The Matrix

All too often, us moviegoers are presented with films that appeal only to fans of one genre. Whereas I'd gladly see a jackass slapstick comedy flick, I'd rather be castrated by a drunken penguin than get dragged out to one of those 4-hour, tear-jerking, thought-provoking dramas. The Matrix is different, somewhat. It combines aspects that have drawn fans of all kinds of movies to it. It's got awesome special effects, it's a sci-fi thriller, and it will really make you think, if you want to. Hell, I had to catch it twice before I really understood what "the matrix" reall was.

The story basically goes down like this. Neo (Keanu Reeves), comes across as an ordinary computer hacker, with a problem. His mind is ceaselessly plagued with an inner urging to know the answer to "What is the Matrix?", and to find a man called Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who he believes can give it to him. Neo soon meets up with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who leads him to Morpheus and the long, winding trip "down the rabbit hole".

Through a barrage of psycho-babble and occasionally unintelligible phiosophical drivel, we learn that the world in which we exist is not truly reality. It is a computer generated universe, known as the Matrix. I won't delve too deeply into the intricacies of the Matrix, but as the story goes on, we learn that the "real" world is run by Artificial Intelligence machines that synthesize aritifically created human bodies for fuel. A small band of human rebels, lead by Morpheus, must destroy the Matrix and the AI supermen known as Agents -- the dudes dresses like Men in Black. The only person who stands a chance against them is a prophesised individual known as "the one"... and Morpheus believes that Neo is it.

Now, needless to say, this film features some amazing computer generated scenes, as well as some surprisingly compelling fight scenes. The dialogue, at times, is somewhat confusing and even downright ridiculous. Oh, no, wait, the downright ridiculous was casting Reeves as Neo.. which drew a fair share of laughter from the theatre crowd. And trust me, this is no humourous movie. Of course, there's also a seemingly pointless tacked-on romantic subplot that came off as kinda corny to me. And as I said before, the complex plot and the whole intricate nature of this story will really make you think; and may even compel you to watch this movie more than once... twice in my case. Hell, Bender, the other reviewer, saw it three times. Need I say more?

But all in all, this movie was enjoyable. A little tough to follow at times, but it was compensated for by the hot (I feel so weird using this word in this context) action, awe-inspiring special effects and the line that shall live on eternally in my mind as an all-time cinematic classic: "There is no spoon."

If you haven't caught this film yet, and you're looking for a movie to kill some time... a movie with action, suspense and unpredictable plot twists, then The Matrix is for you. I certainly recommend it.

Rating: 85%

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