Overrated, but still a good flick for what it is.

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2002)

Like everyone else on the planet, when The Matrix first came out, I was blown away by the film. I thought it was cleverly written, with visuals that were mind-blowing, and the style was amazing. Immediately upon its release, it was being hailed as the sci-fi film of the 90's. At first, I was completely agreeing to this notion. Then I watched it again, and a funny idea occurred to me.
The Matrix is really not very original. While it is a very entertaining film, originality is not one of its good elements. I like the film as an action picture now, but I certainly do not think that it deserves the title of issuing a bold new standard in sci-fi.
There are a few reasons for this: first of all, Neo has little character development. His performance is limited to a series of "Woahs," and "I don't believe it." Case in point, Keanu Reeves did a good job in the part....an actor whose range is limited to Bill and Ted and, well...Point Break. That's because he had so little to do. Morpheus, Cypher, Trinity, Tank, and Agent Smith all came off much better than Neo.
Second of all, the storyline isn't very original. Last year, I had the pleasure of watching Dark City for the first time. It flied vastly under the radar when it was first released, and it was certainly a quieter, more thoughtful film. It occurred to me while watching that the plot line, from the characters to the basic premise, is very much the same as in The Matrix, and it was released a year before. I'm sure you've all heard this argument before, so I won't go too far into it. But I will say this: Dark City, visually and story-telling wise, is a far superior film, IMHO. The complex themes that both film rises are better developed in Dark City as well. The Matrix seems to fall into the pattern of action movie in the final act, where Dark City maintains its deep philosophical elements throughout. I think it is a pity that The Matrix was able to set up such a realistic world that was so intruiging and inventive, and then push the audience into overkill by having the final third of the film being a long shootout/martial arts fight. Granted, it was the finest shootout/martial arts fight that I have ever seen in a film, but I felt that after it introduced all of its philosophical elements in the first two acts of the film, the final, violent act was rather mind-numbing and a shift in the wrong direction.
That leads me to the action scenes themselves. So many have said that this film sets a new standard in sci-fi. I don't see this at all. The great sci-fis are followed by a series of rip-offs and films clearly inspired by them (Star Wars=Battlestar Galactica, Conan=Beastmaster, Alien=Creature, E.T.=Mac and Me, etc.). The Matrix has found few if any sci-fi films that have tried to rob it of its interesting new action style. Instead, its style has turned into a fad for action films that is quickly fading. After The Matrix, we saw a release of films such as Mission Impossible 2, Charlies Angels, Beowulf, The Art of War, and Mummy 2 that ripped off its style. And it is a style that is quickly growing old.
The great sci-fis are usually films that are released before the general public is ready for them. The ones now considered classics opened to scathing reviews upon initial release, and many of them bombed at the box office. It was only audience reaction to them later that proved their worth and re-evaluation by film experts. The best of best were failures upon initial release--remember initial reactions to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, 2001, Blade Runner, Highlander, Dark City, and even Star Wars? These are now considered paragons of the genre. On the other hand, The Matrix did stupendous at the box office, and even went onto rival Episode One (an inferior film, by the way) at the cinema. I'm not so niave as to say ALL the good fantasy/sci-fis have to fail first before becoming great....Battlefield Earth and Lord of the Rings proves otherwise on both ends of the extreme. I am suggesting that The Matrix was simply a big, summer blockbuster which, because it had a plotline that appeared original because only smaller, quieter films had used it before, and because it had a lot of loud (but smart) action at the end that is appealing to the average moviegoer, was hyped up to be something greater than it really was.
**1/2 out of ****