Well, we've been getting alot of responses about MATRIX flooding in... TONS of them as a matter a fact. So I selected a smidgen of them, and I want to assure you that the OVERWHELMING opinion from over a hundred of your fellow geeks is that MATRIX is a can't miss. They swing from the orgasmic elations that THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN to IF NOT FOR KEANU'S VOICE... As you'll see from the following group of reviews though... Nothing stops the happiness and charge this film seems to be giving people. David Poland has been putting this film on the mantle above T2 recently, and it seems he has those that agree... and those that don't. Personally, I can't wait to enter the arguement!
This one is from Goliath from UCLA...
I know that you've gotten tons of emails about The Matrix, but I felt I should insert my thoughts as well. I saw it tonight in a sub-par theatre on campus at UCLA, and I was totally blown away.
It's got heavy, heavy influence from both the super kinetic gunplay of John Woo and Hong Kong style Kung-Fu choreography. When Keanu Reeves started strutting around in his trenchcoat, he looked exactly like Chow Yun Fat's character Mark, from A Better Tomorrow.
I consider myself a studious student, and I went home to study for my finals right after the movie. The thing is, I couldn't concentrate on my studies, because I kept thinking how freaking cool the movie was.
Thanks to The Matrix, my GPA is probably going to drop a notch, but I don't regret seeing it for one second.
THis is that Tall Guy attending Everywhere University...
I just got back from seeing "The Matrix". Unfortunately, the best way to see this movie is to know as little about it as possible. Makes it tough to market, huh? That said, I'm keeping this spoiler-free. Go see this movie! It rides a very fine line between "Good grief! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen," and "That is so pretentious I must vomit." Listen to you cool side, it's more fun. Yes they stole from John Woo and Alex Proyas so bad it hurts. But they did an attractive and entertaining job of it. Don't let it ruin the movie for you. And when the film does some of it's more original visuals (BUGS!) you will wonder what happened to these people as children. This movie's biggest advantage is that it sets up an environment that allows the kind of shenanigans that would have me groaning in a James Bond flick and leaving the theater in a Bruce Willis flick. Here I can sit back and ooooh and ahhhh. And you'll oooh and ahhh a lot. At one point after a particularly cool scene the movie got applause. The most important piece of any information about any Keanu movie: does he ruin it? Does he suck? No he doesn't. He does not suck in this movie. This is his apology for Johnny Mnemonic. Carrie-Anne Moss is a babe. Laurence Fishburne is way cool. And Joe Pantoliano is always good.
Don't ask too many questions, just go see it.
Call me "The Tall Guy".
Zappa here hails in from Central Michigan University...
This is sort of old news in a way, but I was lucky enough to be able to see an advance screening of the new Wachowski(spelling?) bros. movie, The Matrix tonight at the college that I go to. Let me say this: This movie kicks ass all over the place! I was very impressed. I was looking forward to seeing it after I realized that it was by the same two fellas who graced us with Bound(a much better trashy exploitation flick than that shitty popular one starring Matt Dillon and Neve Campbell) a few years ago. It was a lot like Dark City, with the exception of the fact that it didn't suck. When I saw DC for the first time, it bugged the crap out of me. The over dramatic music, the sub-par special effects, for crying out loud I could see the wires every time that someone was supposedly "flying". This film had none of these problems. Sure, the plot and dialogue are a little cheesy, but this film is one hell of a ride. Many of the action sequences were very, very, VERY John Woo. I mean, even down to the slow motion shots of smoking shells falling to the floor, and the good guys totaly breathe badass! They look too cool for words in the midst of all the carnage. The plot drags a little in the middle, but the climax of the movie completely makes up for any butt-soreness that the viewer may have experienced. I won't give any plot away, but I urge everyone who loves a good popcorn flick to check this one out IN THE THEATER! It may suffer in the transition to video.
Until Next Time,
ZAPPA
From Arizona State comes the campus Mayor: Heather
I just got out of a screening of The Matrix down at ASU. Trust me, the campus theater here is not conducive to a good screening. There are people screaming through the movies, throwing stuff, all in all it's Hell. But for this movie all of that stopped. All the kids were still (with the exception of the raving lunatic sitting beside me who wouldn't stop muttering the whole goddamn movie). This movie is the coolest most amazing thing I've seen....possibly ever.
