Movie Reviews

Quite often the plot of an action movie exists only to support a variety of big pointless action scenes. It's not very often that you get a movie like The Matrix, where the big action scenes exist to support a really good story. The Watchowski brothers, who wrote and directed the film, have created not only a strong story with The Matrix, but also something of a 'mythology' -- sort of a whole new universe in which many other interesting and exciting stories could occur (of course, check out the new sequels and The Animatrix series for proof that this is actually true).

Anyway, I'm not going to bother describing much of the story, as I think nearly everyone on the face of the earth has seen it three or four times. I will say, though, that not only did the Watchowskis have a really great story to tell -- and some really great action scenes to support that story -- they found/created some fantastic techniques to use in telling their story and filming their action. Some of the special effects techniques (particularly "Bullet Time") have been overused and parodied in a lot of other films. But you know what they say: imitation is the sincerest form of flatery... and seeing that effect in its original incarnation is still pretty darn impressive (and again getting back to my "action-supporting-the-story" point from earlier, it's still the only film in which using such an effect makes logical sense, considering the nature of the 'world' in which The Matrix's character are in).

If I have one minor quibble wiith the film it's that there are points in which the plot's exposition seems a little drawn out, almost to the point of slowing the movie down unnneccesarily (almost). Having seen The Matrix quite a few times now however, I'm pretty sure that, considering the depth of the "Matrix Mythology", every bit of exposition in the film is pretty much necessary.

The Matrix is one of the greatest action movies of all time, though given the originality, depth, and intelligence in its story, it's almost damning with faint praise to lump it in with most other 'action movies' out there.