The author of this review learned a lot from his bitter film going experience and tends to be careful when certain film is advertised as "cool". When someone claims that certain movie is "best piece of science fiction since Blade Runner", I immediately remember The Fifth Element. When ad campaign claims that the film was made or inspired by comic book artists, I remember plenty of disastrous comic book adaptations. You have little to look forward when the film's main star is Keanu Reeves, actor whose performance is usually associated with word "wood". When someone mentions word "cyberpunk", I cringe at the thought of Johnny Mnemonic, another display of Reeves' acting abilities. Then again, there was a film that had all those elements and defied my expectations - The Matrix, 1999 science fiction spectacle written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski.
Protagonist of the film is Thomas Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves), young man who lives a double life - at day he is just of many employees in faceless software corporation; at night he is "Neo", hacker dedicated to breaking any computer law in the book. Anderson/Neo has recently drawn attention of two factions - one is small group of hacker/terrorists led by Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), another is government and their agents led by sinister- looking Smith (played by Hugo Weaving). When Anderson/Neo finally meets Morpheus, he is shown that his entire world is nothing more than an illusion created by "Matrix" - system designed by intelligent machines in order to keep humans in slavery. Morpheus believes that Neo is "The One", man who is prophesied to lead humans in the liberation war against machines.
The Matrix was surprisingly good film for its time, and there many people who maintain enthusiasm for it ever since and claim that it was one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Yet, despite being surprisingly good, The Matrix is nevertheless just another of those overblown, over-hyped and, in the end, overrated films that are bound for oblivion in couple of years. The idea behind the script isn't particularly original - similar concept was used with much more success in Alex Proyas' Dark City - and although The Matrix arouses viewers' grey cells more than average Hollywood product, it still lacks depth necessary to be branded "thinking man's film". The (in)famous "philosophy" of The Matrix uses many interesting concepts borrowed from Plato, ancient Chinese tales, Buddhism and Philip K. Dick, but most of the audience would care very little about them, being overwhelmed by "cool" music, "cool" wardrobe, "cool" martial arts, "cool" protagonists and "cool" special effects. The more obvious influence on this film could be attributed less to ancient philosophers and more to some "cool" elements of world's popular culture - Oriental anime and Hong Kong films. The Matrix has struck the chord of popular sentiments and picked the right trends, being aided by massive ad campaign and even some negative publicity (it allegedly served as one of many inspirations for the perpetrators of Columbine massacre).
Right combination of different contents only partially explains success of The Matrix. In essence, this film is triumph of style over substance. Scratched beyond "cool" dark glasses and leather jackets, protagonists of this film are rather thin, equipped with thanklessly lame lines and broadest possible character traits. Even the protagonist is incredibly bland, which is rather good thing for film, because it fits Keanu Reeves' capabilities. The only moderately human character in film - Cypher (played by Joe Pantoliano) - appears too briefly in the film and his final fate is all but telegraphed in the middle. The other human character is ironically not human at all - Agent Smith, played menacingly but very effectively by Hugo Weaving in the way that leaves too many questions unanswered. Those questions are going to be asked, despite all the "cool" gadgetry, spectacular gunfights and brilliant display of martial arts (choreographed by Hong Kong's legendary master Yuen Wu-Ping), and some of the flaws in the script are more than apparent. The ending - which, despite all "cool" and brilliant philosophy, succumbs to film makers' desire to display all the CGI technology at their disposal - is somewhat disappointing, but it also hints of future equels, so the general impression of The Matrix won't be severely diminished.
In most likelihood, The Matrix is probably going to be rightly remembered as one of the better films of its time, but its status of genre classic is far from deserved.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on November 14th 2003)
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