When film critics of the future cast their eyes back on the the 20th century they will see this as the very pinnacle of action filmmaking. A movie that truly transcended the traditional boundaries of it's genre and branched out into the psychological and spiritual, a movie indebted to a million sources yet as fresh, if not fresher, than anything that has come before it.
That the writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, having produced only one movie of any note (Bound), were given $70 million and a stellar cast to play around with is proof enough that the product they were creating was something so brilliant, so vibrant and so attention-grabbing that it was worth all that risk. They did not let Warner Bros. down and have written for themselves their meal ticket for the rest of their lives.
The movie begins in a small, dark and dingy room, one of only two visual styles employed throughout the film, with a young women dressed from head to toe in black leather tapping away at a small laptop. Suddenly the Police break in and attempt to arrest her. Their annihilation at her hands and the subsequent rooftop chase is more than enough to show the viewer that there is something not quite right about the situation. Indeed, as the film goes on you and the main character, Neo, become acutely aware that something is most certainly not right.
It is Neo the film revolves around. A software programmer by day and hacker by night, his search for the mysterious man known only as Morpheus leads him further and deeper than he could possibly have imagined. The revelations of who he is and what he and all of us have been living in are astonishing and so well addressed that one cannot help but wonder if maybe it's all true. The film doesn't really kick into top gear until well after he has 'awoken' but from then on it is an action-fest the likes of which we've never seen before.
Utilising the painstaking approach work of Morpheus as he at first explains and then later guides Neo though his new reality, The Matrix becomes a first in the action-genre by having a fully-functioning plot and most importantly, something to say. It touches so many issues on so many levels that it is impossible for me to list them here. I wouldn't even know where to start. The idea of what is and isn't reality is intriguing (note the copy of Simulacra and Simulation in Neo's apartment) and very frightening, and the core ideals of hope, honour and vengeance are clearly borrowed from the very best of Hong Kong cinema, a source present in every frame of the movie.
The similarities with the martial arts and gangster flicks of late eighties, early nineties Hong Kong cinema do not end there. The principle actors, Keanu Reeves (Neo/Thomas Anderson), Lawrence Fishburn (Morpheus), Carrie Anne-Moss (Trinity) and Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith) all underwent strenous and exhausting martial arts training for 3 months and it shows. Never before has a mainstream Hollywood movie with such an expensive and distinguished cast gone to such lengths in order to produce realistic fight scenes. The results are breathtaking. Two scenes stand out, Morpheus sparring with Neo and Neo standing his ground against the unstoppable, superhuman Agent Smith.
Reeves, who before this was considered to be all-washed up as a film star, is excellent as Neo. Despite his obvious lack of real acting ability and incapability to utter long, complex lines, his constant look of surprise and wonder is very fitting and he excels at the hero stuff most of all. Fishburn is magnificent, tossing out psychological and metaphysical speeches at will, and provides the serious undertone a film like this sorely needs. His brilliant handling of the material is what keeps The Matrix on the other side of silly and his worshipful concern for Neo's safety is both touching and realistic. Carrie Anne-Moss does a lot more than just look good in leather and after seeing her work her way through guest spots on TV shows it's nice that someone of her ability should really make it. Hugo Weaving though is utterly superb getting all the best lines and producing a voice so sneerily terrifying you really do believe that he is his character. He also injects Agent Smith with considerable emotion and depth, a hard thing to do for a computer program, and his speech to the imprisoned Morpheus is worthy of an Oscar alone. |
