Cyberpunk SF that out-Gibsons Gibson
Stanley Kubrick once said, "If it can be imagined, it can be filmed."
That certainly sums up The Matrix. If you go to this motion picture, you will see images unlike any that have been brought to the screen. It's a movie which shows the power of computerized F/X that actually plays its part to tell a story. Unlike pretty, but ultimately empty visuals such as What Dreams May Come had in spades. Or the pointless CGI that Lost in Space suffered from, The Matrix does it right. The CGI is there and it tells the story which could not have been accomplished otherwise. At times the visuals come at you so furiously, your mind will not be able to absorb them all.
And if one enjoys science fiction, one wants the story to have some meat on its bones. It should not only tell a story, but it should explore the human condition: 2001 with the fate of Mankind, A Clockwork Orange with the nature of free will, or Blade Runner with what makes a human human. The Matrix fills the bill. It is not some empty-headed piece of SF fluff such as the treacly Wing Commander, it explores reality versus subjectivity--a heady topic indeed.
The Matrix is cyberpunk SF--that branch of science fiction first espoused by William Gibson, whose novels such as Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic are examples. (And Johnny Mnemonic was turned into a movie also starring Keannu Reaves. It's just that Mnemonic failed while Matrix delivers.) Cyberpunk explores dystopias where the Net is omnipresent. Where people "jack in" to networks directly to experience holodeck-like pleasures. Where virtual reality and AI (artificial intelligence) are rampant. These are the kind of things which read well in a novel, but don't translate to the silver screen as Johnny can attest.
But the The Matrix has done it. The story explanation is folded into the plot in such a way that the audience is not left in the dust. The CGI visuals keep the viewers glued to their chairs.
One can't really review the movie too closely without giving away plot points--a simpleton "out" that I do not take, unlike the newspaper "critics" who feel they're providing a service by revealing the movie to you. But that's what hyperlinks are about, since there are plot points (WARNING: SPOILERS) that one feels got the writers into a jam so they glossed over them. C'est la vie. Suffice to say the story revolves around whether or not Reeves is the deliverer of the people from their bondage. So it's borrowed liberally from sources as old as Moses or as recent as Maud'dib from Dune. There are very general parallels with Dark City , another recent SF movie that had substance, so again The Matrix is in excellent company.
Since it's a grim, emotionless world, the acting as such matches. Reeves, Fishburne, Moss and the others act and react accordingly. There are no great shakes in that department. Moss gets to strut her stuff in tight black vinyl pants as she kicks ass and takes names.
At times the cinematography goes off the deep end with its Blade Runner-like deep shadows with the lighting coming from directly overhead. Decrepit buildings with a bare bulb hanging overhead is the norm. Sydney, Australia is where the movie was filmed. Using a relatively unknown skyline clicked--it's every city without being a city.
The movie isn't perfect. The whole middle section leaves a lot to be desired on how their world all came about. And there are the questions I have concerning plot points. But still, a movie as ambitious as this does not come along everyday. The Matrix more than meets the requirements. It's terrific.
Movie's suitability for: