perfect, and enormously well-planned. The mood and atmosphere is masterfully achieved. The acting is quite good, Reeves fits, Moss and Fishburne are marvelous, and Weaving is utterly impeccable. The dialog is almost completely invariably well-written, and well-delivered. There is no nudity or sexuality, at most hints thereof. There is language, moderately harsh, albeit not too bad in frequency. The DVD holds a text introduction(to the following) by the Wachowski's, that makes for a great read, as well as two commentary tracks, one of philosophers who enjoyed the film, Dr. Cornel West & Ken Wilder, and one of critics who did not care for it, Todd McCarthy, John Powers & David Thompson. These are worth listening to. I recommend this to any fan of science fiction, and anyone who wishes to be encouraged to think by what they watch. 10/10