A pretty ridiculous Matrix

Rating: 4/10 (28 January 2013)

This is my first review as I saw the film on TV last night, and couldn't get over the massive lack of imagination in the script. It reminds me of a High School film project, except its had far too much money thrown at it for some unapparent reason. The film is basically a poor mans Matrix with some "dark humour", if it can be called that. James McAvoy is essentially Neo, an office worker who doesn't understand his place in the world and is sought out by some "badass" woman with some knowledge of his character, who protects him and takes him to a leader of a group of people whom vows to train McAvoy to become a master assassin, meaning he can ultimately brake the laws of physics. There are of course some differences in the plot from this point but the similarities are ridiculous, Morgan Freeman's character even talks in the same way as Morpheus and slow motion has never seemed so unnecessary. Other problems with this film are the countless plot holes that leave you hugely distracted from the film.
Firstly, McAvoy's character is all torn up about murdering one man then later in the film he is responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent train passengers and doesn't bat an eyelid. Secondly, Morgan Freeman is supposedly a master assassin and yet in the final scene of the film he walks over to someone who looks a bit like James McAvoy from behind in the middle of an office and says something witty before going to shoot him, not even noticing that he is stood on a rather large yellow X made of post-it notes which you would assume he would be aware of from the other side of the room. It was like the writer just wanted to put in the sniper bullet tracking shot, ripped straight from the freak on a leash video by Korn, and didn't care if the plot made any sense. The ridiculous character flaws go on throughout the film but those two were particularly irritating. The film was gratuitous in its action sequences, each one insanely repetitive and the clichés made them very predictable.
The one decent thing about this film was the fact that we could laugh at it. Its just about watchable and ridiculous enough to be funny. The paychecks must have been big for this film, as I don't see how that script would appeal to the likes of Morgan Freeman.