Lives up to the hype and more.

Rating: Null/10 (2 August 2002)

After waiting three years after it's release to theaters, I finally got around to renting the DVD of The Matrix, and now I wonder why I took so long to see it in the first place. This is a gem of a movie, and one of the best films in the last 5 years.
What I love is that they took so many genres of film (action, mystery/suspense, sci-fi, cyberpunk, kung fu, drama, horror) and deliciously mix them up into something that equals a hearty bowl of Minestrone soup, gourmet pizza with the works, or homemade ice cream made with all the ingredients you want. The story was intriguing; the idea that mankind lives in a computer-generated world while the real world is embattled in a fight with computers to regain control of it for humans is something different. Being able to be strapped into a machine and be taught any program immediately and live and die in the world of 1999 is something I'd want to experience myself. The SFX are again used to good use, to help the story, not to hide the fact that the story is weak. Little touches, like Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, whose voice goes softer as he speaks his sentences or Joe Pantoliano's Cypher, who longs to live in 1999 permanently so he could eat roast beef and not the sludge he consumes in 2199, are terrific.
The performances by Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and others are decent to good, although a little wooden at times, but Weaving's character is absolutely chilling, playing a remorseless villain. My only gripe is that while the story is great, the actual scripted dialogue could have used more bite, I think they were trying to get this one rated PG-13, but the hammer-and-tong types at the MPAA rated this one R. Still, it was a huge success, and hopefully the upcoming sequels will be better than this, although it will be hard to top this one.
The DVD I rented contained commentary of the film, cast& credit notes, and a long documentary about the making of "The Matrix". Later editions have the extra "Follow The White Rabbit" and "Take The Red Pill" features that show alternative angles of the famous scenes from this film or SFX documentaries.