"THE MATRIX" review by R.L. Strong
Warner Brothers Presents a Silvers Picture in association with Village Roadshow A Wachowski Brothers film Keanu Reeves Laurence Fishburne "THE MATRIX" Carrie-Anne Moss Joe Pantoliano Hugo Weaving Co Producer Dan Cracchiolo Music by Don Davis Cinematography by Bill Pope Edited by Zach Staenberg Special Effects Matthew Ferro Stunt co-ordinator & Martial Arts Director Yuen Woo-ping Produced by Andrew Mason Barrie M. Osborne & Joel Silver Written & Directed by Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski
What if your reality wasn't real? That have been the several stories and films that have utilized this construct. Titles as "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner" jump immediately to mind as two example of such story lines. But this production from Joel Silver does something unique and exciting. Now I must warn you ahead of time, that if you want the surprises of "The Matrix" to remain surprises, please skip the next two paragraphs, as I am going to reveal aspects of the plot.
The film opens with a computer screen tracing a phone call to a computer hacker named "Neo" (Keanu Reeves). The caller is a black leather clad beauty named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). The police locate her and close in. Also arriving on the scene are several secret service types lead by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who warns the police that the Trinity is no ordinary woman. That fact is brought to stunning light by Trinity's swift and explosive decimation of the police officers (an absolutely jaw dropping sequence of acrobatic and martial art dexterity). The film takes a drastic turn as Trinity escapes her pursuers by leaping off from the roof of the building and onto the roof of a second, covering an impossible space in the leap. She reaches her extraction point, a lone phone booth, but is run down by Agent Smith in a truck. Surprisingly, she does escape.. but how we can't tell.
'Neo' is the computer tag used by Thomas Anderson. He is contacted by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburn), a notorious cyber terrorist that the government is trying to capture. Neo is contacted and meets with Morpheus who tells him that his life is nothing but a dream. That his reality is nothing more that electrical impulses fed to him by a sentient life form built by man in the late '90's. This Artificial Intelligence (spiritual cousin to both the Hal 2000 from '2001' and 'Cyberdyne Systems' from 'The Terminator' films) has destroyed all of mankind and is now breading man to be used only as a living battery. When 'Neo' awakes from his dream, he is rescued by Morpheus and his followers and trained to become the savior that they believe him to be.
"The Matrix" is the second film from the Wachowski Brothers, Andy and Larry respectively. Their first film, the remarkably subtle and stylish "Bound" gave only a hint of the level of expertise and experimentation these two filmmakers possess. What has been achieved in 'The Matrix" is nothing short of awe inspiring. The effects, stunts, cinematography all combine to create a completely dizzying world of fantasy. One so complex and multi-layered as to be almost acceptable. No faint praise here. While the film doles out ladles full of action set pieces (each one more extravagant and jaw dropping than the previous one), one never loses site of the plot machinations of the characterizations in the film.
While some of the characters are given short shrift in the film, all of the principles do a fine job of carrying their roles. Keanu does a fine job as the savior 'Neo', his growing acceptance of his role in the salvation of mankind is a nice turn by an actor that has been giving little if no respect critically. Here, Keanu ups the ante, by learning and performing some of the most striking Martial Art fights ever caught in an American film. Credit for that goes to Hong Kong master Yuen Woo-ping, who not only trained the actors in the basics of several fighting forms but also designed and directed the fighting scenes. The remarkable thing is that these scenes intersect with the body of the film so well, that Mr. Yuen might not receive the credit deserved him.
Laurence Fishburne returns with a nicely tempered performance as Morpheus. His style and grace hiding the desperate passion with a man who knows that the truth is a lie. And that the restoration of that real truth may cost him his life. Carrie-Anne Moss is given the least amount of character development (which is an unfortunate situation of almost all action films), and this is a shame as her screen presence is so magnetic. You believe this woman could save the world all by herself. Joe Pantoliano (who worked with the Wachowski Brothers on "Bound") is his ever sleazy self, giving the film just the right touch of levity and menace.
Now in a film that is dealing with the end of mankind and spectacular battle scenes, the question comes up as to how good are the effects. Well, for the first time we have a film here that does justice to all of the many Hong Kong and Japanese fantasies of super heroes and super men that we have seen and chuckled at over the past decades. It may now be near impossible to watch an Ultraman episode without thinking them as quaint at best and horrendous at worse. The complex digital and miniature work done on this film are simple a marvel to behold. There are actually scenes here that out gun anything by John Woo or Ringo Lam.
The sound design of the film is ecstatic. I haven't been this enthralled with sound effects and their affront on my senses since 'Star Wars'. I can't think of anything recently that had me ducking and blinking subconsciously as much as this film.
If movies are becoming nothing more than glorified roller coasters, then I hope that all future action films use this feature as a blueprint and move forward from here. Now we've all been bludgeoned with films that have sold themselves on the basis of their effects or action. But, for just pure unadulterated entertainment, you could do much, much worse than spending two hours in 'The Matrix"
On a scale of one to five "The Matrix" rates a solid four. A good time at the bijou, and a film that cries out for multiple viewings.
Copyright ©1999 Areles' Delphian Dungeon Nothing in this article may be copied, reprinted or altered in anyway without the expressed written permission of the author.
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