Star Wars Meets Blade Runner Meets Ted's Bogus Journey (no Bill)

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2008)

Spoilers Ahead
This movie is an absolute classic of cinema. It follows the "Star Wars" epic formula, but is much better at developing compelling heroes, villains, and a setting. The conflict of man vs. machine is a common one, but "The Matrix" twists it on its head in that it is the humans who are not so much oppressed by their robotic overlords as kept complacent by a "bread and circuses" virtual reality program, while the robots use the humans---most of whom are completely unaware of their true reality---as energy sources. In other words, the oppressor is not Skynet and its band of killer enforcers, but a machine that allows humans the illusion of normality, with no real dangers or oppression beyond what we would expect in our own world. The movie then poses this question: if you knew that reality was an illusion, would you still desire freedom, even if it meant disrupting a rather unoppressive status quo? This movie clearly sides in favor of freedom, but the ambiguity between good and evil, or the humans who desire freedom and the robots who control mankind, makes this adventure story very interesting and compelling.
The acting and the plot construction is absolutely superb. Keanu Reeves, previously best known for his excellent adventures and bogus journeys with Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and the Grim Reaper is absolutely wonderful as Neo, the Luke Skywalker-esquire hero, who is destined to "free" mankind from the robots' control. He gives as understated dramatic performance that gives a great deal of maturity and complexity to his character, something that was rather missing from Mark Hamill's performance as Luke Skywalker back in 1977. Laurance Fishburne, previously best known as Pee-Wee Herman's cowboy friend, is excellent as the stoic, deep-voiced authoritative Obi-Wan Kenobi mentor/shaman/sensei/teacher character of Morpheus. His performance in the "teacher" role to the epic hero is just as good, if not better, than Alec Guiness's role as Obi-Wan. He is given more screen time to tell Neo of his destiny than Obi-Wan did in telling Luke about "The Force", and is therefore more effective in his role. Hugo Weaving, previously best known as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, is excellent as the emotionless, cold, and ruthless enforcer program of the robots' simulated reality, Agent Smith. He, like Reeves and Fishburne, gives an understated yet powerful performance. Weaving clearly understood that he was to be part-machine as an anthropomorphic computer program, whose sole purpose was to eradicate any threat to the Matrix's status quo; yet, he also convincingly shows a very human mental struggle within Smith as to his role within the Matrix, which would evolve in the movie's next two sequels. All told, these three actors give excellent performances that lift this science fiction movie into a veritable masterpiece of the genre.
Of course, everyone will discuss the special effects. It is certainly money well-spent, and does intertwine smoothly with the message the writers had in mind about humans manipulating the fabric of the Matrix.
This movie is definitely a classic of epic film-making. The Waschowski brothers have created a universe as compelling and indelible as Lucas's "Star Wars" or James Cameron's "Terminator". Watch it.