This is what movies are all about

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2001)

The initial response to seeing this is much like after having seen Star Wars for the first time. You just go "Wow!". The best movies use the visual medium to create new worlds and bring them to life, and that's what this movie is all about.
In the case of "The Matrix", you start out with a female hacker being confronted by a squad of cops. She makes a spectacular escape, making moves that are simply superhuman, and which sets up the tone for the rest of the film. You know within the first five minutes that you are in for a wild ride. Next, we are introduced to "Neo", a hacker by night, a working stiff in a huge software company by day. He's a regular schmuck, his boss chews him out for showing up late because he's been out partying all night with his cyberpunk friends. Things seem normal enough, but something just isn't quite right. When Neo digs deeper, and makes contact with a mysterious fellow known only as Morpheus", he finds out just how wrong things really are. The most bracing scenes in this whole movie are when Morpheus shows Neo exactly the true nature of the world he lives in. Even though you know this is a sci-fi thriller with bizarre plot twists, you are simply not prepared for what he finds out. Without revealing the actual plot, let's just say it borrows ideas put forth in The Terminator, Total Recall, Tron, Blade Runner, and even Alice in Wonderland and 1984 (think of the interrogation scene) yet creates a completely original story to which are added stunning visual effects. And yet, unlike some other films, the effects just add to the basic plot as opposed to becoming the dominant feature (a la Terminator 2). For example, the virtual reality fight scenes are in themselves amazing, but merely serve to point out that, in such an environment, a well trained warrior could use his/her mind to overcome the limits of body and physics and accomplish the impossible.
Well, lest I ramble on too long, the basic point is this is one of those rare movies that just grabs you from the opening minutes and never lets go. It sucks you into a bizarre world that nonetheless seems totally real and believable. What more could you ask for in a sci-fi action thriller?