A whole new way of movie-making

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2005)

There was not a single film that I can remember that was like this back in '99 and to say that the experience was totally awesome is an understatement.
Before I saw this, I usually thought that sci-fi movies were dull. I was one of the few people who thought Blade Runner felt like an eternity to sit through. This was exciting from start to finish and if you have ridiculed Keanu Reeves in the past, the performance he gives here makes up for it in spades.
The genius of the movie is of course that we don't know what is real or not and that include people. The men in suits and sunglasses are shown as ghost-like creatures who control what the commoners' environment but you are not really sure if they themselves are not controlled by another entity. The character of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) seems to know all the answers but even his wisdom is questioned by his complete blind faith in Neo as the chosen one.
There is of course obstruction from opposing sides in the form of Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) who thinks that it is better being in a make-believe world than to endure the rather meager existence the rebels are leading and he has a point.
Millions of dollars were probably spent making this movie but except at the end all the money were well spent. The shoot-out is exciting up to a point but it is dragged out a little too long. That is such a minor quibble, though that you can easily gloss over it. So how can you top such a movie. My opinion is you can't as witnessed by the rather inferior sequels but there was a time when this all felt new and you should applaud the Wachowski Bros. for that and not gag because you just saw a spoof on the Simpsons for the 1 millionth time last night.