I WENT TO SEE THE

i went to see the matrix the other night, and it was surprisingly good. i’d read little quips about it which seemed pretty positive, and the effects shots in the commercials looked good, so the fact that keanu reeves was in it was balanced out, and i was able to view the movie with a relatively open mind.

it has a fairly interesting premise: about now, humanity invents AI, which subsequently consolidates power, defeats us in a war, and conquers the planet. in the war, humanity does something to block out the sun (i dunno, maybe nuclear winter or something), hoping to destroy the AI forces by rendering their solar generators useless, thereby eliminating their main source of power. well, we lose anyway, and, still lacking a source of power, the AIs decide to harvest the energy created by human beings themselves. so they put all of humanity into these little pods to sap their energy and hook up their brains to this ultra-complex virtual reality program called the matrix, making all the humans think they are living normal lives in the late 20th century. although the AI control the matrix, most of the rules of physics still apply.

at one point one human breaks out of the matrix and escpaes his pod. he is able to break others out and establishes a Resistance. the Resistance is able to hack back into the matrix where they search various computer networks for people they think will be able to deal with the fact that what they percieve as reality is really a complex simulation. when they find people like this, they offer them the choice of escape. in the matrix the Resistance is confronted by representatives of the AI called agents, who manifest themselves in the matrix by “posessing” others (that makes it sound so corny, but it’s really not that bad). even though it’s a simulation, people can still die in the matrix, because it seems so real that the brain interprets dying in the matrix as dying in real life.

anyway, the Resistance finds this guy called neo (good ol’ keanu), who they think is “the one”, an individual prophecied to have the strength of consciousness to completely not believe in the reality of the matrix and therefore be able to alter, bend, or break it. the movie’s all about neo coming to realise that he is “the one”. well, that, pleather, large guns, and nifty fight scenes.

so, that’s the premise. here’s the good (aside from the premise): the effects were really nifty, especially in the fight scenes. since the matrix is just a simulation, the laws of physics can be bent so those who understand the reality of the matrix can move really fast and jump really far, etc. this makes the fight scenes pretty interesting, becase when they move really fast, it slows down to almost freeze frame and they do these cool camera rotations and it’s all pretty smooth. also, i thought a lot of the music was pretty appropriate, and good. camera work was swank. and the fact that the agents can possess people was really cool because they couldn’t be killed and they could pop up anywhere there was somebody else plugged into the marix.

so here’s the bad: a lot of the movie was just plain cheesy. for instance, when the Resistance hacks into the matrix, they’re able to wear anything they want (since it’s just a simulation), and yet they choose to wear audaciously fashion-conscious slick black leather clothing and dark sunglasses. real inconspicuous-like. i mean, geez, you’d think they be making every effort to look like average joes, or maybe even like country bumpkins. maybe flannel gives keanu hives. the acting was pretty poor, too. obviously keanu was himself. lawrence fishburne, although posessing an effective voice for his part, over dramaticised a little too much. and the main bad guy, agent smith (oh, and all the bad guys look exactly like secret service agents) was just so cheesy that i had to down a whole bottle of lactaid after the film. and there were a few other minor inconstencies, the kind you get in every movie (especially scifi).

all in all though, the matrix is pretty good sience fiction, and not a bad story either. it’ll please fans of shiny lights and loud explosions and anyone with a brain.

check out the official matrix website. that’s where i got these pictures, and they have a bunch of free comix stories set in the world of the matrix, done by some pretty prominent names, like chadwick and gaiman.

photos copyright warner bros