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Summary: The Matrix
Review: What a great Movie! if you like action packed movies, this is for you. Many great computer graphics. Always keeping you on the edge of your seat, The Matrix is my favorite movie.
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Summary: the Matrix - a review
Review: What a great movie! The plot is extremely well thought out; the visual FX are exciting and yet not overwhelming to the detriment of the action. I loved the martial arts sequences. I am not a Keanu Reeves fan; however, I thought he gave a very credible performance. In the face of technically demanding work, the character remained fresh and "real"!I also loved the role of Trinity, who Carrie-Anne Moss portrayed so well. Finally, a movie where the female character is a very capable strong person.
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Summary: Woah! The worst Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen.
Review: What a horrible movie The Matrix was. I kind of expected it going into watching this one, but I didn't think it would be as bad as it was. The acting, the writing, and even the special effects were awful. I know most people were impressed with the SFX, but I didn't think there was anything special about them. In a movie that has good special effects, you forget that what you are seeing is fake, but that never happens with The Matrix. The SFX was so bad, I had to laugh out loud at times. I'm disappointed I had to choose to give this movie one star when I really wanted to give it zero stars. Don't believe the hype. Avoid this movie at all costs.
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Summary: The Matrix
Review: What a script! Reeves is superb in Neo in this film. I rate him as Oscar material but alas..those dupes cannot see past their faces. The movie is fast paced and sci-fi stuff is wonderful. I can not wait till its sequel is out. This is truly Reeves best film as of 2001.
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Summary: Wake up! This is a great film!
Review: What amazes me about the few harsh criticisms of this movie is how banal and superficial they are. Yes, Matrix is loaded with cool special effects, a killer score, and an overwhelming sense of paranoia, but remember that the majority of the film takes place inside of a mainframe - it's not real. Neo is a brilliant hacker without a clue as to how the technology he loves is an extension of a much more sinister reality. I knew I had seen a brilliant movie when the foreshadowed use of Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Similarities", a treatise on the meaninglessness of defining reality in a totally fabricated, digital, mass produced society, kept its theme up until the credits started rolling. The next time you login, go through ticketron, or buy a bag of groceries think to yourself, "I wonder what's behind it all?" When I think of the pantheon of great film, it's impossible not to draw comparisons between one movie and the next. Sure, The Matrix had elements of 2001 and BladeRunner, but it stands on its own as a landmark acheivement. Dark City explores reality subverted into a scientific experiment, leaving the world, ultimately, in the hands of one man; eXistenz is a game which blends far too easily with reality; The Matrix is something totally new. Reality doesn't exist at all, or at least given the choice, who would choose to live outside the Matrix? The viewer, should they choose to really think about it rather than expect to be entertained, is left with a sense of dread and despair. This is not a feel good, rah rah humanity film, and it is great because it leaves us with existential questions we probably have considered but have rarely seen in any form of media. The Wizard of Oz said "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" We should immediately quip "Why not?"
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Summary: This is why we still go to the movies!
Review: What an awesome movie! OK, so I'm one of Keanu's biggest fans but that won't bias my view of the movie as a whole. I found that my friends who work in the Information Technology industry (like me) LOVE the movie and saw it countless times. Non-IT people don't seem to relate to it. I have no idea why. The musical score is fantastic and the scene in Governor Macquarie Tower (for all you Sydneysiders) was THE best action scene I think I've ever seen. I loved seeing the various Sydney spots where they filmed and the martial arts scenes were awesome. Very well acted and the special effects blew me away! Bring on Matrix II!!!!
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Summary: Things to Think About...for a Change
Review: What an outstanding movie! It's been ages since a thought-provoking movie has been produced. Sure, there was plenty to criticize. But the underlying theme hasn't been touched in a meaningful way since "2001: A Space Odyssey." Computers and "artificial intelligence" have become such an integral part of our society that it's hard to imagine life without them. "Matrix" takes us into the next realm of our existence---or at least makes us consider what life might be like. The movie does attempt to appeal to our baser "shoot 'em up" instinct on occasion. It's dialogue, however, is what stands out, particularly between Neo (Reeves) and Morpheus (Fishburne). If you're not stuffing your face with popcorn, you are drawn into a critical analysis of where we are headed as a society. In time, we'll look back on this one and call it a classic.
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Summary: Great, but not perfect!
Review: What can be said for this film? Anything about its amazing action sequences, its wonderful direction, its startling bullet-time shots, its magnificent fighting scenes, anything would be too little, unless you've seen this masterpiece. The Wachowski brothers have certainly done a remarkable job here (and the DVD is not short on extras either!). But I couldn't watch the whole movie more than, say, twice. I can watch the fighting scenes as many times as I can take, but not the whole movie. Sure the first or second (or even third) time you're eager to see it all, to find out what's going on. That's why you want to hear every little word spoken. But after that, the film bores you, and watching again any scene but the fighting ones becomes impossible. That "sssymetry" that characterizes the Matrix, is the reason I gave it 4 and not 5 stars.
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Summary: An action/adventure future?
