 |
THE MATRIX
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Matrix, 1999
Classic Movie Review
Directed by The Wachowski BrothersStarring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishbourne, Carrie-Anne Moss
Review by Carey Lewis
Synopsis:
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against the controllers of it.
Review:
There are movies in the history of cinema that forever change its landscape. Usually two movies serve this purpose. Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch ushered in the realistic character driven films of the 70’s. Jaws and Star Wars brought along the blockbuster way films are still made today, and Jurassic Park and the Matrix, for better or worse, gave us the computer age of today (which has fit in with the blockbuster mentality).
Right away the movie tells you that you’re not going to be watching a stereotypical action film. It starts off with a very noir-ish feel as Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is surrounded by police officers in an old, empty hotel room. Three Agents arrive, led by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The action begins as Trinity disposes of the police officers and runs away from the agents all the while leaping further than a typical human, moving faster than a typical human, and defying gravity longer than a typical human. To end the sequence, Trinity answers a ringing payphone and disappears moments before Agent Smith smashes it with a truck.
Neo, aka Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who’s some kind of computer criminal, is the subject of Trinity’s search, and therefore is the subject of the agents search. Trinity finds him first, and lets him know that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), a cyber terrorist, is looking for him, and can answer all the questions he has that keeps him up at night. Eventually, Neo meets up with Morpheus and explains to him The Matrix, and the truth.
Here comes one of my few grippes about the film; the explanation of The Matrix. It is an overly complex explanation that is actually quite simple. So while my grippe may be a complaint on my end, I can’t help but think that it’s also the reason many people flocked to the film, thinking it was something more than it was. I know many people that watched the film for the first time still wonder exactly what The Matrix was.
So to possibly save people the headache of trying to figure out what The Matrix is, here is my explanation. Every human is sleeping in an embryonic sac that is harvested by machines for energy. The Matrix is the world in which we all live; designed so we think we’re living when we’re actually in a coma in a machine harvesting field. Without this dream of us thinking we’re real, we would all wake up in our sacs and rise against the machines.
Hope that helps you out.
So Neo learns all this and finds himself aboard a spaceship in the actual real world where he learns of a war between machine and man which obliterated the world. He also learns that he is “the one” which is to bring an end to the war. Of course, like every sci-fi film since Alien, the future is a dirty, run down world where everything is kept together by duct tape.
After a quick training program, we and Neo get a better understanding of The Matrix. Since The Matrix isn’t real, the rules of it don’t apply. When you stop believing the things inside, you can bend the rules, and in the case of Neo, break them. However, there are still rules. If you die in The Matrix, you die in real life. Apparently the mind can’t take the shock. Also, if you are “unjacked” before you return to the real world, you’ll die as well.
Morpheus and his team now take Neo to see The Oracle (Gloria Foster), who will tell Neo what he is to do. Once Neo gets his upsetting news that he is not actually “the one,” they return to their exit to return to the real world. However, Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) has made a deal with Agent Smith that he’ll hand over Morpheus and therefore the access codes to Zion (the last human stronghold in the real world) if Agent Smith will allow him to live inside The Matrix blissfully ignorant of any other world, real or not.
During this encounter, Morpheus is captured, and Cypher has returned to the spaceship and unplugged (and therefore killed) a few of his team members before he is stopped by the wounded captain of the ship. To protect Zion, they must unplug Morpheus and therefore kill him before giving up the access codes, but Neo believes he can save him and break him out of the military stronghold being led by the Agents.
Neo and Trinity then arm up and the rest of the movie is one incredible action sequence after the next.
To me, this film parallels two of my favorite science fiction films: Star Wars for how it borrows from other mythos and religions to form its own story, and Dark City for the idea that there’s an alternate reality just under our conscious being. I am in no way a mythology or religious expert, but there are obvious parallels to the Catholic and Jewish religions. This becomes glaringly obvious in later instalments of the series.
Also like Star Wars, the dialogue is sometimes stilted and wooden, but not to the point where George Lucas is going to give up his throne. Fishburne delivers his lines with the weight of God behind them, and no one ever went to a movie starring Keanu Reeves to see his performance. That’s not to say that the performances are bad. Quite the contrary. I honestly can’t see anyone else performing the roles, which is a huge compliment. Originally, the Wachowski’s wanted Will Smith for the role of Neo, but I can’t see anyone but Keanu inhabiting it.
This is also the film that made the fight choreographer, Yeun Wo Ping, a household name. Well, a household name to people that are really into film. This is one of the first films that involved wire work in its fights (at least in North America) before it became a parody of itself. The reason it works so well in this film is because there’s a legitimate reason that’s set up as to why the characters can move as they do.
Then there’s the much overused but then original “bullet time” aspect to the action scenes. I’m sure everyone has seen some incarnation of this technology since the films release, but most of its use has not looked as good as it has here in its original form. “Bullet time” is when the character moves incredibly slow through the landscape, whether jumping in the air or dodging bullets (hence the moniker “bullet time”). The real key to it is not to freeze the character in mid motion as the camera spins around them, but to have them move slightly as the camera moves around them.
Skip this paragraph if you’re not into technology mumbo jumbo.
I’m sure this effect is done now with computers, and for the most part, you can tell it’s done by computers. The original way it was done was quite primitive in its approach. The actors are in a room which is completely green (for compositing backgrounds later) and attached to wires. As the actor moves, hundreds of still cameras placed in a ring around the room take a snap shot of the actor timed to go off milliseconds apart. These still pictures are then placed together to create a moving sequence with the background plate inserted to create the scene.
This effect was quite startling to witness the very first time; perhaps like watching the first time a camera move was used as a space ship flew by in Star Wars.
The look of the film is obviously a very close collaboration between the Wachowski Brothers, the Director of Photography Bill Pope, and the Production Designer Owen Paterson. What’s really interesting here is how The Matrix looks a lot like our world, but is slightly different and off putting.
The very first thing you may notice is the green tint that is on all scenes taking place within The Matrix. Green in film is a color that creates a sick, ill feeling. You’ll see many hospital scenes in film with a green tint to it. In fact, many Asian horror films have been coloring their films in a shade of green for years. This creates a subtle, disturbing feeling, and is put to great use in this film to give the audience a feeling that there’s something different about this world.
In fact, pretty much everything within The Matrix looks artificial, and seems to be some kind of throwback to old film noir movies with the way some sets are lit and built.
So now lets get to the real stars of the film: the Wachowski brothers. The story goes something like this…
Andy and Larry Wachowski sold The Matrix to Warner Bros as a trilogy. Warner bought it but wasn’t exactly sure what they bought. Of course, the Wachowski’s wanted to direct, but they hadn’t directed anything. Warner said to them that they need to make a small film and they’ll see how that goes before giving them 80- 100 million for the first Matrix flick. The Wachowskis then went and made Bound, a delicious little modern day noir for about 3 million or so. Warner was sold and the Wachowski’s got to helm The Matrix.
As an action/ sci-fi film, this is great. What makes this even more astonishing is that this was their first big budget film (after only directing a small, indie type film), and they were able to launch the action film into a new atmosphere with their first effort using innovative techniques that have never been seen before.They are also able to string together very impressive action sequences that go on and on and on without getting boring. This is a feat that is usually only pulled off by masters of the genre such as James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. And the budget for the film is definitely on the screen. When Trinity and Neo go into the office building to rescue Morpheus, and the action begins in the lobby, you feel like the debris falling on the screen can be caught as coins if you put your hands under the television.
I’m sure most people have seen The Matrix already, but it’s definitely worth another visit if you’re in the mood for some eye popping, skull numbing action.
Return from THE MATRIX to home page
