A worthwhile piece of science fiction entertainment.

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 1999)

The non-spoiler part of the comments...
Matrix manages to effectively combine two or three rudimentary sci-fi concepts with some (not too scary) existential philosophy to produce a movie whose first twenty to thirty minutes (unless you've heard the plot) will have you wondering just what exactly is happening, and surprise you when you finally find out. It's strengths are a plot which requires the viewer to think a bit to work out what's happening (but not so much you walk away shaking your head in puzzlement), blending into a more straight Authority vs. Rebels action film in the latter parts, and some extremely impressive special effects which make the whole thing work well. It's only real weakness is a few cliches that might make the more picky viewers roll their eyes, but hey, like they say, there is nothing wholly new under the sun. Matrix manages to make those cliches its own, and cross them in new ways that the less than totally cynical will find well worth the price of admission.
SPOILER HATERS STOP HERE.
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I liked the deliberate plays on our sense of reality. For example (paraphrasing, maybe badly) "deja-vu is a glitch in
the matrix. It happens when They change something", and "you're here because you sense there's something wrong. You can't define it but there it is like a splinter in your mind's eye." How many of us haven't felt deja-vu, or felt that alienated sense of being strangers in a world that's not really our own? Matrix seizes this peculiar paranoid angst that has become so prevalent in our 20th century lives and provides us with an (albeit fantastical) explanation that forms the essence of the plot. It gives a new spin to the increasingly ubiquitous "Men in Black" and the new tendency to mistrust Authority, rather than simply questioning it. It also hits you with the biggies of philosophy: What is Reality? If you couldn't tell the dream from waking, is it still a dream? And most potentially devastatingly of all WOULD it really matter? If you want to see some very clever special fx, and you're not afraid to think just a little, see The Matrix.