Review: What can I possibly say about this movie that hasn't already been said? There are over twenty-six hundred comments at IMDb and another twenty-five hundred at Amazon. There even seems to be some block "reviewing" from young Christian groups enthusiastically pointing out all the parallels to Christ's life: Neo, "The One," "Trinity," saving humankind, and being lifted up to heaven, etc. I would add that directors Andy and Larry Wachowski touched some other religious bases as well. Note that Gloria Foster is "Oracle" (Greek mythology), that Lawrence Fishburne is Morpheus (of the Underworld) and that Joe Pantoliano is "Mr. Reagan" (a little secular allusion here). The band of heroes are also referred to as "freedom fighters" to recall our ex-prez's words. (But never mind.) The main thing to understand is that this is one very popular and very arresting movie, the sort of thing Hollywood producers love; in fact all of Hollywood loves The Matrix because it gave work to so many. Scrolling the credits takes longer than your mother's phone good-bye. The Matrix is an industry in itself, something like Star Wars and Rambo. But is the movie any good? Well, it's not much on video. The DVD is undoubtedly an improvement, and on the silver screen it might lean you back in your seat. The cinematography, sound and special effects are first rate. But I mean philosophically speaking? I think we can get a hint from a review that began (and I quote) "Why can't all movies be this good? -A 12-year-old viewer." Indeed, this is the question all those marketing minds in Hollywood are asking. The true blockbuster action/adventure/sci-fi movie aims at a male viewer of about 18. Ideally the range would include 12-year-olds to thirtysomethings. Any philosophy beyond that mental age is burdensome. So you don't think it is a philosophically interesting movie? Actually I do. I just don't think it's original. I mean Plato's cave allegory is over two thousand years old. And let's not forget The Wizard of Oz (1939) or even The Truman Show (1998). Any science fiction buff can point to half a dozen precursors. Isn't that stretching it a bit? Okay, how about this short story from half a century or so ago called something like "The Perm-Machine." Everybody in the future society is working their nine-to-five tails off for a TEMP--that is, for a few hours in the box hooked up to the feelie machine complete with 3D screen, surround sound and electrodes attached to your every neuron so that the complete, thrilling, all senses experience of the greatest adventures in life are theirs, including sex, drugs, heart-pounding action and other sensual pleasures. But what everybody really wanted was a PERM, which would place them in the box permanently hooked up to the electrodes and intravenous drips, etc. for the rest of their lives, a kind of virtual reality heaven on earth. What about the acting? Forget the acting. It was okay. Consider this instead: we are going to become software. There isn't going to be any "warfare" between man and machine with the human spirit triumphant. Instead, we are going to become more and more attached to our machines, our computers, our chips, until at some point (see Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence or Pierre Baldi's The Shattered Self: The End of Natural Evolution) the line between us and machine will be completely blurred. And then, molecule by molecule, we will DISAPPEAR, and at no time will we even realize it happened! The Matrix is a vision of the future, but it is a hopelessly anthropomorphic vision, a kind of action/adventure director's scan, extrapolated from the present. Where artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the prospect of quantum computers is taking us cannot be envisioned at all. Some people call this the "singularity" factor. The future (and by the way, most of the audience of The Matrix will live to see this) is like the horizon of a black hole that we accelerate toward, never able to see beyond that horizon until we are IN.
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Summary: Redefines sci-fi goodness
Review: What can I say about such an overhyped movie that hasn't already been said? I wasn't too interested until my friend asked me to watch it with her, and I was pleasantly surprised. With an inventively original plot (for American cinema) that isn't afraid to make the viewer think, The Matrix injects some depth into a genre I had all but given up on long ago. Feel-good fluffy garbage like Star Wars (uh oh, here comes my funeral pyre for that one) pales in comparison to a franchise with actual potential. The paranoiac questions about the fine line between reality and illusion integrate well into the cyberpunk-noir background, and even burned-out concepts like evil robots and far-flung apocalyptic futures are rejuvenated with a flair unseen for quite a long time. The over-the-top special effects, naturally, were the commercial draw, but I quickly tire of gimmicky eye candy. This is where the surprise came for me: amidst slow-motion bullet-dodging, slow-mo 180-degree fight scenes, and unsettling reality warps, the plot actually stood up. Sharp and intelligent, the concept, though perhaps not entirely original, is executed near-flawlessly. As expected from big-budget blockbusters, the plot inevitably dips into cheese for periods of time (especially the highly forced love scene[s]), but not enough to marr the overall experience. Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss slip into their roles wonderfully, and Joe Pantoliano makes himself wonderfully easy to hate as Cypher. The only downside is that Keanu Reeves, as always, can only be Keanu Reeves. He's typecast as himself. Even the usually-sharp dialogue slows down when he opens his mouth, with lines that seem like the script had blank spaces on all of Neo's dialogue and Reeves just wrote his own in. A clever, dark, and intelligent sci-fi flick. I think everyone on Earth owns this in their video collection, it's like a law or something, so just go on and buy it if you haven't yet. It may not be the best thing ever made, but it's still good enough to enjoy despite yourself.
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