*MINOR SPOILERS*
Well, I finally got around to seeing this film.. I know it’s pretty bad that I’ve seen so many films and nothing from this film franchise, but at least I’m getting to it now. Now, on with this short review!
The Matrix is a 1999 action/sci-fi film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called “the Matrix”, created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer “Neo” learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from the “dream world”.
Where do I even start? Lets just say I had a mixed bag of feelings when it came to this film. Although my rating won’t reflect that, I still walked away a little confused as to what I liked and disliked about this film. Like I mentioned above, this film came out in 1999, over 17 years ago. Although the story is still able to be transparently told, I feel this film is aging a little faster than I thought. Might my review have been different if I had seen this film when it first came out? Maybe, but that’s not the point. This film had a lot of wonderful things going for it, and a lot of not so great things as well.
In the light, this film has a fantastic story and world that it sets up. Within the first act you understand the basic laws, and functions of the world. Of course some things are left to question, but you can’t just give up too much. The story was original and had a great setup for future films, and I almost felt like I would have enjoyed this a little bit better if it was a novel and not film. There is so much to explore in this world, and I feel like we never have enough time everything. For instance, the opening of the film is very fast pace to the point where it might lose the audience. It is confusing and sets up the film nicely, but I felt it was just a little too fast for me.
Characters in this film were on and off for me. The acting was sub par, but the character’s story arcs felt very fleshed out. It was such a mixed bag that I didn’t know how to feel about it. Agent Smith was terrifying, but I felt Hugo Weaving just wasn’t all in with this part. This might be due to the age of the film, but it was still something that was immersion breaking at times. Throughout this film there wasn’t one actor that stood out to me in particular. The acting wasn’t horrible, I’m not saying that, it just wasn’t phenomenal like I thought it would be.
Another immersion breaking experience I had with this film was with its graphics. I know this is not right for me to complain about CGI from almost two decades ago, but rewatchability is something that will affect the film in the long run. Sure the graphics aren’t up to today’s standards, and I understand that. My main point here is that we’ve come a long way, and looking back on a film like this is sometimes hard. So I’ll just leave it at this: It’s okay. Cool back then, but still just okay.
There are a bunch of other tiny things that bugged me about this film, from the betrayal by Cypher, to the fact that Agents never really die, but those are such small things that are setting reliant (rules defined by the world) or just bad writing. I mean, for the most part this film’s original story is its key feature. The fact that it has a sequel is just a testamate to its strong story, and ability to tell it.
In the end, The Matrix brought in a mixed bag of both good and bad. On one side, its original story and setup for the next film is great, while on the other side, its mediocre acting, and aging visuals keep me from truly loving this film. So with that, I decided to give The Matrix a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. An above average score for an above average film.
