The Matrix

We start off this movie by hearing Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) discussing someone over the phone. As we watch the numbers shifting on the screen we realize that the call is being traced. Trinity realizes this also and hangs up. We then see a entire police force making their way into a motel when three Agents show up. Their actual names are Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), Agent Brown (Paul Goddard) and Agent Jones (Robert Taylor).  I can only tell Hugo Weaving apart, but it doesn't really matter and, you know, the point. The Agents move in, knowing the the police can't handle Trinity, and really, when can they ever handle anything in these types of movies? Apparently never, because Trinity has kicked the crap out of each and every one of them, then high tails it when the Agents show up. She makes it to her destination, a telephone booth, right before a truck crashes into it. But don't worry she made it out in time.

We then meet Neo (Keanu Reeves), a computer hacker looking for answers and not really knowing the questions... or something. He meets Trinity and then is contacted by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who apparently has all the answers. Neo is then taken by the Agents and then a bug is inserted into his belly button. Did that disturb anyone else? They let him go and he is picked up by Trinity and the gang and remove the bug. Also disturbing. They bring him to Morpheus who wants to tell him the truth. Neo wants to know what the Matrix is. Morpheus explains that he has to see the Matrix for himself; that no one can be told what the Matrix is. I can tell him what it is. It is a computer created world used by the artificial intelligent that took over the Earth to keep the minds of the humans they have enslaved active as they are kept in pods that turn bio electric energy into a power source for the robots. Was that really so hard?

Anyway Neo is freed from his pod and rescued by the gang, and is eventually explained what I just said. By the way the entire gang includes Trinity and Cypher, but also Switch (Belinda McCory), Mouse (Matt Doran), Dozer (Anthony Ray Parker), Tank (Marcus Chong), and Apoc (Julian Arahanga), and well Morpheus. They explain to him that the only free humans live in a city deep underground and they hack into the Matrix via the telephone, to free people like him and that the Agents are programs within the Matrix that are designed to hunt them down.  And most importantly, that he is the One. Neo is the rebirth of the first man to free himself from the Matrix and helped free others.

After some training exercises, they take him to see the Oracle (Gloria Foster) who tells him that he isn't really the One, but Big Man Mo believes it so much that he will sacrifice himself for Neo. Then she gives him a cookie and tells him that everything is going to be fine.

On their way back the Agents pop up again and Big Mo does exactly that. The others get out and try to leave the Matrix. Unfortunately for them Cypher is a mole for the Agents because he wants back in the Matrix. He gets back to the ship first and kills Dozer, wounds Tank and then kills Switch and Apoc. Mouse at this point has already bit the big one and for that I am very sad. What is an action movie without the annoying sidekick-type person? He is about to kill Neo, but Tank kills him first and frees Trinity and Neo.

They are going to pull the plug on Big Mo, literally, but Neo stops them, knowing that he can save Mo, before the Agents get the codes to the last human city from his head. Trinity goes with him and they kick ass is a really cool fight scene and free Morpheus and then get out. Trinity decides that instead of leaving the Matrix first she wants to tell him something, but doesn't actually tell him anything and he then is trapped with Agent Smith. As the two of them fight it out, Squiddies are sent to destroy the ship. There is a way to stop them but it involves an EMP which will kill Neo, who is still in the Matrix.

Neo is almost out, when Smith shoots him, but he doesn't die. Well he does, but Trinity is all "I know you're the One, because the Oracle told me I would love the One and I love you." And he comes back to life and destroys the Agent and makes it out right before the EMP goes off.

This movie is very innovative. I've never seen a movie quite like it, with it's unique special effects (at the time) and story line. It is very entertaining.  After you watch it a few times it gets a little old. You realize that the acting is a little flat and the costumes annoy the hell out of me. What is up with the black leather look? It does not suit Carrie-Ann Moss at all.

It's a little hard to ignore the religious connotations once you know they are there though. And that's a little depressing. It also gets a little boring in the training scenes. But other than that it's all good.

Grade: 8/10