Yes yes, Keanu kind of sucks. Thank god there's more action (brilliant BRILLIANT action) than dialogue. Keanu definitely looks the part and has some great moments. It's just when he speaks that I wanted to laugh. I don't know...something about that voice saying "whoa." Hugo Weaving is OK. He didn't impress me either way. Carrie Anne Moss is fantastic and so is Fishburne.
The movie seems to be the perfect blend of incredible action, story, set design, concept, comic relief and coolness. You will walk out of this movie feeling ten times cooler than when you went in. I'm renting Bound right fucking now. The Wachowski brothers are so awesome I can barley sit still!
And here, from the campus of William and Mary comes some Guy with an opinion all his own...
Just saw a preview screening of The Matrix. It was one of those setups where the movie is broadcast via satelite to college campuses across the country and projected using large crt screens. Needless to say the image was terrible and the sound worse. Still the movie was good. My Review:
The Matrix, the new film by the Wachowski Brothers, and starring Keanu Reeves in the lead role of Neo, works better as an action film than as sci-fi. The story is a fairly standard reality-isn't-what-it-seems plot with Neo and his fellow enlightened types Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carie-Ann Moss) rebelling against a giant computer called the matrix which has enslaved mankind by trapping everyone in a fantasy world that resembles 1999 society (the real year is not known, but bellieved to be in the late 22nd century). Not too unsual in the anals of sci-fi. Much of the suspense revolves around the question of whether or not Neo is "the one" a prophesized messiah who will free humanity from the matrix. The primary villians are the agents, the matrix's security programs who appear as men in gray packing heat and are lead by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). In addition to terminating our heros the agents want to gain access to Zion, the last city of free humans on Earth.
As you can see the plot is fairly standard issue sci-fi stuff, and has some heavy-handed biblical allegory in there (Trinity, Zion etc) but what makes The Matrix worth watching are the terriffic action sequences. I have not seen the Wachowski's previous film, Bound, but these brothers do know how to mount some absolutely breathtaking action set pieces. Since both the heros and the agents are aware that the matrix isn't real they can defy laws of time and space. Floating in the air, walking up walls, and dodging bullets at point blank range are all possible in this world. Hence the action is very fast at times, very slow at others and always very three dimensional. The Wachowskis definitely go for a John Woo type feel a couple of times, with SWAT teams blasting away in a manner similar to Woo's Face/Off. The brothers don't quite match Woo's careful, delibrate onscreen compositions, but they definitely can stylize things in much the same way (slow-mo and unusual editing patterns). The film also features some fantastic stunt work with helicopters.
Production design is another strong point to The Matrix. The future world makes Blade Runner's LA look positively homey. Images of the millions still plugged into the matrix are absolutely horrifying. Also the hovership that makes for the rebel's base of operations has an interesting, Jules Verne-esque design.
While not exactly an actor's movie (some of the dialogue is quite laughable), Fishburne registers pretty well. And Weaving manages to be villainous without chewing scenery. He plays the head agent as something of a more thoughtful terminator and gets a memorable interogation scene with Morpheus in which he lays out the computers' side of things. Keanu is well Keanu, but here he is fairly well cast since the script makes Neo one of the least developed characters (in fact he takes the news take all he thought was real isn't as if it were just another bad day at work). Moss looks pretty and acts tough, which is all the movie requires of her.
Overall The Matrix is a perfectly good 2 hours or so of wonderfully staged action with decent plot. The Matrix universe seems ripe for future exploration (the ending does leave things wide open for a sequel) and the design and execution make the story at the very least functional as a way to move from one action scene to another. Unlike the best sci-fi films like the aforementioned Blade Runner, the film does not leave the audience with much to ponder afterwards. The film exists primarily to entertain, and as such it suceeds quite well. If the story had been as good as the action, then the Wachowski brothers would have had something really exciting.
- Guy
