The Matrix is an entertaining, stylish looking cross between The Terminator and StarWars; not quite as good as either, but still very enjoyable. It has impressive special effects, fun, if slightly hokey looking martial arts battles, guns galore, lots of pyrotechnics and even a fairly intelligent story.Apparently some time in the future humanity created a race of sentient computers, called the Matrix, who rebelled against mankind and defeat the human race after a long and brutal war. One of our battle strategies was to pollute the air badly enough to block out the sun so that these solar powered machines began running out of energy. This proved to be too little, too late and the machines won the war anyway. In retaliation for our cutting off their power source, the sun, they develop a new source of energy�us. The Matrix discovers a way to enclose humans in cocoon shaped devices that allow them to tap into a person�s very life energy like a battery. Except for a very small band of freedom fighters every human being alive is placed into one of these cocoons at birth where they are hard wired into the Matrix�s computer system. To keep us placated our consciousness are downloaded into a computer generated virtual reality that makes everyone in one of these cocoons believe they are living normal lives. Neo, played by Kenu Reeves, is a brilliant young computer hacker who begins to suspect the truth and, as a result, is sought out by both the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys think Neo may be The One, he the Oracle prophesied would destroy the Matrix. The bad guys think Neo would make excellent bait to draw out the good guys.
There are several nice touches in this movie such as the way the Oracle, the one who made the prophecy about the One, is presented. To avoid spoilers I�ll only say she�s not what Neo; or the audience for that matter, expected. Another clever idea was giving the Matrix�s agents the ability to replace anyone still connected to the Matrix so that innocent bystanders could suddenly shift appearance and turn into one of the Men In Black looking bad guys. If deliberate, even the hero�s name, Neo, is a nice touch since Neo means New which is very appropriate given Neo�s unlike anything either the human rebellion or the Matrix has ever seen before. Plus, if you rearrange the letters in Neo�s name you get One as in The One. It�s a small touch, but small touches are often what make a movie. The characters that comprise the rebellion, especially Samuel Jackson as their leader Morpheus, are fun both visually and personality wise. There are one or two fairly intense visual effects, but nothing you couldn�t see on television so, even though The Matrix is rated R, the PG-13 crowd should be able to handle it and will love all the guns, martial arts and pyrotechnics.
All in all an above average movie and The One will get you two there will be a sequel, at least, I hope there will be.
Average Grade: A
