Mini Film Review – The Matrix

Yesterday I watched The Matrix; and it was alright! Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss; The Matrix is a science fiction action film about a man who discovers that the world he lives in, may not be real (why does this sound familiar?). The Matrix does have a cool setup as right from the off it begins to make the audience question what is real or not, as soon as possible. It leads the viewer on, and shows incredible things early on, all leading up to the grim reality. The explanation scenes in the first half of the film are the film at it’s best. But just as the story begins to get technical, it also begins to lose your attention. This doesn’t pickup until the badass entrance/action scenes in the final act. Yeah, the film was just alright; it had it’s moments, and some horrifying imagery as well as detailed fight scenes, but the visual effects have not aged well, and don’t look as crisp and clean as they may have done in the 90’s. The film though does have a couple of neat and unexpected things that I didn’t expect. Firstly it has some cool additional cast members like Hugo Weaving, Belinda McClory, and Marcus Chong, and secondly; knowing sort of what The Matrix was about before I saw it, only makes up about a third of the film’s actual world, as it travelled down a route I did not expect. Goes to show, that major releases of over twenty years ago, are still capable of holding onto surprises; for first time viewers. Plus, the modern rock music weaved in the soundtrack was pretty cool too!