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Desk worker by day and hacker by night,
Neo is met by a girl who can fight.
This Trinity tells him that Morpheus wishes
To show him a secret that stays surreptitious.
 
When Neo won’t take an escape route too high,
Mysterious agents detain with no why.
He’s interrogated by Smith, a shrewd thug,
Who bugs him with some kind of literal bug.
 
At night, Neo meets up with Morpheus’ crew
Who take out the bug and deliver him to
The dreamer himself, who then offers some pills,
Without quite explaining the subsequent ills.
 
The red pill then causes our hero to wake
And has him soon thinking he made a mistake.
He finds himself nude in a world where machines
Are fueling themselves by the vilest of means.
 
The AI’s took over, and nobody sees,
For people are now used as live batteries.
The world Neo knew is the Matrix, a fake,
To keep people blind to the truth, lest they wake.
 
Recruited at once by the hovercraft crew
He met in the Matrix, who showed him what’s true,
He’s tutored by Morpheus, who first explains,
And cool skills are downloaded into their brains.
 
They enter the Matrix, once training is done,
To find out if Neo is really the One.
The Oracle tells him what he needs to hear,
But they can’t return, for a traitor is near.
 
As Smith captures Morpheus after a fight,
The turncoat exterminates friends in their sight.
He’s stopped, leaving only a browbeaten trio
And Morpheus still in the Matrix, but Neo
 
Insists he be rescued, regardless of threats.
They go in and shoot the heck out of the sets.
The rescue is thrilling and proves, more or less,
That Neo’s the One who can grant them success.
 
When both of his comrades are safe through the phone,
Both Neo and Smith have a duel on their own.
As robots fill Morpheus’ crewmen with dread,
A fight and a chase leaves our champion dead.
 
A kiss and a prophecy Trinity knew
Revive him with powers that Smith can’t subdue.
The robots are halted, and Neo’s inclined
To stopping the Matrix and freeing mankind.
______________
 

Written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix is one of the few sci-fi films that one can call ground-breaking. Star Wars was the original, and many others have tried, such as Inception and Avatar, with varying success, but The Matrix took audiences by surprise with its brilliantly staged action, religious symbolism, and thought-provoking dystopia. Plus, it’s downright cool, and it knows it’s cool. From Trinity’s opening fight scene to the expertly choreographed kung-fu face-offs to the helicopter rescue, the film has all the action moviegoers could want, but it also featured a number of fascinating themes, such as the validity of “reality.” Combine these elements with slick camera work, impressive CGI, protracted but artful use of slow-motion and bullet-time effects, and a trench-coated cyberpunk mystique, and you’ve got a hit.

Keanu Reeves shed his Bill and Ted persona for a straight-faced, chosen-one role of Neo, and Laurence Fishburne proved surprisingly agile as the mysterious Morpheus. Carrie-Anne Moss found her breakthrough role playing the formidable Trinity, and Joe Pantoliano and especially an intense Hugo Weaving make for excellent villains. Weaving’s deliberate pronunciation of “Mr. Anderson” is distinctly intimidating.

The film’s main drawback, aside from language, is its high body count. Those who die in the Matrix die for good, and a number of innocent people are caught in the crossfire, particularly during the bullet-riddled lobby scene. While these scenes remain admittedly awesome, the deaths of neutral parties by “good” characters diminish the overall fun factor.

The Matrix isn’t completely original: it owes much to anime, such as Akira, and to martial arts films.  A few first-person shots with Neo running through an apartment at the end were even reminiscent of the foot chase in the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona. Still, The Matrix is a sci-fi masterpiece that stands much higher than its two sequels.  (I may review those someday.  Essentially, they continued the breathtaking action of the first film but emphasized pointless exposition and ended on a thoroughly unsatisfying note.)  Taken on its own, The Matrix is a provocative thriller that the Wachowskis have yet to match. (We’ll see about their upcoming sci-fi effects extravaganza Jupiter Ascending.)

Best line: (Morpheus, to Neo) “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

 
Artistry: 10
Characters/Actors: 8
Entertainment: 9
Visual Effects: 10
Originality: 9
Watchability: 9
Other (violence, language): -4
 
TOTAL: 51 out of 60
 

Next: #110 – To Kill a Mockingbird

© 2014 S. G. Liput

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