Makes no sense and is unbearably pretentious - why is it so popular?

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 2000)

Well... I guess I have to buck a trend here. Apparently everyone liked the Matrix... heck, apparently even Pauline Kael thought it was good. I thought it stank. There were two broad reasons I disliked the film. Firstly - it made absolutely no sense! I can't really go into details here without revealing too much... but watch the movie and pay attention... listen to what characters say and watch what happens - it makes *no* darned sense at all! Now I could have forgiven that, if it weren't for the second problem - The Matrix is unbelievably overbearing and pretentious! Everything about it is falsely heavy and pretentious - the art design, the direction, the acting (well... presumably because of the direction)... if I had to choose, I'd say the cinematography bugged me the most - vapid and overbearing in the extreme. Since the movie seems to be intent on hammering the audience into the ground with its own self-importance but makes no sense whatsoever... it really completely baffles me why so many people liked it. Now... if you want to see a worthwhile, intelligent movie on the same basic theme, see The Thirteenth Floor... a vastly superior film in almost every way (although it has far less in the way of gunshots, explosions and general noisiness).