let me first say that the conditions that i was forced to watch the matrix under were less than ideal .
so i have tried to be as fair as possible considering that my viewing experience was significantly less than ideal .
i watched the matrix in a theater that is in serious need of upgrades at the best of times .
under no circumstances , should it have ever been allowed to show a big budget special effects laden film like the matrix .
this theater , owned by the parent company of one of hollywood 's biggest studios , has n't even graduated into stereo sound yet .
the mono sound that the audience was subjected to sounded as if it was coming out of a speaker that was many years past mandatory retirement age .
in other words , the sound sucked .
as someone used to digital sound in a movie theater , bad sound does n't do anything to add to a film .
i 'm not even going to go into the horrible splicing job that the projectionist did putting this film together .
there , i 've had my rant , now on with the regularly scheduled review .
which sadly wo n't include commentary on the film 's sound which i 'm assuming was spectacular , but i 'm just guessing .
my guess on the sound seems like a fairly solid one considering the visual quality of the matrix .
it is nothing short of stunning visually .
sadly , the rest of the film , while pretty good , does n't quite measure up to the obvious effort that was expended on making this film look so darn good .
the matrix has at it 's core a good concept , although it strays into the confusing side more often than i would have liked .
keanu reeves plays a computer hacker who is drawn into the frightening realization that reality is just a hoax .
it turns out that that many years ago the world was devastated by some sort of disaster .
now machines run the planet and humans spend their lives in a sort of incubator , plugged into a computer network .
the computers are generating a virtual reality world which is a representation of the earth before it was destroyed .
the population of the planet never realizes that their entire life is a hoax and that they really spend their entire lives as comatose .
that is except a small band who have discovered this horrible secret and have escaped their virtual prisons .
they now spend their lives combating the computers in an effort to expose this lie .
reeve 's character , neo , is recruited by this band of rebels led by morpheus ( laurence fishburne ) .
newcomer carrie - anne moss and one of hollywood 's most underrated actors , joe pantoliano , join fishburne in the band of freedom - fighters .
the action sequences are nothing short of spectacular .
this can be attributed as much to the amazing special effects
as to many of the actor 's extensive pre - production training in martial arts .
this lends itself to some of the best martial arts sequences that you are ever likely to see in a film .
when you add this to some of the wild effects in the computer generated world , it all adds up to an eyeful .
as i already said , the visuals far outpace the rest of the film .
acting in the matrix is not bad , but it certainly is n't real good either .
keanu reeves gives his usual fairly emotionless performances .
although to his credit , it is one of his better performances .
laurence fishburne on the other hand often seemed to forget that he was in a sci - fi action film .
more than a few times he delivered his lines as if he thought he was performing in some sort of shakespearean drama .
joe pantoliano was a little under used in this film but he made the most with what he had .
carrie - anne moss turned out a surprisingly good performance for this her first feature film role .
it 's nice to see that she was cast as much for her talent as for her breathtaking looks .
you have to give all of the main actors a healthy dose of credit for the work that they obviously put into the physical training for their roles in this film .
it was clear that no small effort went into getting the moves down perfectly for the fighting sequences .
i also put much of the blame for the somewhat strained performances in the matrix on the dialogue , which was terrible at times .
in more than a few places it got way too existential for my liking and at other times it was just plain weird .
it almost seems as though the writers were having a difficult time trying to figure out how to explain the concept for the movie .
so they decided to make the dialogue as obtuse as possible so that no one could figure out what the heck they were talking about .
thereby covering up any leaps of faith that they may have had to make in the departments of logic and believability .
my other major complaint with the matrix was with the very unsatisfying ending .
the setup for it was hokey and frankly used in many a bad film before .
the ending itself was just plain strange .
the main reasons to recommend the matrix are the visual effects and computer animation which make this a real treat to watch .
while the rest of the film ( acting , dialogue and to a degree plot ) detract from the high production values , they do n't detract enough to prevent me from recommending the matrix as a fun way to spend an evening .
Output: P