mildly entertaining, yet fundamentally wretched

Rating: 4/10 (10 June 2004)

I'm waiting, like a vulture, for this movie to become dated. And it will. The club scene, the sunglasses, the fashions, the cell phones - oh yes, one day it will all look and sound unbearably corny. And then, we'll have to actually pay attention to the script and the acting (or lack thereof). And we will realize that this movie reeks.
For an action film, it's remarkably dull, with the first half basically consisting of a looong string of complex explanations. It doesn't help that Neo is a totally flat character. If I'm to care that he's trapped in the Matrix, I need to see more of his life there. Sadly, one scene of Neo at work, being berated by the boss, does not a fascinating character make. I also think it was a terrible mistake to make him a programmer, since he already understands the nature of computers and should, therefore, be more receptive to the idea of the Matrix instead of consistently incredulous. And am I supposed to believe that this master hacker doesn't know what an EMP is?
The film is also terribly derivative. Morpheus is an even more gaseous version of Yoda, and Neo is clearly based on Luke (promising young man discovers super-powers and helps rebels overthrow their nasty oppressors). The visual style is ripped off from the Alien movies, as is the snake-like parasite that somehow manages to burst through Neo's bellybutton without leaving a mark. The evil agents clearly evoke The X-Files, the notion that mankind is enslaved by robots in an apocalyptic future comes straight out of The Terminator, and - most damningly of all - the concept of a virtual reality environment called the Matrix had featured some 23 years earlier in an episode of Doctor Who ("The Deadly Assassin"). Maybe the Matrix didn't consciously rip off all of these sources, but it's certainly worth noting that this movie is utterly unoriginal in every respect but its action photography (and that will, like all the rest, probably date badly).
Needless to say, Reeves is pretty bland, and Fishbourne is just plain embarrassing in his first scene (it doesn't help that his every dire line is punctuated by a melodramatic bolt of lightning). Only Carrie-Anne Moss's Trinity comes up smelling like a rose, and it's good to see such a strong role for a female character - though I think she should've been the hero, as she's got more charisma than everyone else put together.
I was quite disturbed by the metal detector scene, as it appears to be nothing more than a particularly violent video game sequence that's meant to inspire future generations of random crazy shooting maniacs. It's worth mentioning that the security guards who are so callously slaughtered by Neo and Trinity are not evil, just thralls of the Matrix, like Neo had been merely days before. Why, therefore, does he have no qualms about blowing them all to bits? Tacky, man - really tacky.
I enjoyed Joe Pantoliano's character, probably because he was allowed to have an actual set of motivations and opinions, whereas the other characters are just filler. And you know, a few segments were effective; the Oracle has real presence. But the film is basically a dog, and while it pretends to cast all kinds of light on the problems with modern society, at the end of the day it's a stupid action movie that raises interesting issues, then resolves them with ridiculously OTT karate battles.
As a movie, The Matrix is decent entertainment. As sci-fi, it's derivative and sloppy. As philosophy, it's risible, misleading, and poorly informed junk.