I’m probably a bit late in writing this review, but I felt compelled to do it nonetheless. It is hard to express exactly how good I thought the Matrix was, but what I will say is it immediately became my favourite film after first seeing it in summer last year.
The ingenious plot behind the Matrix is the most original one yet, and as far as I’m concerned is flawless. In all honesty, it did take me a while to get my head around exactly what was going on, but after watching the film I was left deep in thought for days.
The film focuses on ’Neo’ (Reeves), a computer hacker who has been searching for answers as to what ’the matrix’ is. Then, one day, he meets the mysterious Morpheus, and all becomes clear. I would love to tell you more, but, as Morpheus says, ’’unfortunately you cannot be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself’’.
There are very few films that actually make me think (I find it hard enough to do on my own!), but when it does, that, in my opinion is the sign of a good film.
Looking over past appearances by Keanu Reeves (eg. ’Bill and Ted’ ’Chain reaction’ and ’A walk in the clouds’), there are some class performances, but none quite like this. The only other Reeves’ film I felt the need to watch again was ’The Devil’s Advocate’, another powerful masterpiece.
The time and effort put into the creation of The Matrix is obvious in scenes such as in the lobby and the famous kung fu scene with Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne).
This is also one of the best cast films, and I was pleased to hear that the majority of the cast will return in the eagerly awaited Matrix 2 and 3.
For anyone interested, the plot of these films is rumoured to be one of two things:
- There is another ’manipulator’, like Neo, who can change the matrix as he wishes, only he is on the robots’ side.
or
- What Neo now believes to be the real world is just yet another layer of the matrix.
Neither rumour has been confirmed, although martial arts expert Jet Li will appear in both sequels. There will also be a scene which ’takes car chases to a new level’ and a battle scene somehow reminiscent of Braveheart.
For those of you who enjoyed The Matrix as much as I did, I would recommend the film ’Drive’, starring Mark Dacascos, who’s fight scenes are almost as good as the ones in The Matrix.
For the small minority who haven’t seen The Matrix yet, I strongly suggest you do so, I can assure you that you won’t be at all disappointed.