The Movie That Made Stars Out of the Wachowski's

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2018)

When it comes to the making of "The Matrix", this truly made the Wachowski's a household name. The only other film I could recall the Wachowski's direct before was the 1996 lesbian based film noir "Bound". So though they've been around the block before, 'The Matrix" solidified their place in the Hollywood industry with fans always anticipating what their next film is going to be.
It comes to no surprise that these siblings have been to movies goers since they were youths and studied the craft very seriously, even if it means recycling ideas from their predecessors but to good effect. The Wachowskis took bits of elements from various film genres to create an incredible masterpiece they can truly call their own here. Along with some butt-kicking from Carrie-Ann Moss and a new direction in his acting career as an action star from Keanu Reeves, we get an exciting action film that's second to none. There's no Shakespeare or Oscars in terms of acting (on the technical level the movie won 4 Oscars).
"The Matrix" is just an endless array of energetic, exciting science-fiction action adventure that's both over-the-top in its delivery an engaging story that's both surreal and riveting and has a climax that will keep you invested. The film depends heavily not on the acting or the story but very rich in terms of special effects that set the tone for action film that rely heavily in special effects to get their audiences motivated regardless if the film makes any sense or logic.
Set in the year 2099, (though through the Matrix universe, the film looks almost the present) due to a virtual-reality brought on by evil overlords who want to gather human beings and enslave them for their own advantage in a quest for domination. It's much more complex than how I explained it. It's another epic battle between humankind and machinery. We all know who's the heroes and the villains right?
So after our hero Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Reeves) swallows a red-pill by a charming rebel named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) has successfully unleashed a barrage of warriors who take to the skies by hovercraft as they venture to the real world and virtual reality world as they are up against an Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and his slick-dressed goons who are just computer enhanced holograms. Morpheus is depending on Neo to take down these villains and unplug the world back to reality.
The chemistry between Reeves and Fishburne is wonderful in teacher/student format with fists of fury Trinity (Moss) thrown in for good measure. with Smith's ability to shape-shift, we can see bits of traces from Robert Patrick's performance of the T-1000 villain from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" when he morphs into metal-liquid.
As I've mentioned before, the technical team were the masterminds behind this film. Production designer Owen Paterson and comic artist Geof Darrow contributed in making this movie as stylistic as possible with the characters sporting their dark leather apparel and their sunglasses at night. The fight scenes were nearly flawless thanks to fight coordinator Yuen Wo Ping where the performers use tricks with the help of wiring which makes these characters fly like human marionettes.
But it's the direction from the Wachowski siblings who created an atmosphere that closes the end of the 21st century on a dark and cynical note. With the Y2K fear that was buzzing around at the time, this film created and unbiased point of view of the computer industry and the social media platforms it has created. Like everything else the age of the Internet can be both a companion and a monster at the same time.