The Matrix requires more than a temporary suspension of disbelief; it asks you to take leave of your senses from the moment you sit down.

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 1999)

The Matrix requires more than a temporary suspension of disbelief; it asks you to take leave of your senses from the moment you sit down. Not only are the ideas cliched, crass and poorly synthesised but the entire film plays like a badly seguered music video. It amazes me that a studio can justify releasing a picture like this with anything but profit margin in mind. Yet non-commercial, non-genetically modified human spiritualism is the central message of the film.
Shameless product placement (look out for the new Nokia advert starring - yes, surprise, surprise - Keanu Reeves), poor casting and some completely contradictory 'high concepts' make the film outstanding. Perhaps there is a cold intelligence in the mercenary conception of the film. If so, I have a sinister feeling that the Matrix is the studio itself - 'reach into your pocket and log on to the future; the parallel unreality'.
The film is a sci-fi vehicle for Keanu Reeves to look cool in a wooden sort of a way.