One of the first times I'm aware of where the gravity defying battles of Hong Kong movies have moved across the pond into western cinema (not the Atlantic - that other, bigger, pond). Added to this is an intriguing Descartes-esque premise, some fairly ground breaking effects, and a lot of gunfire. I'm not completely in love with this movie (as I remember several people my age to be a few years ago) but for blatant, unrelenting violence it's one of the best out there.
It does little else though, which is curious given the frankly great story set-up of having our entire existence as being a computer program (though a debate I often engaged in was weather we are currently living in the Matrix, and the film is set in the present, or if we are living in the real world and we haven't built the robots that will eventually take over the planet yet, and the film is set in the future). There are plenty of cool shots, and a few interesting villains, but after the initial revelation there is little more philosophical exploration.
The philosophy itself has been heavily lauded since the movies release, but it's far from original (perhaps original for a Hollywood movie?), and is quite heavily dumbed down to the extent that at times it feels shallow.
There is something to be said for the style of the movie, it takes a similar shadowy leather-clothed route that other things like 'Blade' were making popular at the time. It may not be as original a wardrobe as some claim it to be, but 'The Matrix' pulls it off better than any other movie I've seen since.
Of course the long jackets and dark glasses go very well with the piles of automatics and the exploding masonry, and the action sequences really are world class. To this day no other movie has done done a slo-mo gunfight as well as 'The Matrix', though many have tried, and this movie started a (often questionable) trend of unending gun battles interspersed with the odd cheesy line of dialogue. The scene in the tower block at the end, with the tile pillars and the explosions, is one of my favourites of the movie, and is probably what I'd show you if you were to ask "so what's 'The Matrix' like, anyway?"
Sadly all this crazy action has a detrimental effect on the characters. They are all pretty flat, the acting is often wooden, and the love story is so forced that I didn't even really clock it the first time I saw the movie.
The shots are amazing though - just concentrate on them. The action is superb, and the villains are cool (for appearance alone, Agent Smith is one of my favourite antagonists). 'The Matrix' is a little weak at points, but many couldn't care less (OK I just realised that I haven't ranted about this yet - "could care less" - what the hell is that!? I get that there are differences between American and everywhere else English, but this one really is pointless. If you're saying "I couldn't care less" (the right way to say it) you're saying that there is no possible way that you could care less about the subject - that there is nothing more insignificant than it, in your opinion. If you're saying "I could care less" you're saying that there is less caring that you could possibly do! You might not care almost at all, or you might care about it a lot, but you could care less. It's probably litterally true, as I'm sure that most people care even less about something that isn't the development of characters in 'The Matrix', but stating that isn't really making much of a point about how little it may matter to you - in fact, if anything, it's kind of implying the opposite). Overall, a very influential and exciting action movie.
The Matrix: 78.8