What can I say? It kicked ass. (and ribs, and head, and...)

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 1999)

I just saw an advance screening of the Matrix tonight, and I've gotta say this: this movie is a good excuse to get a HDTV and DVD - when it comes out on those media, that is. (and home theater, if you don't have it, of course. =)
It's a solidly good flick, borders on great at times. It's a action/thriller, a cyberspace-based nailbiter that borrows snippets of plot element and/or scenes/similarities from such movies as The Terminator, Aliens, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and a small handful of others. *But* only snippets. It's still a *fairly* original story/adaptation. The main stars are Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, and a handful of other fairly talented people (Joe Pantoliano - been in a bucketload of fairly popular movies over the last 15 years - and Carrie-Anne Moss).
Now, anyone who made the mistake of forking over $X to see Keanu Reeves in his last cyberthriller role, "Johnny Mnemonic" [an adaptation of a William Gibson (read: the god of cyberspace) ] short story, might run screaming from The Matrix. Johnny Mnemonic was a *real* dog.
This film is better than that. By a *huge* margin.
It's a solid flick, with good non-contrived acting, a pretty unique and decent storyline, and it was actually very cool - without trying to ram it down your throat that it was cool/cyberspace is cool/wearing all black is cool/everything we do is cool. It just *was* what it was - and it did so very proficiently. It's got good guys (albeit somewhat darker-tinged in mood than you normally think of good) and a strong heroine part in it; and it's got very bad, evil, insidious dark forces too...it's worth the $X.
I'd give it....somewhere between an 8 and a 9.5. I guess a 9. That'd be fair.
(I just wish "real life" was that easy...I'd say more, but then I'd have to divulge spoilers. :) Just being able to do a whole bucketload of things that people were able to do in that movie. :)