so many good, cool parts... so many bad, painful parts...

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2003)

It's nice to be able to watch this movie with a fast forward button available. I don't think I could sit through the Zion dancing scene again, and there are many other scenes I could do without. It's hard to fast-forward though the bad acting though, since it's spread throughout the film.
Anyway, I didn't expect the acting to be good, but I did expect a lot from the special effects department. Sometimes they delivered, and sometimes they put stuff on the screen that made me cringe. Let's just say that when people look back at some of the CGI in this movie, they'll say "this was cutting edge at one point?" I don't mind the use of CGI as long as it's integrated into the film well. If you can pinpoint the specific time that CGI cuts into a scene, then the film makers have not done their job. Like the people in the Lord of The Rings documentary said: "people shouldn't know that they're looking at an effects shot".
In the Matrix you can tell exactly when Neo is CGI and that takes so much away from the experience. And one thing is clear... you should never... ever.... ever do close-up slow motion CGI shots of a human... at least not for another 10 years or so.
The main redeeming part of the action in this movie is the freeway chase. That was quality, and you couldn't tell when CGI was used, since it was used for vehicles and far away shots of the agent jumping on the car.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad movie... but it just wasn't polished work. I expected a bit more.