Great Special Effects Do Not Guarantee A Great Movie

Rating: 2/10 (15 July 2001)

People had told me two things about this movie. First, that it was difficult to understand. It isn't. The plot is very simple and understandable. Second, that this was a great movie. It isn't. The plot is so understandable that it's boring. Almost everything in this movie is a rehash of science fiction themes that have come up over and over again.
It's somewhere around the year 2199. We know that because Morpheus (played - well played I concede - by Lawrence Fishburne) tells us. Machines have conquered humanity and taken over. OK. I can think of at least one original Star Trek episode and the entire series Battlestar Galactica that revolved around that. The whole thing takes place inside a series of computer programs. OK. The holodeck on the Starship Enterprise, or any number of movies about Virtual Reality spring to mind. One person (Neo, played by Keanu Reeves) will save the world. Hmmm. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: "Captain Kirk, you and your crew have saved this planet." In short, there just isn't anything original in this story. How it makes it to #31 on the all time list (at the time of writing) is beyond me.
There are some good things in this movie. There must have been a massive special effects budget, because the special effects are superb. No argument there. But great special effects - and even some good performances by Fishburne and Reeves (and a drily humorous performance by Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith) don't make up for the basic weakness of this entirely unoriginal story.
2/10 - solely for the special effects.